The Dilemma of Corporal Punishment of Children from Parents’ Perspective in Some Selected Rural and Urban Communities of Jimma Zone, Oromia/Ethiopia

Abstract

This study investigated dilemmas of corporal punishment of children from parents’ perspective in Jimma zone. Quantitative and qualitative approaches, 71 samples, questionnaire, interview, descriptive and thematic analyses were employed. Most parents corporally punish their children. Major contributing factors of the practice include cultural beliefs, social roles, parents’ childhood personal experiences, favorable conception of the practice and limited alternative forms of child disciplining. A dilemma regarding child corporal punishment arises on the distinction between child corporal punishment for disciplining and parent’s abusive behavior. Parents do not conceive child corporal punishment as a violation of children’s rights rather as their cultural responsibility of child nurturing. Parents in rural and urban communities differently view the potential and real effects of child corporal punishment. Male children are perceived as more knowledgeable and capable of controlling themselves than female ones, hence the later need closer supervision. Diametrically opposing views held by parents and public office agents on the practice. Child corporal punishment partly serves the purpose of gender role socialization and mechanism of social control. Workable and traditionally sound community based participatory strategies should be designed to minimize negative effects of child corporal punishments. Yet no ‘onefits-for-all’ intervention strategies can be suggested for rural and urban communities. Rather, it needs to be contextual depending on the perceived and realistic effects of the practice.