Love, fear and control: Adult attitudes to children and discipline in New Zealand

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Authors

Ian Hassall, Emma Davies, Charles Crothers, Heather Devere, Jane Verbitsky, Fiona McCormack

Organisation

Institute of Public Policy at AUT

Speaker

Ian Hassall

Attitudes to children are examined through a national telephone survey of 1200 New Zealand adults. The overall response rate was 29%. Thirty-seven percent of respondents were parents currently caring for children less than 17 years old.

Open-ended child-rearing questions evoked a range of responses. For example, answers, in descending order of popularity, to the question, 'What do you think are the most important things for raising happy & confident children?' were;

1. love;
2. family configuration/ relationships;
3. control/ discipline and
4. material provision.

Answers to more specific questions on discipline revealed authoritarian attitudes to child-rearing in New Zealand. For example, nearly 80% of respondents overall supported 'smacking' children although 'beating' children was supported by less than 4% parents.

Age band differences and comparison with earlier surveys suggest decreasing support for physical discipline. Fewer 18-24 year old respondents (63%) condoned 'smacking' children than respondents over 55 (at least 88%), although 13.5% of 18-24 year old respondents condoned 'beating' children compared to less than 2% of those over 55 years. In terms of actual disciplining behaviour in the last week, men and women were equally likely to use verbal sanctions, but men were significantly more likely to use physical punishment than women. Ninety two percent of respondents perceived child abuse as a serious social problem in the community.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Dr Ian Hassall is Senior Researcher in the Child and Family programme at the Institute of Public Policy at the AUT (Auckland University of Technology). He participated in the election-year Every Child Counts campaign to place children at the centre of government planning. He teaches the Children and Public Policy paper at AUT. He was New Zealand's first Commissioner for Children (1989-94). His background is as a paediatrician.

His research interests are in child protection, child mortality, cot death (SIDS), child safety, public policy for children, children's rights and child advocacy. The central theme of his research papers and public writing and speaking has been the place of children in New Zealand and other societies and how that place may be understood, honoured and secured.

He is a member of the government's Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee. He is a member of BrainWave and a Trustee of the Kids Helpline Foundation which operates, "What's Up", the professionally staffed children and young people's helpline. He is a member of the international faculty of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN).