Corporal punishment of children by parents in the Czech Republic: Attitudes, prevalence rates, and intergenerational transmission of violence

This article describes and analyzes the use of corporal punishment (CP) of children by parents in Czech society, while making use of several quantitative surveys conducted both among adolescents and in the adult population. The focus is mainly placed on the following issues: attitudes to CP, prevalence rates and severity of CP among adolescents, the association between the use of CP and the nature of the family environment, and the intergenerational transmission of violence. The results show that the use of CP in Czech families is widespread, as the previous year prevalence rate for 15-year-old adolescents reached a high of 43% and experience with severe types of CP was reported by 9% of adolescents. In addition, the approval of CP is very high both among adolescents and adults; nevertheless, adults do seem to be rather critical of non-minor CP. Finally, the findings also lend some support to the hypothesis of the intergenerational transmission of violence, but it is suggested that different forms of exposure to violence in the family (i.e. experience with CP and witnessing intimate partner violence among parents) are associated with different types of behavior and attitudes.