Beliefs, attitudes and practices on corporal punishment of children among parents with primary school children in selected schools of Piliyandala Education Zone, Western Province, Sri Lanka

Introduction: Corporal punishment remains a public concern as it leads to short and long-term detrimental consequences on the victims.Objectives: To identify the parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and practices towards corporal punishment.Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted recruiting parents with primary school children in selected schools of Piliyandala Education zone, Western Province, Sri Lanka. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 30.Results: This study involved 370 parents of whom 77.7% were female; 71.9% participants belonged to the 36–45-year age category. Current study revealed that 32.4% participants believed in corporal punishment in parenting and 25.4% believed that it is necessary in the school setting; 54% parents used corporal punishment on their children during the immediate one-month period prior to the study. More than 2/3rd participants had favourable attitudes against corporal punishment. Hand hitting (62%) was the commonest method employed by participants. Disobedience (26%) was the commonest reason that the parents practised corporal punishment; 61% participants learnt corporal punishment from their parents, while 40% learnt it from schools. Of all participants, 85.4% were aware of the negative consequences of corporal punishment; 93%) used at least one form of positive parenting strategy.Conclusions: This survey demonstrated that 54% participants used corporal punishment on their children during the one-month period immediately prior to study. There was no statistically significant association between the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample and the practice of corporal punishment on their children.