Many Hungarians still believe in beating children

Judging by common talk or comments, it may seem that Hungary is the country of everyday slaps, reports hvg.hu. The phenomenon can be measured in numbers, and UNICEF’s newest results depict a somewhat exasperating picture: many people are not fully aware of that children cannot be slapped or spanked, even if the situation seems to justify it.

In Hungary, the topic of raising children is similar to that of playing football: everyone feels authorised to give their opinion on it. Disciplining children is, therefore, a hot topic, which was turned to good use in a Hungarian TV show, Appra, Magyar!, where celebrities were asked whether a parent can slap their children. The answers reflected a slightly forgiving attitude.

In the same TV show, a psychopedagogy expert explained that slaps are humiliating, but in some situations, they are unavoidable, and then tips were given on beating the children, while the guests and the anchor-person heavily nodded.

UNICEF researched with Publicus Research via a telephone survey forming a national representative pattern of opinions regarding possible devices of raising and disciplining children.

36% of respondents believe it is formidable that parents use physical punishment when they want to discipline or punish their children. 53% dismissed the idea, 11% did not know or want to answer.

Katalin Tausz, UNICEF’s representative of the rights of the child, explained in the report about the survey that the answers do not mean that Hungarian parents actually use any form of physical treatment as punishment. She also added that latency is high, and many people have the idea that it is not tactful to beat a child, which explains the high number of those avoiding to answer.

It turns out that those with children younger than 18 years-old (29% of respondents), find physical disciplining less formidable than those who do not have a child of this age. 25% of the former, 40% of the latter group agrees with physical punishment.

Regarding the age and sex of the respondents, women and younger people are less tolerant towards physical punishment.

61% of 45-59 years-old respondents refuse physical violence, but almost half, 47% of those older than 60 years find it acceptable.

While in the other educational levels, the rate was almost the same except for those having taken their final examinations: 42% of them believed using physical force in discipline was all right.

The researchers also asked people about methods which could be used as a disciplining instrument. Based on the responses, the most popular methods were reducing the time of playing, forbidding the children to spend time with their favourite activities and taking away some of the children’s beloved objects.