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BCIFV home > Media Release > November 5, 2003


For Immediate Release:

November 5, 2003

Contact: Penny Bain, Executive Director, BCIFV
phone: 604.669.7055, 1.877.755.7055, or
pbain@bcifv.org or www.bcifv.org

Media Release:
BCIFV Endorses Powerful Statement Opposing Physical Punishment of Children and Youth.

The board of the BC Institute Against Family Violence recently voted to endorse a Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth, which will be published by the Coalition on the Physical Punishment of Children and Youth pending endorsements.

The BCIFV endorsement comes on the heels of the Institute's spring completion and summer/fall distribution of Life in the Family: A Newcomer's Guide to Parenting Issues in Canada, a video and curriculum guide designed to help new Canadians adjust to parenting practices in Canada; and anticipates the arrival of Together Against Violence month (November) in some Lower Mainland communities and National Child Day (November 20) in Canada.

"The Joint Statement is actually a comprehensive summary of research findings showing that physical punishment is not only not beneficial to children in any way, but places children at risk of physical injury in situations where the punishment escalates into abuse," says Penny Bain, Executive Director of the BCIFV. "It can also have mid- and long-term repercussions throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood."

Highlights of the Joint Statement include:

  • Some of the strongest predictors for use of physical punishment are parental anger, parental depression, and parental stress-not the child's need for instruction or guidance.
  • In a 1998 study of child maltreatment, more than 10,000 substantiated cases of child physical abuse took place within the context of punishment. These cases constituted over two-thirds of substantiated physical abuse cases in that year.
  • In an analysis of 27 studies, one researcher found that physical punishment increased children's acting out, attacking siblings, hitting parents, and behaving aggressively toward peers.
  • Other studies have correlated physical punishment in childhood and adolescence with increased risks of intimate-partner violence, substance use, and mental-health issues in adulthood.
  • The only thing that seems to emerge consistently from use of physical punishment is that parents tend to feel guilty and remorseful.

For full text of the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth in English and French, visit www.cheo.on.ca.

For information on Life in the Family: A Newcomer's Guide to Parenting Issues in Canada, contact BCIFV at 604-669-7055, 1-877-755-7055, or reception@bcifv.org

For information on Together Against Violence month events, check monthly events listings at www.coquitlam.ca, visit www.vcn.bc.ca/tavnet/ , or visit websites for Lower Mainland municipalities and school districts.

For more information, contact Penny Bain, Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence at 669-7055
or 1 877-755-7055, pbain@bcifv.org or www.bcifv.org.

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