Corporal Punishment in Schools

Globally the use of corporal punishment in schools is increasingly prohibited in law, yet in many contexts its use continues, even where outlawed. Proponents argue that it is an effective and non-harmful means of instilling discipline, respect and obedience into children, while others point to a series of detrimental effects, including poor academic performance, low class participation, school dropout and declining psychosocial well-being. Establishing whether corporal punishment has lasting effects on children’s cognitive development and psychosocial well-being has been hampered by a lack of longitudinal data, especially from Low- and Middle-Income Countries. This paper is a contribution to the UNICEF Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children which is analysing how structural factors interact to affect everyday violence in children’s homes and communities in order to better inform national strategies for violence prevention. The paper brings together a life course and structural determinants framework with Young Lives longitudinal data collected over four rounds on two cohorts of children in four countries: Ethiopia, India (the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Viet Nam.