Child Disciplinary Practices at Home and Parental Attitudes Towards Physical Punishment to Children in Bangladesh

While parental violent disciplining of children is a global concern, children living in low- and middle-income countries like Bangladesh are particularly more vulnerable to harsh disciplinary practices at home. There is limited empirical evidence on the use of disciplinary practices in Bangladesh, impeding the development of prevention practices. This study investigated the extent of violent child disciplining and parental attitudes toward physical punishment and identified their predictor using data from the 2019 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Violent discipline includes any form of physical punishment like spanking, slapping, or hitting any part of the body, as well as psychological aggression such as shouting, screaming, or name-calling. Study participants were 44,570 mothers/caregivers of children aged 2-14 years. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models were fitted to identify the predictors of violent disciplinary practices and parents' attitudes toward physical punishment. The results revealed a very high prevalence of violent disciplinary practices in Bangladesh. About 89% of the mothers/caregivers reported using at least one form of violent discipline; 39% were spanked, hit, or slapped on the bottom, 29% were hit or slapped on the face, head, or ears, and 5% were beaten up as hard as one could. Younger children, and children from urban areas, certain administrative divisions, poorer families, children with functional difficulties, less educated mothers/caregivers were more likely to experience violent discipline. About 35% of mothers/caregivers supported physical punishment, indicating a large discrepancy between attitude and the practice of violent discipline. Parents' attitudes appeared as one of the strongest predictors of violent discipline. Prevention efforts should be made to promote positive parenting and minimize the gap between parental attitudes and the practice of physical punishment. This study documented a very high prevalence (89%) of violent physical punishment to children at home, while only 35% of mothers/caregivers supported physical punishment, indicating a big gap between attitude and practice about child discipline in Bangladesh.Mothers/caregivers' attitudes toward physical punishment appeared as a major predictor of the usage of violent physical discipline.Changes in attitudes need to be promoted by improving knowledge about the negative consequences of violent physical punishment.