The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A University of The Bahamas study has once again highlighted a troubling link between childhood corporal punishment and adult aggression, with researchers suggesting that an end to the practice could lead to less aggressive behaviors in society.

The study, written by Theresa E Moxey-Adderley and William J Fielding, utilised an internet-based survey of 5,351 Bahamians to explore the connections between corporal punishment and aggression.

Researchers found that participants who experienced higher levels of corporal punishment during childhood showed greater aggression as adults.

The study also revealed that adults who used or intended to use corporal punishment on their children had higher aggression scores and had typically experienced more corporal punishment in their own childhoods than those who did not intend to use it.

According to the report, men had “significantly” higher aggression scores than women, while younger participants had higher scores across all dimensions of the aggression score.

It was further revealed that parental of guardian treatment had a more substantial impact on aggression scores compared to treatment by schoolteachers.

However, researchers found that adult experiences such as sexual abuse and workplace bullying were associated with elevated aggression scores.

For example, the study noted that women who experienced negative events from both sexual abuse and corporal punishment had higher aggression scores, but this was not found for males.

“This suggests that elevated higher aggression scores are associated with sexual abuse of females, but not males.”

Further to this, the study noted that even though men received more corporal punishment than women as adults, they were less likely than women to consider that level of corporal punishment as abuse.

The study also reported that participants who suffered from domestic violence and unwanted sexual intercourse had significantly higher anger scores than those who were not abuse victims.

Among the 2,776 females who had intimate partners, 17 percent were sure they had experienced sexual intercourse against their will, according to the report.

This compared to 7.7 percent of 964 males surveyed.

“These figures are similar to the 17.6 percent of females and 8.1 percent of males who reported experiencing unwanted sexual intercourse in a Bahamas Ministry of Health STEPS survey of 2019.”

The study also found that women who had “unwanted sexual intercourse” were more likely to use an object to discipline their children.

“Aggression can be aggravated by sexual abuse, as evidenced by 37 percent of women in our study who stated that they got angry more easily than before their abuse. This was also linked with them being more likely to use an object to hit their children, and so elevating the risk of their children being abused,” the study added.

“Given the limited protection that married women in The Bahamas have from some extreme forms of sexual abuse (Moxey-Adderley & Walker, 2023), it is clear that children also can become indirect victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, with consequences which can last into adulthood. Therefore, policies which protect women from such violence might also be expected to protect children from lasting harm. “

The study found that its findings were consistent with past research, which show that harsh discipline can have harmful consequences on the child.”

It therefore recommends programmes to help parents manage anger and to adopt alternative discipline methods, encouraging involvement from schools, health professionals, faith-based communities and even social media influencers to help reshape perceptions around child discipline.

The report also observed that public support for banning corporal punishment remains low, suggesting that non-legislativeapproaches “which can include the education system and health professionals who have respected teaching roles” may be more effective in changing attitudes.