Attitudes of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Towards Parental Use of CorporalPunishment

摘要

Two hundred sixteen civilian and military pediatric nurse practitioners respondedto a questionnaire concerning attitudes and beliefs related to the spanking of children. Respondents were presented with nine scenarios of common childhood misbehavior and asked if they would approve or recommend parental use of spanking as an appropriate discipline response. Overall, 45% of the participants favored spanking in at least one of the presented scenarios. There was no significant difference between the civilian and military groups. Support for corporal punishment was greatest when the misbehavior was one that is considered dangerous to the child. In both groups, 55% did not support the use of corporal punishment in the specific scenarios, but 68% believed some benefit could be gained by the use of spanking as a discipline strategy. The results of this study were consistent with other research in that dangerous acts were more likely to find practitioners favoring the use of corporal punishment and that the majority of the respondents believe spanking can be beneficial.