“Physical discipline is not effective in achieving parents’ long-term goal of decreasing aggression and defiant behavior in children or of promoting regulated and socially competent behavior in children….The adverse outcomes associated with physical discipline indicates that any perceived short-term benefits of physical discipline do not outweigh the detriments of this form of discipline….Caregivers should use alternative forms of discipline that are associated with more positive outcomes for children.”
American Psychological Association
In 2021, the goal of Division 37 advocacy efforts was to assist in national efforts to end the physical punishment of children in the United States—in the home and in schools. Research overwhelmingly demonstrates that children across cultures are harmed by physical punishment. We believe there is no situation or circumstance that justifies hitting a child. We support education and advocacy to help parents rear their children without hitting or any form of violence.
I would like to thank Liz Gershoff, one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of physical punishment of children and past President of Division 37 for helping to lead Division 37 efforts to end the physical punishment of children in the United States.
Liz Gershoff and Stacie LeBlanc, chair of the National No Hit Zone committee led a workshop entitled, “No Hit Zones: Low Cost Effort Interventions to Reduce the Hitting of Children in our Communities” (February 9, 2021). Over 380 professionals attended the virtual workshop. The workshop was sponsored by Division 37, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) and the New York Foundling.
On June 30, 2021, a congressional briefing was held to support the passage of Federal Legislation entitled “Protecting Our Students in Schools Act.” The bill prohibits the use of corporal punishment in any school that receives public funding. The congressional briefing was sponsored by the American Psychological Association. Although the bill has not achieved sufficient support for passage in this year’s Congress, Division 37 and other national organizations will continue to press for its passage in the coming year.
Division 37 partnered with the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment, Lives in the Balance and the New York Foundling on October 8, 2021, to hold a national conference to support federal bills to end harmful traumatic crisis management practices in schools. Liz Gershoff and Kenneth Polishchuk, senior director, Congressional and Federal Legislation of the APA were presenters at the conference which attracted 2300 attendees.
Division 37 plans for 2022 include partnering with other national organizations to continue efforts to revive federal legislation to prohibit corporal punishment in the nations’ schools, to support legislation to ban corporal punishment in the 19 States that continue to allow corporal punishment in their schools, and to raise awareness among professionals throughout the United States about the harms of corporal punishment through workshops and conferences.