A growing number of Russians consider corporal punishment of children to be inadmissible

The results of
research on the upbringing,
incentivising and punishment of children
in Russian families have been presented at the Public Chamber of the Russian
Federation.

 

The research was
carried out during May/June 2011 by the Russian Sociologists Association Centre
for Operational and Applied Research having been commissioned by the Foundation
for the Support of Children in Difficulties. 40 experts from six regions were
involved and 1,210 Russians aged between 16 and 45 responded to the survey.
Similar research was undertaken in 2009. According to the teaching head of
department for the study of social mobility of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Sociology, Mikhail Chernish, positive trends have emerged in
comparison with the former exercise relating to views on upbringing. The number
of Russians considering corporal punishment to be inadmissible has grown since
then by over 6%.

 

The majority of
those surveyed consider that they are bringing up their children better than
their parents did. Mr Chernish emphasized that these subjective opinions were
corroborated by the statistics. For example, formerly parents generally
administered a beating whilst the subjects try to change their children’s
behavior most frequently by shouting at them or telling them off. He thinks
that this bears witness to the fact the Russian society is gradually becoming
more humane.

 

The assistant to
the vice chairperson of the Russian Federation Council, Mikhail Kolkov, thinks
that cruelty on the part of the children is no less of a burning issue.
Research by the Independent Social Policy Institute shows that  the children themselves think the main
source of aggression to be not the family but rather institutions like schools
and the health agencies, and their own peers.

 

Member of the
public chamber and president of ‘No’ to Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Oleg Zykov,
believes that the best way of protecting children’s rights is to support their
families of origin. The research has fortified his position. This shows that
the circumstances that give rise to a child’s being cruelly treated stem
predominantly from social problems like poverty, unemployment or poor living
conditions. Other causes of aggression are personal problems of the parents or
those arising within the family.

 


Get involved

Share This