Collaboration between different sectors is the way forward to effectively tackle corporal punishment and prevent it from taking place, according to Dr Mariella Mangion, a consultant community paediatrician with a special interest in social paediatrics.
Mangion, who has been working in the field for about 15 years, was speaking to The Malta Independent in light of the High Level Global Conference on the Universal Prohibition of Corporate Punishment, being hosted in Malta today by the President's Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society. Corporal punishment refers to any sort of use of force to discipline a child.
"The services are there," said Mangion. "But we need a system where we can get it all together, from different entities, such as health and education, so that we will have more resources and ideas."
She explained that this ideal situation would be similar to the type of holistic collaboration that she is currently experiencing when working with individual clients, however, on a larger scale.
"For each child we currently have all different sectors working in a team and we make all the decisions together, and the same should be reflected at the macro, not only at the micro… we all lead in our bit, but then decisions are taken together."
Moreover, she emphasised that the main focus and expenditure should be on prevention.
"How do we prevent this happening?" she asked. "How are we going to reach those who really need help? We need policies that will really go to the grassroots of a community and reach out to those who really need help, who usually are the most difficult to approach." "Research also shows that it is economically the most cost effective," she remarked.
In 2014, Maltese law was amended for corporal punishment to be abolished. Last week, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca articulated her belief that Malta urgently needs a comprehensive and multifaceted policy to wipe out any vestiges of violence against children.
A mentality that is tough to eradicate
Mangion explained that all over the world, generations have grown up thinking that corporal punishment is the norm when controlling children, it being 'extremely permissible until not many years ago, in homes as well as in schools'.
"So it is difficult to now eradicate that mentality and bring in another where it is seen as totally wrong," she said.
"Parents may feel that, short-term, force works and that if they do not use force then they will lose control over their children. However, they would not see the (long-term) highly damaging consequences." She elaborated that corporal punishment increases your risks of mental health disorders as an adult and interferes in the way that one builds relationships.
The positive alternative
Mangion said the positive alternative to corporal punishment is positive parenting, praising, and negotiating skills. "They are the same skills which we would use between two adults," she said, "discuss, negotiate, compromise." Such parenting has been enforced within Nordic countries, through reward system and services providing support to parents.
"We wouldn't think of shouting and punching our way through an argument (if it were with another adult). How would we then think it is ok to transpose that sort of behaviour onto children?"
Moving towards eradication
Where is the eradication of corporal punishment currently at? Mangion believes that society has generally come a long way from 20 years ago, when belts and implements used to be used, whereas "nowadays, they are generally known to not be used".
"There has been a shift," she said. "Has there been a shift in people not smacking their child at all? I don't think that has fully happened yet."
"Does the man in the street knows that corporal punishment is an offence in Malta?" she asked. Answering her own question with: "I'm not 100% sure."
Mangion believes that with the leap forward that came in 2014 through legislation, "there must also be the arm of information and services." She said that policies must be clear within every institution that deals with children, and information given to those who need it.
An issue regarding children, discussed by children
The High Level Global Conference on the Universal Prohibition of Corporal Punishment – being jointly organised by the Office of the President, the Children's Rights Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry – will seek to find the best way forward on this issue.
With children being the focus of the topic, during the run-up, corporal punishment, and the aims of the conference were discussed with the Children's and Young Person's Councils forming part of the President's Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.
The children highlighted the contradiction between the love shown by parents, carers and adults working with children versus corporal punishment; an approach inherently rooted in violence.
They also expressed serious concern that when corporal punishment is used, children essentially grow up with an understanding of violence as an effective tool, and as a means to an end. In this context, the children repeatedly mentioned the importance of positive parenting and added that parents should teach children what is right or wrong through love and respect.
For some of the children, it was clear that corporal punishment is not an option. For others it validated their unspoken feelings that violence can never be legitimate, even if it is disguised as discipline, something that instigates improvement or a measure that spurs correct behaviour.
The onus is on us, as adults, to bring about the change which all children around the world deserve. To end with a quote from one of the children: "Violence is Violence".
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