Public attitudes to physical punishment of children: wave 6 survey, November 2022

Main findings

Attitudes towards smacking

• In the latest wave of the survey, 27% agreed and 58% disagreed with the statement that ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’.  This difference is narrower than existed at the March 2022 survey (23% agreed, 62% disagreed).
• Opinion remains related to age with those aged over 55 being much more likely to agree that ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’*.
• 25% of those in social grades ABC1 (largely managerial and professional occupations). and 27% of those in social grades C2DE (largely manual occupations), agreed with the statement ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’ .t. This is similar to findings from previous surveys.
• More men agreed with the statement ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’ at 31% compared with 23% of women in the latest survey.  Both genders were more likely to agree with the statement when compared with March 2022 results (27% of men and 19% of women)*.

Knowledge of current legislation

• 90% of respondents surveyed in November 2022 correctly thought that the law did not allow parents to smack their children. Only 6% thought the law did allow parents to smack and the remaining 4% reported being unsure.

Awareness of changes to legislation

• In the latest wave of the survey, nearly three-quarters (73%) of people surveyed reported that they were aware of changes to the law in the last year at an unprompted level*.  This compares to around two-thirds (66%) who were aware in March 2022. This continues a trend of increasing awareness of a change in legislation since November 2020 when just over a quarter were aware (27%)*.
• At an unprompted level, carers of children under seven were more likely (76%) to be aware of the change than those without these responsibilities (72%).
• At an ‘unprompted’ level, those aged between 16-34 were less likely (52%) to be aware of the change in legislation than those aged 35-54 (81%) and those aged 55+ (82%).
• When prompted with a description of the legislative change more respondents reported that they were aware of the legislation than had done so on an ‘unprompted’ level.  A total of 85% knew something about the change, representing an increase in ‘prompted’ awareness compared with the March 2022 survey, when 78% knew something about the change*.
• When prompted, carers of children under seven were more likely (91%) to be aware of the change than those without these responsibilities (84%). This is an increase in awareness of 6% points for carers and 9% points for non-carers since March 2022.
• When prompted with a description of the legislative change, those aged 16-34 were more aware (74%) than when they were unprompted,  but they were still less likely to be aware compared with those aged between 35-54 (92%) and those aged 55+ (88%).
• In all surveys, TV news / programme was the most frequently cited as the source of awareness of the change in law.

Opinion of changes to legislation

• In the latest survey almost 56% were in favour of the removal of the defence of reasonable punishment. This is slightly lower than in March 2022 (59%).
• Whilst opinion has remained relatively unchanged since March 2022, the period prior to this has seen an increase in support for the change from 38% in 2020 to 58% in March 2022.
• The change in support for the legislation over time is mostly because of a decrease in the proportions ‘wanting more information / were unsure of their opinion’ not due to an equivalent decline in opposition to the change.
• Women were much more likely to be in favour of the change (66%) than against it (14%). Whilst more men were in favour of the change than against it, the gap between the two proportions was narrower (45% in favour, 31% against). This represents a decrease since March 2022 in the proportion of men in favour (52%) of change and an increase against change (27%).
• When asked why respondents were in favour of the change, the most common response was that they ‘[did] not agree with smacking or physical punishment of children’ (54% of those who were for the change). This was also the most frequent response in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and March 2022 surveys (40%, 38%, 38%, 42% and 54% respectively).