Public attitudes to physical punishment of children: wave 4 2021

Main findings

Attitudes towards smacking

• More respondents (53%) disagreed that ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’ than agreed (30%), and more  respondents disagreed than in previous waves.
• More women disagreed with the statement than men.

Knowledge of current legislation

• 78% of respondents thought that the law did not allow parents to smack their children, 10% more than in 2020. 16% thought the law did allow parents to smack.
• Those in higher social grades were more likely to be aware of the change than those in the  lower social grades.

Awareness of change to legislation

• Levels of ‘unprompted’ awareness of the change in legislation in 2021 (40%) have increased since 2020 (27%).
• When ‘Unprompted’, those in social grades C2DE (36%) were less likely to be aware of the change than those in social grades ABC1 (44%).
• Higher levels of ‘unprompted’ awareness of the change were reported in all age groups and all social grade groupings compared with 2020.
• When prompted, more respondents reported that they were aware of the legislation than had done so on an ‘unprompted’ level. 62% knew something about the change, representing an increase in ‘prompted’ awareness compared with the 2020 survey (44%). 
• When prompted with a description of the legislative change those in social grades ABC1 were more likely to be aware than those in social grades C2DE (66% vs. 60%).
• A higher proportion of those aged 55+ were aware of the change (70%) than those in younger age groups.
• TV news / programmes was the most common source of information on the change.

Opinion of changes to legislation

• 48% of respondents were in favour of the change, up from 38% in 2020, and the highest level of support found across the four waves. 24% of respondents were against the change, down from 25% in the 2020 and the lowest level of opposition across the four waves.
• In both the 16 to 34 and 35 to 54 age groups, respondents were more likely to be in favour of the change (62% and 52% respectively) rather than against the change (11% and 21% respectively).  However, among those aged 55+ opinion slightly more opposed the change (36%) than were in favour (34%). 
• Women were more likely to be for the change than men (52% vs 44% respectively).
• 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’ (42% of those who were for the change).