Public attitudes to physical punishment of children: wave 5 March 2022

Main findings

Attitudes towards smacking

• In each wave more respondents disagreed with the statement ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’ than agreed, with older respondents (55+) more likely to agree with it than other age groups.
• In March 2022, 62% disagreed and 23% agreed with the statement ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’.  The difference between the proportions disagreeing and agreeing has widened in comparison to the 2021 survey (53% disagreed, 30% agreed).
• 27% of men agreed with the statement ‘it is sometimes necessary to smack a child’ compared with 19% of women.  Both genders were less likely to agree with the statement less than in 2021 (36% of men and 25% of women).

Knowledge of current legislation

• 84% of people surveyed in March 2022 thought that the law did not allow parents to smack their children, 6 percentage points more than in 2021. 10% thought the law did allow parents to smack (6 percentage points fewer than in 2020) and the remaining 6% reported being unsure (identical to in 2021).

Awareness of changes to legislation

• Levels of ‘unprompted’ awareness of the change in legislation in March 2022 (66%) have increased since 2021 (40%).
• Higher levels of ‘unprompted’ awareness were reported in all age groups and all social grade groupings in March 2022 compared with 2021.
• When prompted 78% of respondents knew something about the change, 16% more than in 2021.
• TV news / programmes was the most common source of information on the change.

Opinion of changes to legislation

• 59% of respondents were in favour of the change, up from 48% in 2021, the highest level of support across the five waves. 20% of respondents were against the change, down marginally from 24% in the 2021 and the lowest level of opposition across the five waves. Fewer respondents in March 2022 felt that they needed more information or were undecided (20% vs 28% in 2021).
• 16 to 34s and 35 to 54s were more likely to be in favour of the change (71% and 62% respectively) than those aged 55+. This is similar to in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. However, March 2022 is the first survey in the series where those aged 55+ were more likely to support the change (46%) than to oppose it (29%).
• Women were more likely to be for the change than men (65% vs 52% respectively) and less likely to be against the change (14% vs 27% 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’ (54% of those who were for the change.