Child abuse sometimes necessary, say three in four Japanese

The latest survey from iShare took a look at the matter of punches, in particular hitting children and adults, the results of which were a shock to my namby-pamby western liberal attitudes.

Research results

Between the 2nd and 7th of September 2010, 475 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% in their twenties, 31.4% in their thirties, and 37.9% in their forties.

Although corporal punishment is banned in Japanese schools, from what I hear teachers still occasionally dish out punishment, and in sports clubs there seems to be a lot of hazing, from over-enthusiastic cheerleading to deaths in sumo stables.

Some of the stories about memories of being hit were as follows: “My gentle father getting mad and beating me for the first time”, “I was playing with matches and nearly set something on fire, so after getting hit I remember reflecting long and hard”, “I never got hit by my parents, so it was a shock the first time my friends hit me”, “I did something that wasn’t sensible and got hit by a teacher”, and “I skived off doing a kanji drill homework and got detention until past 7 pm. I got curious about what the elementary school was like at night, so exploring around the school. I was found by my homeroom teacher who slapped my cheek and gave me a noogie. He was a good teacher.”

Research results

Q1: When you were a child (up to age 19), did you ever get hit by anyone? (Sample size=475)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=215
Yes (to SQ)	54.9%	61.9%	46.5%
No	45.1%	38.1%	53.5%

Q1SQ: Who did you get hit by when you were a child? (Sample size=261, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=161	Female N=100
Father	66.7%	70.8%	60.0%
Teacher	45.2%	50.3%	37.0%
Mother	41.0%	36.0%	49.0%
Friend	39.5%	52.8%	18.0%
Brother	23.8%	25.5%	21.0%
Sister	10.0%	8.7%	12.0%
Grandfather	5.7%	4.3%	8.0%
Boyfriend/girlfriend	3.1%	3.7%	2.0%
Grandmother	2.3%	2.5%	2.0%
Other	5.7%	6.2%	5.0%

Q2A: Since becoming an adult (age 20 or older), did you ever get hit by anyone? (Sample size=475)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=215
Yes (to SQ)	8.4%	9.6%	7.0%
No	91.6%	90.4%	93.0%

Q2B: Since becoming an adult (age 20 or older), did you ever get hit by anyone? (Sample size=475)

	All	Hit as child N=261	Not hit as child N=214
Yes (to SQ)	8.4%	13.4%	2.3%
No	91.6%	86.6%	97.7%

Q2SQ: Who did you get hit by when you were an adult? (Sample size=40, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=25	Female N=15
Friend	22.5%	32.0%	6.7%
Boyfriend/girlfriend	22.5%	20.0%	26.7%
Father	7.5%	0.0%	20.0%
Mother	7.5%	4.0%	13.3%
Brother	5.0%	0.0%	13.3%
Sister	2.5%	4.0%	0.0%
Grandfather	2.5%	4.0%	0.0%
Teacher	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Grandmother	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Other	40.0%	48.0%	26.7%

Q3A: Depending on the circumstances, do you think it may be necessary to scold children by hitting them? (Sample size=475)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=215
Very much necessary	21.3%	27.3%	14.0%
Perhaps necessary	53.1%	50.0%	56.7%
Not necessary at all	25.7%	22.7%	29.3%

Q2B: Depending on the circumstances, do you think it may be necessary to scold children by hitting them? (Sample size=475)

	All	Hit as child N=261	Not hit as child N=214
Very much necessary	21.3%	29.5%	11.2%
Perhaps necessary	53.1%	55.6%	50.0%
Not necessary at all	25.7%	14.9%	38.8%

Q4: Depending on the circumstances, do you think it may be necessary to scold adults by hitting them? (Sample size=475)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=215
Very much necessary	5,7%	7.3%	3.7%
Perhaps necessary	27,4%	24.2%	31.2%
Not necessary at all	66.9%	68.5%	65.1%