Study title

Attitudes towards Corporal Punishment of Children in Finland 2021

Dataset ID Number

FSD3600

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3600

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Central Union for Child Welfare

Abstract

The data are part of a Central Union for Child Welfare study that investigates the use of corporal punishment in upbringing and attitudes towards it in Finland. The data collection was carried out in spring 2021 by Taloustutkimus as an internet panel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The respondents were asked whether they thought corporal punishment was, at least in some cases, acceptable. The same question was asked about pulling a child's hair or flicking them. Further questions included whether using "moderate" violence to solve conflicts between children and parents is justified, and whether using "mild" or "moderate" corporal punishments is, at least in exceptional circumstances, acceptable. The respondents were then asked whether they thought yelling at a child was a justified way of intervening in misbehaviour, threatening with corporal punishment was acceptable in exceptional circumstances, and repeatedly ordering a child to calm down alone, e.g. in a time-out, was acceptable.

Next, those respondents who had children under the age of 18 in the household were asked whether they had used different forms of corporal punishment (pulling hair, spanking etc.) and whether they had threatened their children with violence. The respondents were also asked whether the Finnish law allows corporal punishment or not and whether their parents had used corporal punishment to discipline them when they were under the age of 18. Finally, the respondents were asked how harmful they thought various actions were for a child's development when done by a parent (e.g. spanking or ignoring a child, reprimanding a child, exposing a child to violence between the parents).

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's gender, age, age group, region of residence (NUTS2 and NUTS3), number of inhabitants in the municipality of residence, municipality type, household composition, number and ages of children living in the household, employment status, economic activity and occupational status, level of education, household's gross annual income, marital status, and type of accommodation.

Keywords

child abuse; child protection; child safety; children; corporal punishment; domestic violence; parent attitude; parents

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Children (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Attitudes towards Corporal Punishment of Children in Finland

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Kosonen, Anne (Taloustutkimus)

Time Period Covered

2021

Collection Dates

2021-02-18 – 2021-03-02

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged 15-79 living in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Quota

Quotas based on the age, gender, region, and municipality type distributions of the target population.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, in variables bv14 denoting the number of children in the household and bv19 denoting the total number of people living in the household, the largest values were categorised into a single category by the research. For the same reason, variable bv10 denoting municipality code was removed at FSD.

Variable bv6 denoting municipality population was removed at FSD because the data included two variables with the same content.

Weighting

The data include a weight variable [paino] that weights the sample to correspond to the target population based on age and gender.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Central Union for Child Welfare: Attitudes towards Corporal Punishment of Children in Finland 2021 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2023-06-01). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3600

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Annukka Paasivirta (toim.): Kovemmin käsin - suomalaisten kasvatusasenteet ja kuritusväkivallan käyttö 2021. Lastensuojelun Keskusliiton verkkojulkaisu 7/2021.