Enosh, Leshem and Buchbinder (2016) in Israel, or Umeda, Kawakami, Kessler and Miller (2015) in Japan, corroborate this fact.

Physical punishment of minors has also been a common practice in the repertoire of child-rearing guidelines of Spanish fathers and mothers. Prevailing studies conducted regarding the subject have shown that for a large part of society, it is still an effective, acceptable and recommended child-rearing method, although its acceptance has been declining in recent years (Bussmann, Erthal, and Schroth, 2009).

In fact, a study carried out by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in 1997, in which 3,500 Spaniards over 18 years of age were interviewed, pointed out that 2% of Spaniards said that hitting is essential “frequently” and 43.3% indicated that it was essential sometimes. The figure of 40.5% agreed that “sometimes a good slap is necessary to maintain discipline”. The figure of 30% acknowledged reacting from time to time by giving their son a slap on the face in a serious conflict. (Juste and Morales, 1998).

Subsequently, the data collected in Study 2621 from the Centre for Sociological Research (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, CIS, 2005), with the survey Attitudes and Opinions on Childhood (Actitudes y opiniones sobre la infancia), showed that 59.9% of the Spanish population considers that “a whip or a slap at the right time can prevent more serious problems later”.

The wide acceptance of the use of physical punishment as a disciplinary strategy was also reflected in another work carried out by the organization known as Save the Children in 2004, in coordination with the Platform for Children’s Organizations and the General Directorate of Children and Family of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in the Autonomous Regions of Castilla la Mancha and Madrid. This work showed that 47% of mothers and 46% of fathers considered themselves entitled to hit and shout at their children.

In the study carried out in 2007 by Bussmann, Erthal, and Schroth (2009), which examined the situation in five European countries: Sweden, Austria, Germany, France and Spain, five thousand parents (1000 from each country) were interviewed about the use and attitude toward physical punishment, their own experiences of violence, and their knowledge and beliefs about existing legislation. According to this study, more than half of Spanish parents (55%) said that they had lightly hit their children in the face, 80% in the buttocks, 31% acknowledged giving a “sharp” slap in the face, and 6.7% had hit them with an object. Even though 16% of Spanish parents had never used physical punishment, and 84% agreed that physical punishment of minors should be used as little as possible, these are very high figures, especially when compared to the prevailing data from other countries such as Sweden, where the acceptance of physical punishment of minors has not exceeded 8% since the 1990s (Jason, Jernbro and Langberg, 2012).

One of the most recent studies conducted in Spain (Gámez-Guadix et al, 2010b) with university students from the Autonomous Region of Madrid shows that 63% of men and 63.8% of women were physically punished when they were 10 years old. Mothers used this disciplinary practice somewhat more than father (42.9% of fathers and 50.1% of mothers had whipped, slapped, beaten, or swatted their children). On the other hand, Calvete, Gámez-Guadix and Orue (2010), in a work involving 1,371 adolescents, found that mothers use more disciplinary actions of all kinds than fathers, probably due to the fact that despite the increase in recent years of the involvement of fathers in bringing up children, fathers continue to play a smaller role than mothers in child-rearing. They also found greater use of this type of discipline with sons than with daughters.