Rosser (2015) carried out an investigation along the same line with the intention of evaluating the practices and attitudes that exist in the population in relation to physical punishment, more than 8 years after Law 54/2007 went into effect. To this end, an adaptation of the Discipline Dimensions Inventory (DDI, Straus and Fauchier, 2007), in its Spanish version for children and adults, was applied to a sample of 225 children between 11 and 18 years of age of which 44.9% were male and 55.1% female, and 96 adults, who were the fathers and mothers of the students evaluated. The figure of 77.1% were women and the rest, 22.9%, were men, with an average age of 44 years (SD = 5.6).

The results showed a relationship between the child-rearing experiences lived in childhood and child-rearing practices that they consider appropriate as adults, so that those parents who suffered punitive discipline in their childhood considered it appropriate to apply the same in bringing up their own children.

On the other hand, the results also indicated a certain change in this trend, due to the fact that physical punishment was no longer the most common parental discipline strategy when it came to correcting the behaviour of the children. This did not seem to reflect a greater use of positive discipline strategies, but adolescents indicated that they had frequently experienced punitive practices of a psychological nature, with shouting, berating, humiliation or withdrawal of affection.

For the organization Save the Children (2003), the social acceptance of physical punishment is a fact: “Men and women both beat, and people from different socio-economic or social backgrounds as well. The religious, political and judicial authorities have shown themselves in favour of physical punishment on various occasions”. The popular arguments that justify hitting children are varied, from “we have all experienced it, and it hasn’t caused us any lasting damage” to “it is a parent’s right”, as a way to “guide” their sons and daughters and make them strong. Even the popular culture speaks of “a good whipping”, “a good beating”, among other expressions that justify punishment as a positive resource.

Organizations such as the United Nations (1989), UNICEF (2002), The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (2009) or Save the Children (2003) have warned about the risks of this practice and the need to develop legislation for its eradication (Moya and Rosser, 2013).

In Europe, only 14 countries have explicitly prohibited physical punishment. These include Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Latvia, Croatia, Germany, Bulgaria, Iceland, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary, as well as Italy and Portugal, whose Supreme Courts have declared corporal punishment illegal, even though it has not been reflected in the legislation. In Spain, specifically until 2007, the Civil Code established that “parents can (...) reasonably and moderately correct their children”. This was considered ambiguous from a legal point of view by many experts and by these international organizations as well, because it could be interpreted that the right of correction included light physical punishment.

Consequently, the United Nations and the Council of Europe urged Spain, as well as countries that did not expressly prohibit corporal punishment of children, to modify their legislation to include the prohibition of this type of punishment.

To confront this situation, Law 54 of December 28, 2007 of International Adoption included in its final provision – first. 2. the elimination of the last loophole that allowed the use of physical punishment, modifying Article 154 of the Civil Code, which in its new wording went on to state that “Parental authority will always be exercised for the benefit of the children, according to their personality, and with respect to their physical and psychological well-being”. In this way, the possibility for parents to correct their children reasonably and moderately, with this right being understood as light corporal punishment, was specifically abolished.