Child Abuse in Sweden
Robert E. Larzelere
A rigorous evaluation of the effects of spanking bans in Sweden
and other countries is sorely needed now that other countries are
considering such bans (e.g., Germany). Published evaluations
before 1999 included only 7 journal articles in English, leading
to my call for "more timely and rigorous evaluations of similar
social experiments in the future" (Larzelere, 1999, p. 381).
Durrant (1999a) also published an evaluation of the success of
Sweden's ban in 1999. Given the importance of this issue, I want
to briefly compare our respective conclusions and the evidence for
them.
SUBSEQUENT PHYSICAL CHILD ABUSE. Durrant (1999) implied that
Sweden has had minimal child abuse since 1979, whereas I could
find no evidence that their child abuse rate had decreased since
then. We both agree that the child abuse fatality rates have been
very low in Sweden, with no significant change after the 1979
spanking ban. This is very commendable, but provides no
information about the effect of the spanking ban, because the low
rates preceded 1979. My review considered three major studies of
non-fatal child abuse that Durrant did not consider: Gelles &
Edfeldt (1986) and Wittrock
(1992, 1995). Durrant cited the second Wittrock report as "SCB
(1995a)" elsewhere in her article.
The Gelles and Edfeldt (1986) study was the most rigorous of
the 7 journal articles located for my literature review. Their
comparison of national surveys in Sweden and the USA used the
Conflict Tactics Scale, the most widely used survey measure of
physical child abuse. Gelles and Edfeldt concluded:
"Swedish parents report more pushing, grabbing or shoving than
American parents and double the rate of beating children . . .
American parents report more spanking. . . In general, there were
far more similarities in the two countries than there were
differences" (p. 506-507).
Accordingly, the child abuse measure that included corporal
punishment (hitting with an object) was significantly higher in
the USA, whereas the child abuse measure that was identical except
for excluding that item showed a 4.1% rate in the USA and a 3.6%
rate in Sweden. A later (1985) American survey that was more
equivalent to the Swedish survey concluded that 1.9% of American
parents were abusing their child according to this measure.
As Durrant pointed out, the 1975 American response rate was
lower than the Gelles-Edfeldt Swedish survey done in 1980. This
was probably because that American survey used face-to-face
interviews, whereas the Swedish survey used telephone calls.
Fortunately, the 1985 American survey used telephone calls and had
an even higher response rate than the Swedish survey. Considering
a variety of factors, the fairest and most conservative comparison
was to compare the Swedish child abuse rate with the average of
the two USA rates. By this method, the Swedish child abuse rate
was 49% higher in 1980 than the average of the 1975 and 1985 USA
rates (Larzelere, 1999). These findings were surprising to me,
just as the original findings were to Gelles and Edfeldt. At
first, I thought it might reflect a temporary upsurge in child
abuse as part of a systemic change in Sweden to disciplining
children without the use of spanking.
But the best evidence on Swedish trends since then indicates
sharply increasing rates of physical child abuse, at least in
criminal records of assaults by relatives against children under
the age of 7. This frequency increased from 99 in 1981 to 583 in
1994, a 489% increase. As Wittrock (1995) and I (1999) suggested,
this could reflect a change in reporting mechanisms, an actual
increase, or other factors. Other countries need an unbiased,
objective way of deciding among these alternative explanations
before emulating Swedish policies.
SUBSEQUENT SUPPORT FOR CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Durrant and I used
the identical data source to arrive at nearly opposite conclusions
about the effect of the spanking ban on subsequent support for
corporal punishment (Statistics Sweden, 1996; Durrant's "SCB,
1996c"). Interested readers can view a summary of this data source
on the web (Sanden & Lundgren, 1997). Durrant concluded that
"public support for corporal punishment has declined" (Durrant,
1999a, p. 435), whereas I concluded, "the spanking ban has made
little change in problematic forms of physical punishment"
(Larzelere, 1999, p. 382). Durrant arrived at her conclusion by
comparing apples and oranges - or, more accurately, apples and
half-oranges. She not only compared survey questions that were
very different in 1981 and 1994, but she used only one of the two
responses to the 1994 question that indicated qualified support
for corporal punishment.
The Swedish survey item in 1978, 1979, and 1981 was "a child
has to be given corporal punishment from time to time," with which
26% of Swedes agreed all three years. The 11% cited by Durrant in
1994-5 were "positively inclined to milder forms of physical
punishment" (Statistics Sweden, 1996, p. 8), whereas another 22%
chose the following alternative response to the same question: "in
principle against all forms of physical punishment, but can use
such punishment if upset enough." Only 56% chose the third
response, expressing opposition to all physical punishment. The
same Swedish survey included the following item, which was closer
in wording to the 1978-1981 item: "Mild or moderate physical
punishment is sometimes necessary as a child rearing method, but
should be carefully considered and not the result of anger"
(Sanden, 1996, p. 10). Thirty-four percent agreed partly or fully
with this item, an increase from the 26% support in 1978, just
before the 1979 spanking ban.
In the Discussion section of my literature review, I used the
same Swedish survey to show that actual corporal punishment
received had dropped very little (e.g., 32% of valid answers from
those born after the spanking ban compared to 34% in the next
oldest generation). Further, the most problematic types had not
decreased at all (e.g., spanking of teenagers). Putting the
pattern of these changes together with the available child abuse
trends suggested the hypothesis quoted by Rolf Nilsson on this
listserve: "So it might be hypothesized that that the prohibition
of all spanking eliminates a type of mild spanking that prevents
further escalation of aggression within disciplinary incidents"
(Larzelere, 1999, p. 390). Corporal punishment of teenagers or
when "upset enough" could increase the risk of child abuse more
than a mild spanking.
SUBSEQUENT ASSAULTS BY MINORS AGAINST MINORS. Durrant (1999a)
concluded that those raised after the 1979 spanking ban were less
likely to be perpetrators of assaults against children, relative
to overall societal trends. Her primary data source supports the
opposite conclusion (Wittrock, 1995; her "SCB, 1995a"). The
percentage increases from 1984 to 1994 in criminal assaults
against 7- to 14-year-olds were as follows: A 519% increase by
minors under 15; a 231% increase by 15- to 19-year-olds; 133% by
20- to 24-year-olds; 53% by 25- to 29-year-olds; 122% by 30- to
39-year-olds; 147% by 40- to 49-year-olds; and 128% by
perpetrators over 49 (Wittrock, 1995). The largest increases were
for perpetrators who went through the preschool years after the
spanking ban. Those who were 25 to 29 years old in 1994-5 were 10
to 14 years old when the spanking ban was passed. Yet this is the
group Durrant includes in her youngest group to support her
incorrect conclusion that younger persons were proportionately
less involved in assaults against children.
SUBSEQUENT SUPPORTIVENESS OF SOCIAL SUPPORTS. I cannot critique
Durrant's conclusion on this as confidently because I do not have
access to her data. Note, however, that for 46% of the families in
1995, "support and care measures" consisted of removing the child
from the home (Durrant, 1999b, p. 70). Thankfully, this percentage
was down from 60% of new cases in 1982. The number of new
compulsory removals from the home was 7% higher in Sweden in 1995
than in 1982 (Durrant, 1999b, p. 70). A Swedish book (Ivarsson,
1984) and a Swedish lawyer (Westerberg, 1999) have claimed that
the risk of children being removed from their home is much higher
in Sweden than in other European countries, such as Germany and
Great Britain.
CONCLUSIONS. Thus my major conclusion seems very appropriate:
we need "more timely and rigorous evaluations of similar social
experiments in the future" (Larzelere, 1999, p. 381). The Swedish
spanking ban was well-intentioned - just as a similar approach to
another abuse problem led to the USA's Prohibition Amendment. That
Prohibition did not live up to its high ideals - and the spanking
prohibition may be faring no better. Both prohibitions may lead to
more dangerous ways of either drinking or spanking, thus
undermining their intended beneficial effects.
We need to move beyond sole reliance on such simplistic,
absolutist resolutions to these important problems. Some
innovative possibilities: (1) Insist on methodologically sound
evaluations of policy changes, especially when the changes are
this major. Because we have not done this, we cannot be sure how
to explain the 589% increase in child abuse cases, the 519%
increase in assaults by minors, or why the changes in corporal
punishment are so small in Sweden. (2) Emphasize empowering
parents with milder, effective disciplinary tactics rather than
legislating prematurely against nonabusive disciplinary tactics.
(3) Explore empirically supported middle-ground positions before
polarizing controversial issues to extreme positions. A balanced
middle position would be more sensitive to ethnic, religious, and
socio-economic differences (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997;
Gunnoe & Mariner, 1997). (4) Distinguish between effective vs.
counter-productive ways of using each disciplinary tactic! How
parents use disciplinary tactics may be more important than what
tactics they use.
I hope this stimulates more careful thinking about this complex
set of important issues.
References
Deater-Deckard, K., & Dodge, K. A. (1997). Externalizing
behavior problems and discipline revisited: Nonlinear effects and
variation by culture, context, and gender. Psychological Inquiry,
8, 161-175. (11 responses to this important article appear in the
same journal)
Durrant, J. E. (1999a). Evaluating the success of Sweden's
corporal punishment ban. Child Abuse & Neglect, 5,
435-448.
Durrant, J. E. (1999b). The status of Swedish children and
youth since the passage of he 1979 corporal punishment ban.
London: Save the Children.
Gelles, R. J., & Edfeldt, A. W. (1986). Violence towards
children in the United States and Sweden. Child Abuse &
Neglect, 10, 501-510.
Gunnoe, M. L., & Mariner, C. L. (1997). Toward a
developmental-contextual model of the effects of parental spanking
on children's aggression. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine, 151, 768-775.
Ivarsson, M. (1984). Sverige 1984 [Sweden 1984]. Malmo,
Sweden: Lehmanns Forlag.
Larzelere, R. E., & Johnson, B. (1999). Evaluation of the
effects of Sweden's spanking ban on physical child abuse rates: A
literature review. Psychological Reports, 85, 381-392.
Sanden, A., & Lundgren, L. (1997). Spanking of children
much less common. Statistika centralbryan.
http://www.scb.se/scbeng/vhtm/barnaga.htm
Statistics Sweden. (1996). Spanking and other forms of physical
punishment (Demography, the Family, and Children 1996:1.2).
Stockholm, Sweden.
Westerberg, S. (1999, June 19). Lecture
to the Family Education Trust, London. .
Wittrock,
U. (1992). Barmisshandel i kriminalstatstiken 1981-1991
[Violent crimes against children in criminal statistics,
1981-1991]. KR Info, 1992, 7.
Wittrock,
U. (1995). Barnmisshandel, 1984-1994 [Violent crimes
against children, 1984-1994]. KR Info, 1-6.
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