Commentary on "Strengthening Families: Parents' Voices on Discipline and Child Rearing"

There is a growing consensus among professionals working with parents and children, and advocates for child rights, that a ban on the use of corporal punishment (CP) in raising children is justified in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989). However, this is an issue which seems to polarize people and opponents of banning CP have attacked the scientific literature and made dire predictions of adverse consequences if parents are not allowed to use CP. The problem is that so much attention has been focused on the “to spank or not to spank” issue, the developmental benefits for children and parents stemming from positive parenting have been largely ignored. There is increasing evidence that public health approaches to increasing parenting support reduces coercive parenting practices. Breshears' study represents an effort to gain a clearer understanding of the reasons many parents continue to support CP and draws on innovative qualitative methods to argue that parents’ views about CP are important and must be taken into account in planning intervention programs.