By: Emanuel Tirosh, Shlomit Offer Shechter, Ayala Cohen, and Michael Jaffe

Objectives: To assess physicians’ attitudes towards corporal punishment in childhood and their subsequent actions regarding the reporting of child abuse.

Participants: 107 physicians (95 pediatricians and 12 family practitioners) who work in hospitals and community clinics in northern Israel were interviewed. Of the participants, 16% were new immigrants.

Procedure: A structured interview was conducted by one of two pediatric residents.

Results: Attitudes towards corporal punishment were not influenced by the physicians’ sex or specialty. Corporal punishment was approved by 58% of the physicians. A significant difference in attitudes towards corporal punishment between immigrants and Israeli-born physicians was found (p = .004). Family practitioners and especially senior ones were found significantly less tolerant towards corporal punishment than pediatricians (p = .04). While reporting behavior was not found to be associated with parental status and the past experience of the physicians with child abuse, a significant effect of attitudes towards corporal punishment on reporting behavior was found (p = .01).

Conclusions: (1) Corporal punishment is still perceived as an acceptable disciplinary act by a significant proportion of physicians responsible for the health care of children in our area. (2) Attitudes towards corporal punishment are different between immigrants and native-born Israeli-trained doctors and, unexpectedly, pediatricians were more tolerant of corporal punishment than family practitioners.

Child Abuse & Neglect 27 (2003) 929–937