GPW14

All too often, children are raised using methods that rely on physical force or verbal intimidation to punish unwanted behaviours and encourage desired ones. The use of violent discipline with children represent a violation of their rights. Physical discipline and psychological aggression tend to overlap and frequently occur together, exacerbating the short- and long-term harm they inflict. The consequences of violent discipline range from immediate effects to long-term damage that children carry well into adulthood. Violent discipline is the most widespread, and socially accepted, type of violence against children.

• Proportion of children aged 1-17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month is currently being measured by the
• Proportion of children aged 1-14 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month.

Age group

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) undertakes a wide consultative process of compiling and assessing data from national sources for the purposes of updating its global databases on the situation of children. Up until 2017, the mechanism UNICEF used to collaborate with national authorities on ensuring data quality and international comparability on key indicators of relevance to children was known as Country Data Reporting on the Indicators for the Goals (CRING).

As of 2018, UNICEF launched a new country consultation process with national authorities on selected child-related global SDG indicators for which it is custodian or co-custodian to meet emerging standards and guidelines on data flows for global reporting of SDG indicators, which place strong emphasis on technical rigour, country ownership and use of official data and statistics. The consultation process involves soliciting feedback directly from National Statistical Offices, as well as other government Last updated: 2024-09-27 agencies responsible for official statistics, on the latest available national data source and estimates for each indicator. Countries have the opportunity to submit new or updated data sources and estimates to be considered for official SDG reporting. A thorough technical assessment is conducted by UNICEF as the custodian agency, in consultation with the country, and feedback is made available to countries on whether or not specific data sources and data points are accepted for official SDG reporting, and if not, the reasons why.

Number of children aged 1-17 years who are reported to have experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month divided by the total number of children aged 1-17 in the population multiplied by 100

Proxy indicator: Number of children aged 1-14 years who are reported to have experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month divided by the total number of children aged 1-14 in the population multiplied by 100

Yearly

UNICEF will undertake an annual country consultation likely between December and January every year to allow for review and processing of the feedback received in order to meet global SDG reporting deadlines

5601

In the third and fourth rounds of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), the standard indicator referred to the percentage of children aged 2-14 years who experienced any form of violent discipline (physical punishment and/or psychological aggression) within the past month. Beginning with the fifth round of MICS (MICS5), the age group covered was expanded to capture children’s experiences with disciplinary practices between the ages of 1 and 14 years. Therefore, current data availability does not capture the full age range specified in the SDG indicator since data are not collected for adolescents aged 15-17 years and further methodological work is needed to identify additional items on disciplinary practices relevant for older adolescents.