Frequently viewed as a necessary part of raising children, the use of physical force or verbal intimidation is not only a violation of children’s rights but has been shown to inflict short- and long-term harm such as poorer quality of parent–child relationships, mental health problems (such as depression), increased child aggression, antisocial behavior and lower intellectual achievement.

Proportion of children aged 1-17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month

violence against children

In Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), psychological aggression refers to the action of shouting, yelling or screaming at a child, as well as calling a child offensive names, such as ‘dumb’ or ‘lazy’. Physical (or corporal) punishment is an action intended to cause physical pain or discomfort, but not injuries. Physical punishment is defined as shaking the child, hitting or slapping him/her on the hand/arm/leg, hitting him/her on the bottom or elsewhere on the body with a hard object, spanking or hitting him/her on the bottom with a bare hand, hitting or slapping him/her on the face, head or ears, and beating him/her over and over as hard as possible.

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. When data for a country are entirely missing, UNICEF does not publish any country-level data.

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

strongk@who.int

Kate Strong

Float

5601

In the third and fourth rounds of MICS, the standard indicator referred to the percentage of children 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 1and 14 years. Therefore, current data availability do 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.