Many parents hit their children, NSPCC survey claims

Six out of ten parents of babies and toddlers admit to hitting their child, a new survey by the NSPCC has revealed.

The research, which involved interviews with 1,000 parents of newborn to four-year-olds in the UK also found that parents lost their temper with their child on average once a week. Almost one in five (17%) of those questioned admitted to losing their temper almost every other day. However, nearly half (48%) of the parents questioned who had hit their child believed that they had over-reacted in doing so.

The findings have been published as the NSPCC launches a new campaign – 'Hit Means Lost It' – to help parents manage stress and anger levels so they do not take it on their child.

The charity says that anger is a major factor in parents hitting their children – the survey found that parents who frequently lost their temper were four times more likely to hit their child.

Eileen Hayes, parenting advisor for the NSPCC, said: "Parenting is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but it is also very hard work. Stressed parents can easily become angry parents. Though anger is a natural human emotion, it's not always easy to recognise or control, which is dangerous when you are looking after a child."

Parents are most likely to lose their temper when their child is being physically aggressive, the NSPCC said. One third of those interviewed cited this as a reason for becoming angry with their children.

Ms Hayes advised: "When parents feel the pressure mounting, our advice is to take a step back before you say or do something you will later regret. Don't give in to anger - take control before it controls you."

The NSPCC is launching a new advice booklet, called 'Keeping Your Cool', to help parents understand and manage anger, as well as providing advice through its helplines, family centres and other range of publications, as part of the new campaign. There will also be a three-week television campaign to support the initiative.

Eileen Hayes said: "Through our initiative, we want to get across the important message that there are better and safer ways to discipline your children, such as praising the behaviour you want to encourage, whilst ignoring the smaller problems that children soon grow out of."

The NSPCC has also called on the government to support the 'Hit Means Lost It' campaign by running media campaigns on positive parenting; providing education programmes to encourage positive parenting skills and giving parents time off work to attend such programmes.

(KMcA/SP)