When a man hits his wife, that’s abuse. When a man hits his child, that’s parenting.
By Elio Wilder (they/them)
This article contains extensive discussions of child abuse, physical punishment, domestic violence, mental ill-health, and suicide.
Physical/corporal punishment - the act of hitting, spanking, or forcing a child to hold painful positions in an attempt to correct behaviour – is legal in Australia. Parents and carers are entitled to use physical violence towards their children in all Australian jurisdictions (AIFS, 2021). In this regard, Australian children have less rights than dogs (Havighurst, 2023).
About half of Australian parents report using physical punishment against a child. 52% of Australians support the practice being banned (Relationships Australia, 2017).
Australians are concerningly divided over the acceptability of violence towards children.
Beyond the immediate distress felt by victims, parental violence towards children has negative life-long consequences.
PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT AND MENTAL-ILL HEALTH
80% of Australians report experiencing physical punishment as a child (Relationships Australia, 2017), including 61% of young people aged 18-24 (ACMS, 2022).
Childhood physical punishment is a harmful practice with well-documented long-lasting negative impacts on development. It is associated with increased risk of experiencing more severe abuse as well as mental-ill health (RCPCH, 2025).
Physical punishment has been associated with increased ‘anxiety, depression, substance abuse and antisocial behaviours in adulthood in a similar way to child abuse’ (AIFS, 2021) (Afifi, Mota, Dasiewicz, MacMillan, & Sareen, 2012).
So-called ‘moderate’ forms of physical punishment have been linked to impaired physical, mental, cognitive, and psychosocial wellbeing. Exposure to childhood violence, regardless of severity, is harmful to children’s development (WHO, 2025).
The differentiation between physical child abuse and physical punishment is purely legal; in terms of life outcomes, the practices are indistinguishable.
There is no evidence of positive outcomes associated with physical punishment of children (RCPCH, 2025) (WHO, 2025).
Beyond mental-ill health, the worst-case health outcome of childhood maltreatment is death.
PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT AND SUICIDE
A recent Australian study found that 41% of suicides in Australia can be attributed to childhood maltreatment (Grummitt et al., 2024). Similarly, the Australian Childhood Maltreatment Study concluded that childhood maltreatment is likely the strongest risk factor for suicide attempts (Segal & Gnanamanickam, 2024). 18-24 year olds who had experienced corporal punishment were significantly more likely to experience major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder (ACMS, 2022).
Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15-44 (AIHW, 2025). 15-19 year olds are most likely to be hospitalised for treatment relating to intentional self-harm (AIHW, 2023) and 1 in 2 Australians will be impacted by suicide by the time they turn 25 (Suicide Prevention, 2024).
Suicide is an epidemic in Australia. Childhood maltreatment, violence, and abuse are major risk factors.
New research from the World Health Organisation described the health consequences of childhood physical punishment as ‘profound and far-reaching’, noting the heightened exposure to stress hormones and associated brain structure changes, developmental and academic delays, and increased mental-ill health including depression, anxiety, substance dependency, and suicidality (2025).
Childhood maltreatment —> mental ill-health and suicidal ideation —> suicide
In 2024, an estimated 159,800 years of life were lost due to suicide in Australia (AIHW, 2024).
In addition to the devastating human impact on individuals and communities, suicide is also costly to the economy. In 2020, the Productivity Commission estimated the annual national cost of mental ill- health and suicide at $200– 220 billion.
Current mental-health treatment is reactive rather than pre-emptive (Grummitt et al., 2024). The system waits for people to get sick before prescribing treatment. The treatment itself is highly medicalised – prescribing pills is often the first line of action.
The strong association between adverse childhood experiences - such as experiencing physical punishment - and poor health outcomes, reveals a better approach for treatment.
More than 1.8 million cases of depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders could be prevented if childhood maltreatment was eliminated (Grummitt et al., 2024).
PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT AND DOMESTIC ABUSE
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If physical punishment has such devasting consequences, then why is it still happening?
As it stands, physical punishment is a form of legally sanctioned child abuse which contributes to the prevalent culture of domestic abuse in Australia. Can we really be surprised that men are violent towards their partners when that very same violence is condoned when directed at children?
First launched in 2016, ‘Stop it at the Start’ is an Australian Government campaign directed towards preventing young people from continuing the culture of domestic abuse in Australia (Respect, 2025).
The irony of the name is self-evident. Young people in Australia are receiving contradictory messaging; they are told that violence is bad and should not be perpetuated, while simultaneously experiencing legally sanctioned violence.
Several large scale studies have found that cultures the perpetrate higher levels of physical punishment towards children also have higher rates of intimate partner violence and lower levels of gender equity (WHO, 2025).
Disciplining children through physical violence is ineffective in correcting behaviours and serves only to instil the belief that violence is acceptable, which has the potential to manifest as violent behaviour towards others in adulthood (Rowland, Gerry, Stanton, 2017).
THE WAY FORWARD
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has been calling on Australian Governments to ban corporal punishment since 1997 (United Nations, 1997). 67 countries have already enacted universal bans on corporal punishment (United Nations, 2025), Australia is falling-short.
There is far more evidence linking violence against children with suicide then social media use and suicide, yet we’ve only banned one of them (Australian Government, 2024).
Banning the practice of physical punishment towards children in Australia must be seen as a crucial step towards reducing the physical and mental ill-health outcomes associated with the practice. Additionally, this would send a clear, unified message, that abuse is never acceptable and give authorities greater power to intervene in cases of maltreatment.
This should be combined with a public health campaign to increase awareness of the negative effects of physical punishment towards children (WHO, 2025), and the creation of an evidence-based parenting program to support parents and carers in Australia to raise happy, healthy children.
Preventing child abuse, including physical punishment, would reduce mental ill-health and suicide in Australia and their associated social and economic costs.
The verdict is universal; the harm caused by physical punishment towards children is profound and enduring. We must treat this as the public health crisis it is and call on our state governments to take immediate and decisive action to end all forms of violence against children.
Sign the petition to end physical punishment in Australia here: https://www.change.org/p/end-physical-punishment-of-children-protect-australian-children
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References
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