UN resident co-ordinator Joanna Kazana has said instead of hitting children, adults must find other ways to enforce discipline.
She spoke with Newsday after the Ministry of Planning launched a report on the life conditions of women and children in Trinidad and Tobago, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Report 2022, at the Radisson Hotel, Port of Spain, on January 26.
The report said, "In the month prior to the survey, 67 out of every 100 children aged one-14 years in TT experienced some form of violent discipline. Of those children, two of them experienced severe physical punishment."
The report gave a breakdown of the 67 per cent.
Of these, some 61 per cent of children faced psychological aggression, 40 per cent endured physical punishment and two per cent severe physical punishment.
The report said physical punishment was "shaking, hitting or slapping a child on the hand/arm/leg, hitting on the bottom or elsewhere on the body with a hard object, spanking or hitting on the bottom with a bare hand, hitting or slapping on the face, head or ears, and hitting or beating hard and repeatedly."
Severe physical punishment was: "Hitting or slapping a child on the face, head or ears, and hitting or beating a child hard and repeatedly."
Psychological aggression was "shouting, yelling or screaming at a child, as well as calling a child offensive names such as ‘dumb’ or ‘lazy.’"
Initially, Newsday had asked about factors encouraging TT's high murder rate and whether such influences were measurable.
Kazana said, "There are very specific measures of the level of violence."
She said the main indicator of a society's level of violence was its homicide rate – the number of murders per 100,000 population.
"This indicator is very high for TT. It is at the level of 30/100,000, according to 2021 statistics."
She then highlighted the report's details of how many children were experiencing violence at home.
"This is also a likelihood of young people and then young adults going on to demonstrate aggressive behaviour in solving disputes."
Kazana said there was a very high correlation between having been a victim of abuse and becoming a perpetrator of abuse.
"There is data about grown-up men, all the indicators, what are the causes for them becoming aggressive or using physical violence to resolve issues at the grown-up age."
She noted the report showing 67 per cent of children experiencing physical (or mental abuse) in TT was "very high."
Slightly more boys were physically disciplined than girls, the report also showed.
Asked about her views on the physical disciplining of children by violence, Kazana said, "The view we'd collectively like to express: it doesn't work."
Unicef planning specialist Patrice Bosso interjected to remark on the 67 per cent figure.
"It shows most of the adults think it is normal, for child-rearing, to apply physical violence.
"We have to ask the right questions. Society thinks it is normal."
Bosso hoped this quantitative data could be followed up by qualitati
