Corporal Punishment Bans, Child Rights Education, and Children’s Perceptions of Safety

Background and Purpose: Children’s safety is a foundational goal of child and family policy; yet, there are multiple barriers to safety across settings. In particular, harsh discipline and violence in the home (e.g., corporal punishment) and school (e.g., exclusionary discipline, bullying) remain common and normative worldwide. National policies and community-level human rights approaches hold promise for ensuring children’s safety. Corporal punishment bans represent structural efforts to prohibit violence against children, while child rights education may shape children’s awareness of their rights and expectations for safe environments. As of 2026, 70 countries have banned corporal punishment in all settings, including the home (Global Initiative, 2026). In many schools, children are also taught their human rights, as described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This study examines whether corporal punishment bans and child rights education (and their interaction) are associated with children’s perceptions of safety at home and school.

Methods: Data came from wave three of the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being, a population-based cross-sectional survey administered to children in schools in 35 countries between 2017 and 2019. Children were surveyed at ages 8, 10, or 12. Dependent variables, measured on 5-point scales, were (a) I feel safe at home and (b) I feel safe at school. Independent variables included whether the child’s country had a corporal punishment ban prior to the survey and whether the child reported knowing about the CRC. Individual-level controls included age, gender, and worry about family finances. Country-level controls included indicators of development, inequality, democracy, population density, and region fixed effects. The analytic sample included 31 countries (age 8: n = 17,806; age 10: n = 35,592; age 12: n = 31,523). Linear multilevel models accounted for clustering at the school and country levels, and analyses were run separately by age group.

Results: Of the 31 countries in the analytic sample, 13 had a corporal punishment ban. Approximately one-third of children indicated they knew about the CRC. Corporal punishment bans were associated with higher reported safety at home (e.g., age 10: b = .12, p = .001), with no consistent association for safety at school. Child rights education (i.e., the child knows about the CRC) was associated with higher reported safety at both home (e.g., age 10: b = .07, p < .001) and school (e.g., age 10: b = .13, p < .001) across age groups. There was evidence of an interaction between corporal punishment bans and CRC knowledge. Children reported the highest levels of safety at home when both a ban was in place and the child knew about the CRC (p < .05). A similar pattern emerged for safety at school, though only among children age 12 (p < .05).

Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that structural protections and children’s awareness of their rights may operate in complementary ways in relation to perceived safety. Pairing policies that prohibit violence with educational efforts that increase children’s awareness of their rights may be important for promoting safe environments.