A Descriptive Study on the Perceptions of Children on Punishment

Abstract

Children, especially in a culture like ours, are commonly subjected to punishment since they are “prone” to committing mistakes being in the early stage of human development they are in. In trying to focus more on correcting their behaviors, punishment agents fail to see the veiled implications of their meted punishment on the children especially their perceptions. This study focused on looking into the common perceptions on punishment of chosen students from Bacood Elementary School. Their insights were obtained through a supervised answering of a survey questionnaire designed by the researcher. It has been found that children are more likely to formulate their own conceptions of punishment according to how they experience it. Their views, which are interestingly in wide ranges, are largely influenced by their immediate social environment. This usually involves their parents, who are also, as found in this research, their major inflictors of punishment. Incorrect notions and drawbacks of punishment have been identified based on the responses given. Responses suggest that compliance is indeed generally gained after the use of punishment and physical ones are those which most immediately make them comply. However, they are still more likely to favor punishments which induce the least pain on them wherein mild verbal punishments are the ones they highly recommended. Though the study aimed to see differences in perceptions among grade levels and between sexes, no outstanding disparity was seen but there are slight variances observed. It is very much recommended that in opting to use punishment on children, one must make sure to arm it with a clear explanation on why it was used for the child to have appropriate understandings and conceptions regarding it.