Skip to content
News release

Zambians overwhelmingly oppose physical punishment

26 May 2015 Zambia
An overwhelming majority of Zambian women and men disapprove of the use of physical force to discipline wives or children, Afrobarometer’s most recent survey has revealed.

An overwhelming majority of Zambian women and men disapprove of the use of physical force to discipline wives or children, Afrobarometer’s most recent survey has revealed.

Due to a coding error, initial Afrobarometer reports misstated Zambians’ views on whether a husband should have the right to physically discipline his wife and whether parents and teachers should have the right to physically punish children. Instead of approving of physical punishment, in fact almost nine of 10 Zambians disapprove of physical punishment of wives by their husbands, while 60% disapprove of physical punishment of children by their parents and 71% disapprove of physical punishment of pupils by their teachers.

This clear rejection of physical violence is about equally strong among both genders, among rural as well as urban residents, and at all levels of educational attainment.
Despite these expressed views, the 2013-2014 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey reports that 47% of ever-married women have been victims of physical, sexual, or emotional violence by a current or former husband/partner, and 43% of victims of spousal physical violence incurred physical injuries (see http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR304/FR304.pdf).

Download the full press release