Mental Health World Conference 2026

Abstract

Corporal punishment is the most prevalent form of violence against children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan, and the least acknowledged. At 82.7 Percent, KP records the highest rate of violent disciplinary practices against children of any province in the country. It is normalized in homes, classrooms, and madrassas, reinforced by cultural beliefs that equate physical discipline with authority, moral correction, and effective parenting, despite being prohibited under the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act (2010). The result is a protection failure that is simultaneously visible and invisible widely practiced, rarely named.

This study applied the COM B behavioural framework to examine why corporal punishment persists even as awareness of its harms grows. Using a mixed methods design across Peshawar, Khyber, Kurram, and South Waziristan, data were collected through structured surveys and focus group discussions with children, teachers, parents, community elders, and frontline social service workers.

The findings expose a striking paradox at the level of capability psychological awareness of harm is high. Participants across all groups, including teachers who use physical punishment daily, could clearly articulate its negative outcomes for childrens emotional development, learning, and mental health. Children themselves connected the sight of a stick in a classroom to immediate anxiety and reduced concentration. And yet practical capability, the actual skills to discipline without violence, to manage stress in a classroom of 50 students, to regulate emotion under financial and familial pressure, remains profoundly weak. As one father put it plainly: We were raised like this, so we felt this is the only way.