This cross-sectional study examined whether adolescents' personal endorsement of corporal punishment and their peer normative environment were associated with experiencing teacher-perpetrated physical violence, using nationally representative survey data from 10,904 school-going adolescents (aged 13–17) across Eswatini, Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia, and Lesotho.
13.6% of adolescents reported teacher-perpetrated physical violence in the past year. Personal endorsement of corporal punishment was associated with twice the odds of experiencing such violence (aOR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.6–2.7); each 10-percentage-point rise in peer endorsement added a 10% increase in odds (aOR = 1.1, 95% CI: 1.0–1.2). Girls who endorsed corporal punishment within pro-corporal peer contexts faced sharply elevated risk.
- Cross-sectional design prevents causal inference — it is unclear whether attitudes precede or follow experiences of violence. - Self-reported measures of both attitude endorsement and violence exposure are subject to social desirability bias. - Peer norms were estimated using a leave-one-out proxy rather than direct peer measurement, which may not fully capture true peer climate.
Prevention programs should go beyond legal bans and teacher-focused training to include school-based norm-change interventions targeting student beliefs and peer climates. Girls in peer contexts that normalize corporal punishment may need targeted support, as their risk rises sharply in those settings.
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