Abstract
Corporal Punishment (CP) is a common practice in Pakistani schools; every year, around 35000 students drop out of high school because of CP (Society for Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), 2010). The current study aimed to explore the accounts of victims of CP. The basic aim of this study was to explore the experiences of victims who had gone through CP during school days and to explore their coping and management. The study was divided into three main parts: Short-term impact of CP, Coping strategies adopted by the victims, and Long-lasting impacts of CP. Convenient sampling was used to approach fifty university students of which seven were screened using the CP screening tool (Hecker, Hermenau, Isele & Elbert, 2014). The participants were then interviewed using the semi-structured interview technique. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to qualitatively analyze the data. The findings of the analysis revealed that the initial impact of CP included: Decline in creative ability, Lower self-confidence, Fear of teachers and schools, and Anxiety/stress. The most often used coping strategy techniques included: Family support and encouragement, Motivation from other teachers, and Self-motivation. The long-term impact included: Low self-esteem/self-image, Change in attitude toward teachers and educational system, and Fearful/aggressive feelings. The findings of the study have implications for teacher training to ensure no use of CP in the classroom, which will lead to a better educational system and successful individuals.