HEAL-OH: Meet the Author (Episode 3)

In the third of our Meet the Author interviews, the HEAL-Oral Health Research Network spoke with Anja Heilmann, lead author of the recently published editorial Physical punishment of children: ineffective and harmful, to discuss the evidence that physical punishment is ineffective as discipline, harms children’s health and wellbeing, and should be addressed through legal and policy action.

Watch the conversation below (~16 minutes) and read the publication here.

A. Heilmann, S. Holland, R. Lacey, and E. T. Gershoff, “Physical punishment of children: ineffective and harmful,” BMJ 394 (2026): e100233, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2026-100233.