Children 'say it's OK for man to punch his cheating partner'

And 80 per cent of the 11- and 12-year-olds questioned thought a man would be justified in reacting towards his partner in a violent way if the dinner was not ready on time.

The study, by an Edinburgh Napier University researcher, involved 89 pupils at five primary schools in Glasgow.

Three scenarios were put to the pupils, who were split into groups of four or five for the research.

In one of the scenarios, the youngsters were asked to consider whether or not a man was justified in punching his partner in the face when he found out she had been having an affair and said she was leaving him.

Nearly all of the children – 70 out of the 89 – thought the woman deserved to be hit.

Researcher Nancy Lombard said: "Initially, when we started discussing it, the youngsters said all violence was wrong.

"However, on further discussion, they found justification for the violence if the woman had done something 'wrong'."

She added: "Young people justified violence by using gender stereotypes."

In discussions on another scenario, Ms Lombard said it was "mostly girls" who had suggested a woman should change her top, cover it with another top or wear it at another time if her partner did not like it and said it attracted attention from other men.

She said the girls in the study also said that they anticipated some violence in the playground from boys and saw it as "normalised behaviour".

She went on: "The old saying of 'if he pulls your pigtails, it means he likes you', translates into violence in adulthood, which girls accept as normal.

"I think the study shows that any kind of prevention work and teaching needs to start from nursery – ages three, four and five."