Preventing punitive violence: Preliminary data on the positive discipline in everyday parenting (PDEP) program

Abstract

Most physical violence against children is punitive in intent. The United Nations has called for the elimination of physical punishment of children and for the development of programs teaching nonviolent resolution of parent-child conflict. A focused effort is required to shift entrenched, intergenerationally transmitted, and culturally normalized belief systems about physical punishment. Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) was developed to meet this need. Its short-term objectives are to: 1) reduce approval of physical punishment; 2) normalize parent-child conflict; and 3) strengthen parenting self-efficacy. PDEP was delivered by trained program facilitators to 321 parents living in 14 cities in Canada. Responses to pre and posttest questionnaires suggest that parents who completed postprogram measures were less likely to both approve of physical punishment and view typical parent-child conflict as misbehaviour on the part of the child, and also to have greater parenting self-efficacy. More than 90% believed more strongly that parents should not use physical punishment, and that PDEP would help them control their anger and build stronger relationships with their children. PDEP is a promising approach to the prevention of punitive violence against children.