{"id":9688,"date":"2019-07-27T08:53:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T07:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/?p=9688"},"modified":"2024-05-11T22:33:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T21:33:30","slug":"corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Short, low-cost online parenting skills program may cut corporal punishment of children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Many parents say they plan to stop corporal punishment of their children after a parenting skills program.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Given the known benefits of developing healthy parenting skills, a big challenge is to help moms and dads improve their approaches, particularly shifting away from corporal punishment of children.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where our breakthrough comes in. We\u2019ve designed a free, low cost parenting skills program \u2014 taking just a few minutes \u2013 that\u2019s proven to shift parents\u2019 attitudes away from corporal punishment.<\/p>\n<p>This program, designed for parenting of children aged between six months and seven years, not only changes views on corporal punishment. It\u2019s also a gateway to learn more generally about healthy parenting skills.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title ez-toc-toggle\" style=\"cursor:pointer\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/#A_cost-effective_way_to_reduce_corporal_punishment_of_children\" >A cost-effective way to reduce corporal punishment of children<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/#Tackling_corporal_punishment_of_children_without_stigmatising_parents\" >Tackling corporal punishment of children without stigmatising parents<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/#Offering_options_that_are_better_than_corporal_punishment_of_children\" >Offering options that are better than corporal punishment of children<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/#Need_to_ensure_that_parents_act_on_intention_to_stop_corporal_punishment_of_their_children\" >Need to ensure that parents act on intention to stop corporal punishment of their children<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/corporal-punishment-children-parenting-skills\/#Screening_parents_could_reduce_costs\" >Screening parents could reduce costs<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_cost-effective_way_to_reduce_corporal_punishment_of_children\"><\/span>A cost-effective way to reduce corporal punishment of children<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Such a parenting skills program, successfully applied across large numbers of parents, could be a major contribution to public health and to children\u2019s long-term well-being at a manageable cost across large populations. This could be an important advance since other programs that aim to reduce corporal punishment of children have involved many sessions, which can make the cost prohibitive for mass programming.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cThis parenting skills program not only changes views on corporal punishment. It\u2019s also a gateway to learning more generally about healthy parenting.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is clearly a big opportunity if a good &#8211; \u2018low dose\u2019, highly effective &#8211; intervention can be perfected. Our intervention is an initial step, demonstrating that it\u2019s possible to change parents\u2019 attitudes around discipline with a brief, low-cost, \u2018small dose\u2019 parenting skills intervention.\u00a0 That\u2019s encouraging because other research shows that when parents alter their attitudes to corporal punishment of children, parental behavior also changes.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Tackling_corporal_punishment_of_children_without_stigmatising_parents\"><\/span>Tackling corporal punishment of children without stigmatising parents<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Our intervention, developed and tested at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, is rooted in a multimedia programme on the website Playnicely.org. It avoids labelling parents as bad moms or dads or as abusive to their children. That approach could alienate \u2014 and create a conflict with \u2014 the parents we most need to influence.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the <a href=\"http:\/\/playnicely.vueinnovations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multimedia parenting skills program<\/a> adopts a strengths-based approach, offering parents lots of options for disciplining their children in ways that avoid corporal punishment. A key question the program asks is: \u2018What do you do if your child hits another?\u2019 I love this question because early childhood aggression is a strong predictor of later violence, so we\u2019re getting to the heart of a huge public health problem.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Offering_options_that_are_better_than_corporal_punishment_of_children\"><\/span>Offering options that are better than corporal punishment of children<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We know that parents are less likely to hit their children if they\u2019re given better options. In the parenting skills program, we run with this idea by giving parents 20 disciplinary options. Some are great, others are not. Clicking on an option is followed with a notice about whether the option is or isn\u2019t recommended and approximately one minute of educational content. One option, for example, involves corporal punishment: it\u2019s not recommended, as you might have guessed.<\/p>\n<p>This parenting skills program not only changes views on corporal punishment. It\u2019s also a gateway to learning more generally about healthy parenting. The options can be tweaked to respond to other challenging behaviors such as oppositional defiant disorder, where children don\u2019t listen well to parents or constantly defy what their parents say.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve found that among parents who clicked at least four of the 20 options, 83 percent said they planned to alter their disciplinary approaches. In comparison, just 7 per cent of who didn\u2019t receive the intervention planned to change their disciplining in any way. In the intervention group, 9 percent spontaneously said they would decrease corporal punishment, compared with none in the control group.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cAn important next step for this parenting skills program will be establishing how large a \u2018dose\u2019 is needed to prompt not only a <em>desire <\/em>to alter behavior, but actual <em>changes <\/em>in behavior.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A feature of the parenting skills program is that paediatricians and other healthcare providers can introduce all parents to it as a quick way to learn a few things about discipline in ways that avoids corporal punishment. Using this approach, parents are not screened or stigmatised.\u00a0 They can also try the program at home, scrolling through the options. Alternatively, they can review a printed handbook in the clinic or check out a copy from our family resource centre. We\u2019re currently testing whether the printed or online versions are more effective and whether viewing the content at home works as well as research has found it to work in our clinical setting. So far, we seem to get the best results with clinic viewing.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Need_to_ensure_that_parents_act_on_intention_to_stop_corporal_punishment_of_their_children\"><\/span>Need to ensure that parents act on intention to stop corporal punishment of their children<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Considerable hurdles remain to perfecting interventions that tackle corporal punishment. An important next step for this parenting skills program will be establishing how large a \u2018dose\u2019 is needed to prompt not only a desire to alter behavior, but actual changes in behavior over time.<\/p>\n<p>There is also the question of how to make such information widely available to parents. In the US, paediatricians are trained to address child behavior issues and educate parents about topics such as discipline and punishment. So their clinics are, in principle, suitable locations for such interventions. However, appointments typically last only 15-20 minutes, and that time is normally taken up by clinical issues.<\/p>\n<p>Parents might be concerned about their child\u2019s cough, abdominal pain or a sore throat. There\u2019s screening for conditions such as tuberculosis, vision or hearing problems, autism and developmental concerns. We must ensure that immunisations are up to date. So it can be an extraordinary challenge to fit in another service around healthy parenting, available to everyone, that insurers may be reluctant to fund.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Screening_parents_could_reduce_costs\"><\/span>Screening parents could reduce costs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A solution to addressing cost and time might involve some initial screening for parents to identify those most in need of help. Lots of parents are currently using healthy disciplining and don\u2019t need input. Screening would reduce the number of parents to be reached. We\u2019ve tested 1,500 parents using a screener and this approach shows promise. However, great care would have to be taken not to stigmatise those who were identified as being in need of help. It would be far better if we could work out a sustainable way to reach all parents with influential messages about healthy parenting, so that corporal punishment is challenged and reduced.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9694\" src=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scholer-diagram-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"A comparison of an old and new approach to Adverse Childhood Experiences. The old approach involved no Adverse Childhood Experiences screening and no intervention until problems arise. The new approach involves periodic screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences, including unhealthy parenting behaviors. \n\nThe chart shows that there were more health problems linked to Adverse Childhood Experiences with the old approach from early childhood to adulthood. The new approach had a significant decreased disease burden. \n\" width=\"1259\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scholer-diagram-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scholer-diagram-356x200.jpg 356w, https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scholer-diagram-50x28.jpg 50w, https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scholer-diagram.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1259px) 100vw, 1259px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"retrofit-references\">\n<h4>References<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 1.8em;\"><em>\u00a0Scholer SJ, Hudnut-Beumler, J, Dietrich MS (2010), <a href=\"https:\/\/pediatrics.aappublications.org\/content\/125\/2\/e242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A brief primary care intervention affects parents\u2019 plans to discipline<\/a>, Pediatrics, 125.2<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 1.8em;\"><em>\u00a0Chavis A, Hudnut-Beumler J, Webb MW, Neely JA, Bickman L, Dietrich MS, Scholer SJ (2013), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0145213413001683\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A brief intervention affects parents\u2019 attitudes toward using less physical punishment<\/a>, Child Abuse &amp; Neglect, 37.12<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 1.8em;\"><em>\u00a0Hudnut-Beumler J, Smith A, Scholer SJ (2017), <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/0009922817693298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to convince parents to stop spanking their children<\/a>, Clinical Pediatrics, 57.2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many parents say they plan to stop corporal punishment of their children after a parenting skills program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":9698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5765,5764],"tags":[7,605,306,267],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9688"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21087,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688\/revisions\/21087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}