Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence?

The study found that while parenting programmes can reduce parenting stress and improve children's mental health, their overall effectiveness is undermined by systemic issues such as intimate partner violence, substance misuse, and poor adult mental health. The intervention showed a trend toward reduced spanking and increased positive parenting among Afrikaans-speaking caregivers, but failed to achieve a community-wide shift due to linguistic barriers and severe socio-economic stressors.

• The intervention achieved a community-wide reduction in parenting stress and improvements in children's mental health, with internalising and externalising behaviours decreasing by 2% and 3% respectively. However, a community-wide shift toward positive parenting was not achieved.
• Parenting programmes were effective in increasing parental involvement and reducing the use of spanking, although shouting and beating children with objects did not decrease.
• The effectiveness of parenting interventions is significantly undermined by interconnected stressors, specifically intimate partner violence, substance misuse, and poor mental health. Intimate partner violence was associated with a 12% decrease in positive parenting.
• The intervention faced significant linguistic and social barriers; isiXhosa-speaking caregivers did not participate in the programmes because suitable facilitators could not be identified during the research period.
• Parenting programmes influenced the behaviour of non-participants through social networks. Caregivers who attended sessions showed greater activity and influence, seeking and receiving social support and sharing knowledge with others.
• Among Afrikaans-speaking women, community-wide improvements in positive parenting were observed between waves three and four, driven by engagement in the social activation process and indirect exposure to the programmes, though these changes did not persist to wave five.

APA

Gould, C., Ward, C., Dippenaar, W., Lake, M., Mufamadi, D., Kleyn, L., & Parker, W. (2022). Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PB-171.pdf

Chicago

Gould, Chandré, Catherine Ward, Wilmi Dippenaar, Marilyn Lake, Diketso Mufamadi, Lisa Kleyn, and Warren Parker. Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence? Institute for Security Studies, 2022. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PB-171.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gould |first1=Chandré |last2=Ward |first2=Catherine |last3=Dippenaar |first3=Wilmi |last4=Lake |first4=Marilyn |last5=Mufamadi |first5=Diketso |last6=Kleyn |first6=Lisa |last7=Parker |first7=Warren |title=Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence? |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=2022 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PB-171.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gould2022are, author = {Gould, Chandré and Ward, Catherine and Dippenaar, Wilmi and Lake, Marilyn and Mufamadi, Diketso and Kleyn, Lisa and Parker, Warren}, title = {{Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2022}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PB-171.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }