Community-wide change towards positive parenting

This report evaluates a multi-year intervention in Touwsranten, South Africa, combining four evidence-based parenting programmes with a social activation process. The study found that while the intervention significantly reduced children's internalising and externalising behaviours and decreased parenting stress, its overall impact was undermined by systemic issues such as intimate partner violence, poor mental health, and substance abuse among caregivers.

• The combined delivery of four evidence-based parenting programmes and a social activation process in Touwsranten led to a reduction in corporal punishment, a slight improvement in parental mental health, and a decrease in children's internalising and externalising behaviours.
• Caregivers who participated in the parenting programmes experienced an increase in their social influence, becoming more central in their networks and engaging more frequently in parenting discussions with other caregivers.
• Longitudinal data indicates that the effectiveness of parenting programmes on children is negatively impacted by risky alcohol use, poor parental mental health, and intimate partner violence.
• The intervention resulted in a statistically significant 5% decrease in parenting stress, although this was found to be negatively influenced by parental mental health, substance misuse, and intimate partner violence.
• Parenting programmes can influence the behaviour of caregivers who do not attend the sessions through the spread of social influence and increased discussions about parenting within social networks.
• Community members in Touwsranten struggled to identify positive aspects of their community, finding it easier to discuss negative issues such as unemployment, substance abuse, and interpersonal violence.
• The intervention's reach was limited by language barriers; initially, programmes only reached Afrikaans-speaking parents because isiXhosa-speaking facilitators were unavailable, leading to feelings of marginalisation and exclusion among the isiXhosa-speaking community.
• The report concludes that for parenting programmes to achieve an optimal return on investment, they must be integrated with interventions that address substance misuse, mental health, and intimate partner violence, as well as government efforts to address poverty and unemployment.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Community-wide change towards positive parenting. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SAR-50.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Community-wide change towards positive parenting. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SAR-50.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Community-wide change towards positive parenting |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SAR-50.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndcommunitywide, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Community-wide change towards positive parenting}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SAR-50.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }