Effects of a positive discipline program on parenting outcomes

Le résumé fourni par la source

BACKGROUND: Parental use of punishment remains a significant concern considering its prevalence and negative impacts on children's well-being. Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) is a group-based program aimed at helping parents shift away from the use of punitive parenting practices toward positive discipline. OBJECTIVE: This quasi-experimental PDEP evaluation examined self-reported parenting practices in a Canadian sample of 183 parents of children aged 2-6 years. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: There were 101 parents in the experimental condition, and 82 parents in the wait-list comparison group. METHODS: Data were collected as part of a larger Canadian project spanning five data collection cycles (2018-2019 until 2023-2024) and gathered information on PDEP outcomes through a variety of methods. RESULTS: Compared with the wait-list group, parents who completed PDEP reported a statistically significant decrease in physical punishment use (e.g., spanking) and emotional punishment (e.g., making child sit alone in corner or another room; taking away an activity), and an increase in proactive parenting (e.g., preparing child for an activity; explaining the reason for a request) from pre- to post-program and from pre-program to 1-month follow-up. The findings represented small (emotional punishment) and large (physical punishment, proactive parenting) effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS: This first experimental evaluation of PDEP, which is fundamentally different from behavior management interventions, indicates that the program was effective in reducing parental use of punishment-based practices and increasing proactive parenting. Additional research is warranted that uses a fully randomized design and that examines parenting effects in ways that complement self-report measures.

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