Effects of Parenting Programs on Child Maltreatment Prevention

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of parenting programs in reducing child maltreatment and modifying associated factors as well as to examine the moderator variables that are linked to program effects. For this meta-analysis, we searched nine electronic databases to identify randomized controlled trials published before September 2013. The effect sizes of various outcomes at different time points were computed. From the 3,578 studies identified, we selected 37 studies for further analysis. The total random effect size was 0.296. Our results showed that parenting programs successfully reduced substantiated and self-reported child maltreatment reports and reduced the potential for child maltreatment. The programs also reduced risk factors and enhanced protective factors associated with child maltreatment. However, the effects of the parenting programs on reducing parental depression and stress were limited. Parenting programs produced positive effects in low-, middle-, and high-income countries and were effective in reducing child maltreatment when applied as primary, secondary, or tertiary child maltreatment intervention. In conclusion, parenting programs are effective public health approaches to reduce child maltreatment. The evidence-based service of parenting programs could be widely adopted in future practice.

Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development

“…(25) A meta-analysis of education programmes was conducted to determine non-cognitive developmental benefits of parenting and early childhood education programmes, as this information was not available in existing systematic reviews. The maltreatment review updated the Lancet 2009 series article on prevention of child maltreatment (26) and a systematic review of child maltreatment prevention reviews, (27) by reviewing recent reviews of maltreatment prevention interventions (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)., including home visiting, (28)(29)(30), parenting-training programmes, (31,32) sexual abuse prevention programmes, (33,34) universal campaigns to prevent physical abuse, (35) behavioural and counseling interventions,(36) detection of child maltreatment, (37) and three review studies on prevention of child maltreatment. (38)(39)(40) The social protection review examined five systematic reviews that focused on the effects of social programmes, including conditional and unconditional cash transfers and microcredit schemes.…”

A parenting programme to prevent abuse of adolescents in South Africa: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…To account for attrition of up to 20 % within each cluster, the target sample size was set at 600 families (40 clusters with 15 families per cluster). Our estimate of expected effect size was based on the effect sizes for maltreatment and parenting outcomes in a recent review of parenting programmes for child maltreatment prevention [49]. This showed an average programme effect of 0.2, but the present study was limited by financial constraints, so will need to reach an effect of 0.36 to find significance.…”

Community-level moderators of a school-based childhood sexual assault prevention program

“…Parental investment also may be associated with children’s knowledge of personal safety skills. A recent meta-analysis of parenting programs designed to reduce maltreatment found stronger effects for programs conducted in low and middle income countries ( d = .67) than for those conducted in high income countries ( d = .20) (Chen & Chan, 2016). Another study, however, found poor knowledge retention when a CSA intervention was delivered to children in a low-income urban environment (Daigneault et al, 2012).…”