Promising intervention strategies to reduce parents’ use of spanking and physical punishment

Abstract

The strong and ever-growing evidence base demonstrating that physical punishment places children at risk for a range of negative outcomes, coupled with global recognition of chil-dren’s inherent rights to protection and dignity, has led to the emergence of programs specifically designed to prevent physical punishment by parents. This paper describes promising programs and strategies designed for each of three levels of intervention − indi-cated, selective, and universal − and summarizes the existing evidence base of each. Areas for further program development and evaluation are identified.