Transforming parents' beliefs about physical punishment through 'positive discipline in everyday parenting.' What is 'positive discipline in everyday parenting'?

Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) was created as a response to the United Nations Secretary General’s Global Study of Violence against Children, which revealed the high prevalence of punitive violence in... [ view full abstract ]

Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) was created as a response to the United Nations Secretary General’s Global Study of Violence against Children, which revealed the high prevalence of punitive violence in children’s everyday lives. Long considered to be an acceptable and even necessary part of childrearing all over the world, physical punishment is rapidly becoming redefined as violence and a violation of children’s fundamental human rights. An ever-growing body of research consistently demonstrates that punitive violence places children’s healthy development at-risk. Save the Children (SC), an international non-governmental organization, has made the elimination of punitive violence a key target of its global child protection program. PDEP developed out of a collaboration between SC and a developmental psychologist, with the goal of transforming parents’ views of their role from control, coercion and punishment to teaching, guidance and mentorship. PDEP is unique among parenting programs in two ways. First, it explicitly promotes children’s rights to protection from physical and humiliating punishment, to dignity, and to participation in their learning. Second, it was designed to be relevant across cultures, both through its focus on universal developmental themes and through delivery adaptations for a range of cultural and social contexts. Neither permissive nor punitive, PDEP aims to help parents understand children’s perspectives and encourages them to resolve conflict collaboratively. It is expected that, over the course of the program, parents will come to view their children as full human beings with valid perspectives, will reject punitive violence, and will adopt approaches to conflict that respect children and promote healthy relationships. This paper will describe how PDEP: 1) was created; 2) implements child rights standards; 3) respects cultural diversity; 4) is delivered; and 4) is being evaluated.