Parenting Interventions

This brief, by Frances Gardner, summarizes her team’s recent findings from two global, systematic reviews of the effectiveness of parenting interventions. There is strong evidence that behavioural parenting programmes improve caregiver-child relationships, reduce child problem behaviour, and prevent physical and emotional violence against children. To date, the majority of evaluations that show the effects of parenting programmes are from high-income countries, although there is a growing list of rigorous, randomized trials from low- and middle-income countries. Contrary to common belief, parenting interventions appear to be at least as effective, when transported to countries that are different culturally and in their service provision, from those developed for a specific national or cultural context.