Published November 2019

Parenting programmes are interventions or services aimed at improving interactions between parents and their children, as well as knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices that affect parent-child relationships and children’s development.

This review looks at parent and caregiver support programmes that seek to prevent both IPV and VAC. However, it finds that despite growing attention to the potential to address family violence through parenting interventions, few programmes intentionally seek to reduce VAC, and even fewer attempt to prevent IPV.

This review then summarises the current evidence of the impacts of parenting programmes on VAC and IPV. Almost all the rigorous evaluations included in our review found significant reductions in VAC, including decreased use of physical punishment and, in some cases, reductions in the use of emotional violence. A few found reductions in IPV, and others had more mixed results.

The review then offers insights into promising approaches and components of parenting programmes including on curriculum content for learning parenting and relationship skills, as well as programme approaches, delivery methods and format. It then identifies gaps in the existing evidence and provides emerging guidance and recommendations on programming and for future research. (Authors' summary). Record #7044