Are parenting programmes enough to prevent violence?

This policy brief presents findings from an assessment of changes to parenting and child behaviour in a rural community in South Africa, carried out during the implementation of four positive parenting interventions and a social mobilisation process. Promising observations included reductions in parenting stress and improvements in children’s mental health. But parents’ poor mental health, substance misuse and intimate partner violence undermined these trends. This highlights the need for multifaceted interventions to address the risk factors for violence.

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