Citation

Lawrenz P, Yousafzai AK, Habigzang LF. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 2021; 131: e106299.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106299

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The exposure to child maltreatment has negative consequences for children's health and development. These serious consequences demonstrate how important it is to develop and implement effective prevention strategies. The ACT Raising Safe Kids Program was developed to prevent child maltreatment and teach positive parenting skills to parents and caregivers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate initial evidence of effectiveness of the ACT Program in Porto Alegre, capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The study is based on an intervention with one-group pretest-protest design. The sample comprised 47 mothers and 5 fathers with a mean age of 38.73 years (SD = 6.81). Parenting meetings were implemented over nine weeks with groups, on average, composed of nine participants. Parenting practices, physical punishment beliefs, anger, and mental health outcomes were assessed through self-report measures before and after participation in the ACT Program. Measures included sociodemographic data, ACT Evaluation Questionnaire, Physical Punishment Beliefs Scale, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Within-group comparisons were analyzed through paired samples t-test. The results indicated that parenting practices (emotional and behavioral regulation, communication, and positive discipline), physical punishment beliefs, levels of anger (angry temperament, angry reaction, anger expression-out, and anger control-in), and mental health outcomes (depression and stress) improved significantly from pretest to posttest. The findings indicate the messages were enacted by parents. Further evaluation is required to determine the impact on parenting of the ACT Program in this context employing a randomized controlled design.

Language: en

Keywords

Brazil; Child maltreatment; Parental interventions; Rio Grande do Sul; Violence prevention