Spare the rod, spoil the child
Measurement and learning from an intervention to shift corporal punishment attitudes and behaviors in Grenada, West Indies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22085642 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barbara Landon (St. George's University, corresponding author), Elizabeth D Thomas (0000-0001-5728-6634, Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Lauren Orlando (St. George's University), Roberta Evans (Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Toni Murray (Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Lauren Mohammed (Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Jesma Noel (Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Rashida Isaac (Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation), Randall Waechter (0000-0002-3872-4245, St. George's University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Pages | 1127687-1127687 |
| Publication date | 2023-08-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565 |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1127687 |
| PMID | 37744480 |
| OpenAlex | W4386256923 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 40 |
Childrearing practices in the Caribbean and other postcolonial states have long been associated with corporal punishment and are influenced by expectations of children for respectfulness and obedience. Evidence across settings shows that physical punishment of young children is both ineffective and detrimental. Saving Brains Grenada (SBG) implemented a pilot study of an intervention based on the Conscious Discipline curriculum that aimed to build adult caregivers’ skills around non-violent child discipline. We hypothesized that attitudes towards corporal punishment would shift to be negative as adults learned more positive discipline methods, and that child neurodevelopment would correspondingly improve. This report reviews the impact of monitoring and evaluation on the design and implementation of the intervention. Study 1 presents findings from the pilot study. Despite positive gains in neurodevelopmental outcomes among children in the intervention compared to controls, attitudes towards corporal punishment and reported use of it did not change. Additionally, several internal conflicts in the measures used to assess corporal punishment behaviors and attitudes were identified. Study 2 is a response to learning from Study 1 and highlights the importance for monitoring and evaluation to be data-informed, adaptive, and culturally appropriate. In Study 2, the SBG research team conducted cognitive interviews and group discussions with stakeholders to assess the content and comprehensibility of the Attitudes Towards Corporal Punishment Scale (ACP). This yielded insights into the measurement of attitudes towards corporal punishment and related parenting behavior, and prompted several revisions to the ACP. To accurately evaluate the intervention’s theory of change and its goal to reduce violence against children, reliable and appropriate measures of attitudes towards corporal punishment and punishment behaviors are needed. Together, these two studies emphasize the value of continuous monitoring, evaluation, and learning in the implementation, adaptation, evaluation, and scaling of SBG and similar early childhood development interventions
Corporal punishment · Developmental psychology · Environmental health · Poison control · Psychiatry · Spanking · Suicide prevention · Child Abuse and Trauma · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology
Physical Discipline and Children's Adjustment
Corporal Punishment, Maternal Warmth, and Child Adjustment
Spanking and Child Development
Parenting interventions to promote early child development in the first three years of life
Early childhood development coming of age
The Aspirations of Measurement for Change
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Corporal Punishment in Bahamian Homes
Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children
What Do Our Respondents Think We're Asking? Using Cognitive Interviewing to Improve Medical Education Surveys
Measurement tools and indicators for assessing nurturing care for early childhood development
A Systematic Review of Corporal Punishment in Schools
History of Violence as a Public Health Problem
The relationships between harsh physical punishment and child maltreatment in childhood and intimate partner violence in adulthood
A Community-based Responsive Caregiving Program Improves Neurodevelopment in Two-year Old Children in a Middle-Income Country, Grenada, West Indies
The devil is in the detail
Factors influencing the scale-up of public health interventions in low- and middle-income countries
Identification of Child Maltreatment With the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales
Research Synthesis
Forming attitudes that predict future behavior
Parental attitudes toward child rearing
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |