Christine A. Ateah 1,* , Laila Khondkar 2, Firozul Milon 3 and Rasheda Rabbani 4
Abstract: Physical and other types of punishment remain common in Bangladesh, despite overwhelming evidence of their harm and worldwide efforts to decrease their use. One of the strategic priorities of Save the Children in Bangladesh’s Child Protection Program is to protect children from
physical and humiliating punishment in homes, schools, and other settings. Save the Children in Bangladesh selected the Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) Program to provide parents with alternatives to physical punishment that comply with human rights standards while
strengthening relationships and understanding of child development. High-risk communities where children are particularly vulnerable were selected for this project. The PDEP program was delivered to 857 parents living in lower socioeconomic areas of Bangladesh, including ethnic minority groups,
and parents living in urban slums of Dhaka and rural brothel areas. Due to the low levels of education of the participants (almost two-thirds of participants had not completed elementary school), simplified pre and posttests were utilized. Following program completion, parents’ approval of
both physical punishment and punishment in general declined; they were less likely to view typical parent-child conflicts as intentional misbehavior and were less reactive to frustration. In addition, parents indicated an increased understanding of the positive discipline and more confidence in their
parenting skills. Before taking PDEP, 64% of the parents often felt like they just did not know what to do as a parent, compared to 34% following program completion. PDEP demonstrated the potential to decrease the use of physical and humiliating punishments by parents living in high-risk communities in Bangladesh.
Keywords: physical punishment, emotional punishment, corporal punishment, parenting, violence, Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting, prevention of child abuse, child maltreatment
1 College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
2 Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
3 Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh
4 George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0T6, Canada
- Correspondence: christine.ateah@umanitoba.ca
