Effective parenting can stem violence – VPA

Parents and caregivers play an important role in a child’s development and can help prevent the perpetration of violence in schools, said Colleen Wint-Bond, project coordinator at the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA).

Wint-Bond, who was addressing the Jamaica Island Nutrition Network Conference on Nutrition and Parenting at the Mico University College recently, said data show that children experience violence across all ages of childhood, noting that it is usually first experienced in the home.

“The research has shown that parent involvement is critical to children’s school success.This success depends on a healthy, developed brain, and this requires a good, nurturing relationship with a primary caregiver,” she said.

The VPA project coordinator, however, pointed out that many parents face institutional and personal challenges themselves and this can contribute to a child experiencing and/or perpetrating violence in school.

“How parents were raised can affect how they raise their own children, and how children deal with conflict and violence in school,” she said.

Parents can look to their own upbringing, she continued, and consider their experience and/or exposure to nurturance; and levels of experience of/exposure to abuse and violence; level of education and literacy. Other factors to consider can include their communication, expression, their language of negotiation and conflict-resolution skills, the age they were when they had their first child; the amount of family and social support; and certainly their levels of stress, anger and fear.

Wint-Bond said parenting styles can affect everything, from how much a child weighs to how he or she feels about herself. Their style can vary depending on the level of warmth and control they use in raising their children.

She added that parenting style should support healthy growth and development, because the way a parent interacts with their child and how they discipline him or her can influence the rest of that child’s life.

“All styles of parenting are developed and learned through experience, and so more effective parenting and positive styles can be taught and learned. Many parents are unaware that they can learn and/or refine their parenting style,” she advised.