April Hot Topic: Child Abuse Prevention Begins at Home

In recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, April’s Hot Topic focuses on helping parents learn positive ways to guide and discipline their children, manage stress and improve family communication. Here are some of the myriad resources available through CYFERnet—some of them in Spanish as well as English.

Discipline That Works: The Ages and Stages Approach
This fact sheet explains how to base discipline on your child's stage of development. It also explains the difference between discipline and punishment and offers tips for effective discipline. A chart explains development and offers tips on discipline for children from infancy to age 10.

Guiding Your Young Children
A self-assessment quiz that parents can complete to better understand their parenting style, e.g., permissive, unengaged, authoritarian or authoritative. It suggests ways to reduce discipline problems and improve parent-child relationships.

Spanking - What Research Says
Along with an increased risk of growing up to become a more violent adult, research shows that children who are spanked suffer from more depression and hardships later in life. From University of Minnesota Extension.

Spanking
This fact sheet from Judith Graham, University of Maine, discusses the harmful effects of spanking and the social and cultural influences that contribute to spanking.

Guidance and Discipline - A Developmental Approach
A fact sheet from Iowa State University that provides caregivers with insight into children's behavior, the goals of discipline and several effective strategies for responding to misbehavior. The author also discusses spanking, time out, and the power of adults' language on children's behavior.

Secrets of Parenting
Listen to Karen DeBord, North Carolina State University, in this podcast recording as she makes suggestions for helping parents connect and build healthy relationships with their children. It focuses on ways to cope and guide. Links to the recording and to a transcript of the podcast are provided.

Single Parenting: Help I Feel Overwhelmed!
This fact sheet from University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension suggests ways for single parents to manage stress.

Family Communication During Times of Stress
This fact sheet explains the sources of stress, its possible impacts, and ways to cope with it by communicating with family members.

Child Welfare Information Gateway (Espaňol)
Provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. Resources are available in both English and Spanish.

FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Family Resource and Support Programs
FRIENDS supports state efforts to create and foster community-based, family-centered, prevention-focused family resource and support programs, in order to strengthen families and reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect.

Parenting Skills Workshop Series (PSWS)
Originally designed for court-mandated parents, this successful workshop series from Cornell Cooperative Extension is presented in a hands-on learning format suitable for any level of literacy.

Healthy Families America: A Program that Works
This executive summary describes how the program strengthens families and reduces the risk factors that contribute to child maltreatment.

For Other Hot Topics, check here.