Culturally Sensitive Parenting Counseling, Corporal Punishment, and Early Childhood Development in Grenada

Many children under 5 years of age in developing countries and regions, including the Caribbean, will not fulfill their developmental potential due to being exposed to risks such as poverty, poor health, violence, and unstimulating home environments. Adverse childhood experiences, which include corporal punishment, may increase children’s risk for poor adult health and disease outcomes. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, quantitative study, grounded in the social ecological model, was to examine the use of corporal punishment and the impact of parental exposure to culturally sensitive parenting counseling (CSPC) provided to families with children aged 0 to 3 years old enrolled in the Roving Caregiver Programme (RCP) in Grenada. This study’s secondary data were from the Saving Brains Grenada (SBG) (2015-2016) data set which included pre- and post-test data from the 596 parents enrolled in the RCP. Data were analyzed using chi-square and binomial regression. The results of the study indicated no statistically significant associations between parental educational attainment, parental marital status, and parental monthly income and the use of corporal punishment in the home environment, which contradicted the existing literature. However, the results indicated statistically significant associations between parental age (p = 0.007) and parental enrollment in CSPC (p = 0.000) with the use of corporal punishment. This study showcased that short-term CSPC made an impact in reducing the use of corporal punishment in the SBG intervention group. Implications for positive social change include promotion of CSPC at multiple levels of society as a healthier and safer method of child-rearing at a sustainable level within the West Indian family context in Grenada