Harsh Parenting and Violence Against Children: A Trial with Ultrapoor Families in Francophone West Africa

Few culturally congruent interventions are available to reduce abusive practices in families living in abject poverty in francophone West Africa. This study tests the effects of economic intervention—alone and in combination with a family-focused component—on parenting outcomes and children’s reports of violence in rural Burkina Faso. Female caregivers and their 10- to 15-year-old children from 360 ultrapoor families were recruited to participate in a parallel cluster randomized control trial with 3 study arms: the waitlist (control) group, the economic intervention group (Trickle Up [TU]), and the economic intervention plus family coaching group (TU+). Effects were tested using repeated-measures mixed-effects regressions. At 12 months from baseline, caregivers from the TU+ group reported a reduced use of harsh discipline compared to the control group (Cohen’s d = –0.57, p = .001) and the TU group (d = –0.48, p = .001). Changes were maintained at 24 months. TU+ caregivers also expressed more supportive pa...