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Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether primary health care settings can be used to engage and provide a preventive intervention to mothers of young children. Methods: Two hundred and twenty-four mothers who had come to the health centers were randomly assigned to either control group (CG: n=116) or intervention group (IG: n = 108). Mothers in IG were taught about the role of parenting skills in families and common mistakes in parenting in 2-h-weekly sessions for 2 successive weeks. A parenting questionnaire was distributed to mothers at pre-test and after 8 weeks from the last training session. Results: Compared to the CG, there were significant improvements from pre- to post-test in IG on measures of Parenting Scales (PS) total scores and Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale-modified (CTSPCm) total scores. This improvement was maintained at 8-week follow up. Conclusion: The results support previous international studies that primary health care settings can be used successfully to engage and provide preventive interventions to mothers of young children. Practice implications: Within health centers of Iran where parents routinely bring their children for monitoring of growth or vaccinating against some disease, mothers with a child aged between 2 and 6 years received a parent training. The program gave skills for managing misbehavior and preventing child behavior problems. Mothers reported that their behaviors improved from pre-treatment to post-treatment measured at 8-week follow up. The current work may lead decision-makers to organize this program for all of the health centers to train Iranian mothers. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

The aim of this study was to assess mothers' attitudes toward Corporal Punishment (CP) of children in Iran. A qualitative study was carried out using focus group discussions. Five sessions were held among 42 participants (30 mothers and 12 caregivers). Results indicated that 80% of participants used CP to bring up their children; 70% did not know the meaning, predisposing factors, and manifestations of child abuse, and more than 50% did not know the complications resulting from CP and the ways of preventing. Their attitude toward CP was that the use of CP was sometimes necessary to bring up their children while their information about predisposing factors and complications of child abuse might be minimal. The findings have been used in providing an educational package with the topics of parenting skills in order to decrease child abuse that has been resulted by parents. Keywords Corporal punishment * Child abuse * Mothers' attitudes * Caregivers * Iran, Corporal Punishment (CP) of children is a frequent parenting practice in several cultures, of though its level of acceptance varies widely (Gagne et al. 2007). A conceptual definition of corporal [...]