Theoretical Assumptions of the Nurturing Parenting Programs

• The family is a system. Involvement of all members is essential to change the system. Parents and children in the Nurturing Parenting Programs participate together in group- or home-based interventions.

• Empathy is the single most desirable quality in nurturing parenting. Empathy is the ability to be aware of the needs of others and to value those needs. When empathy is high among family members, abuse is low—the two are essentially incompatible. The Nurturing Parenting Programs seek to develop empathy in all family members.

• Parenting exists on a continuum. To some degree, all families experience healthy and unhealthy interactions. Building positive, healthy interactions between family members is an important key to reducing family violence.

• Learning is both cognitive and affective. To be effective, education or intervention must engage the learner on both the cognitive (knowledge) level and the affective (feeling) level.

• Children who feel good about themselves are more likely to become nurturing parents. Children who feel good about themselves are more capable than children with low self-worth of being nurturing sons and daughters and of becoming nurturing parents. A major goal of the Nurturing Parenting Programs is to help both parents and children increase their self-esteem and develop positive self-concepts.

• No one truly prefers abusive interactions. Given a choice, all families would rather engage in happy, healthy interactions than abusive, problematic ones such as belittling, hitting, and shaming.