Durrant – universal program

The program was originally conceptualized as universal information that every parent can benefit from.  And — and we recognize that every parent needs support even parents with PhDs in child development need support, information, new ideas, new perspectives. You get tired, you get stressed, you get caught up in the moment no matter who you are.  And so what we wanted to do was help parents to think it through, to be prepared, to practice, to plan, to recognize their stress triggers and so on and we see that as a universal need.  

And so it was conceptualized as a universal program, meaning that it is appropriate for all parents, and that it’s it is never going to be used — I hope — as a targeted program. We — we have not thought in terms of risk. In — in my own personal view, while I recognize that there are certain situations in parent’s; lives that make them more vulnerable to perpetrating violence for example against their children, just because there may be some statistical relationships between certain factors and parent’s; behavior, those factors actually explain very little of the variance they explain very little of violence and we know from just prevalent studies on physical punishment that it’s universal, and it doesn’t really matter what your socioeconomic status is, what your marital status is, what your gender is, what your educational level is. Most parents have struck their children, so the — it – it’s it has never really made complete sense to me to only provide parent support to parents that we define as at risk, because we’re all at risk — everyone of is at risk.  And so I really wanted to provide something for all parents, whether they are low-income or high-income, whether they’re living in Japan or Mongolia, or Latin America or Canada, Whether they’re — they have five children or one child, and no matter what their educational levels are. This is meant for everyone.