This article focuses on ‘the turn to parenting’ in the Netherlands and embeds it in a major reform called ‘transition and transformation’. While support for parenting by way of public healthcare and denominational family care and advice has a long tradition in the Netherlands, the field gained new importance in the 1990s under the influence of medical and psychological ‘scientification’ and the introduction of evidence-based methods. Current reforms are modulated with a critique of specialised forms of parent support and (re-)introduce a community- and family-based approach in which professionals are charged with helping families to help themselves and with guiding and supervising volunteers who actually do the job of parenting support.

The family environment and parental guidance are generally considered to be key drivers of children's health behaviours. Parents, mostly mothers, have become a focal point of policies aimed at preventing children's health and well-being problems (e.g. childhood obesity). The underlying intensive parenting ideology places significant pressure on parents (notably mothers), requiring them to spend a great deal of time, energy and money on their children's health and well-being. Yet, the relationship between intensive parenting and children's health might be paradoxical. While a clear positive relationship exists between parental childrearing styles and children's physical health, the limited evidence in relation to psychological health suggests intensive parenting may negatively affect children's wellbeing. Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) we provide key insights into the relationship between parenting styles and children's physical and psychological well-being. We analytically distinguish three types of parenting styles (intensive parenting, neglectful parenting, and 'intermediate' parenting), and compare children's self-reported health, well-being and self-esteem by parenting style. The findings show that parenting styles may differentially affect children's physical and psychological health in nuanced ways. Public health and social policy implications of the role of parenting in children's health and wellbeing are discussed. The conceptualisation of parenting styles and the relationship with children's health, however, requires further exploration, which we discuss in the conclusion.

Youth policy is more than a mere response to the actual behavior of children, but it is equally influenced by values and beliefs of policy makers. These values are however rarely made explicit and, therefore, the authors refer to them as "the hidden curriculum" of youth policy. The study investigation explicates this hidden curriculum by empirically analyzing policy reports and interviews with policy makers. The study design is based on an existing theory on the content and structure of values. The results show that Dutch youth policy is most dominantly guided by security values. The results also show that there are differences between the social groups the policy measures target. Policy measures regarding "normal" families are becoming increasingly empowering, for example, by putting an emphasis on the competencies of parents. For families at risk, however, the focus is on control over these families by both professionals and citizens.

Abstract:The Dutch child protection system has been the target of harsh criticism in recent decades. The legitimacy of child protection services seems to have eroded. In this article, we analyze this changing legitimacy of child protection against the background of declining parental authority and in relation to the disappearance of positive pedagogical ideologies and the mainly bureaucratic response of child protection agencies. Two recent inquiries in the Netherlands on child sexual abuse within child protection-related services have emphasized the position of children as vulnerable victims of negative pedagogical practices, mirroring a general trend of "victimization". It is concluded that reinforcement of the professional role of child protection workers may be a start towards building new trust in child protection and establishing a newfound legitimacy.