The parenting of young people: using newsletters to provide information and support

Abstract

The literature shows that many parents of young people do not have enough information, advice, and support in bringing up their children. This article describes an innovative project, undertaken by the Trust for the Study of Adolescence (TSA), which evaluated the use of newsletters as a form of support for the parents of young people. Following consultation with parents and young people, four newsletters were produced in a 'magazine' style. The newsletters were distributed to over 4000 parents across the UK. An evaluation was undertaken, involving longitudinal interviews with 40 families and over 800 telephone interviews with parents. This showed the newsletters to be an effective form of information and support for the majority of parents. However, the results also highlighted a number of issues to be considered in using newsletters as a parenting intervention, including levels of literacy, English as an additional language, social class, and reaching fathers as well as mothers. Background to the projectThere is a large literature on the parenting of adolescents (see for example Henricson and Roker, 2000;Steinberg, 2001;O'Connor, 2002). A key finding from this literature is that many parents feel they do not have enough information or support in bringing up young people (for example, Coleman, 1997;Roker and Coleman, 2001). Ten or 15 years ago, it would have been difficult to identify many sources of information or support specifically directed at parents of young people in the UK. During the last few years, however, there has been a rapid increase in support, with organisations such as ParentLine Plus, the National Family and Parenting Institute, and the Family Policy Unit all acknowledging the needs of this group. A number of innovative sources of information and support have been set up as a result. New types of support available include materials (such as books and videos), telephone helplines, and an increase in the number of group-based 'parenting teenagers' courses. Despite this renewed focus, however, the provision of information and support for parents of teenagers remains patchy, and many of the new services have not been fully evaluated. Further, many of these services are provided for those parents who are already experiencing some sort of difficulty in their parenting.The work of the authors' organisation, the Trust for the Study of Adolescence (TSA), is also a key part of the background to this project. TSA has long been involved in providing and researching different forms of support for the parents of teenagers (see www.tsa. uk.com). Previous projects have involved offering different types of support to the parents of teenagers (see for example Roker and Richardson, 2001), and evaluating novel projects (Roker and Richardson, 2002). There are two findings of note from TSA's previous work in this area. First, many parents wanted general information about adolescent development and the issues that arise during the teenage years. Topics that came up frequently included drugs and sexuality, friends an...

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