What Does ‘Supporting Parents’ Mean?—Parents’ Views

Abstract

SummaryThis paper reports on the views of a community sample of 428 parents with primary school aged children. In a previous study parents had identified that they need 'support'. This study was designed to try to understand what types of support parents already have and what support they think needs to be available to them. Most parents use informal support of family and friends and have limited awareness of what is available to them in the way of locally based services. They propose services which are already available, like Parentline, but of which they are unaware. There seems a need for universal, non-stigmatising services which design their programmes with parents and can refer on to more specialised services, e.g. Social Services or Family Centres. These services need to be located in agencies which parents frequent and are comfortable with, such as schools and health settings.

Do parents of adolescents request the same universal parental support as parents of younger children? A random sample of Swedish parents

“…Parents frequently asked for information about development, drugs, and bullying. This is in line with other research stating that parents prefer the schools and the primary care centers as arenas for parent support [25]. Parents stressed the need for discussion forums and the opportunity to share experience with other parents.…”

“…Reaching out with information to parents is regarded a great challenge. Parents have been found to have limited knowledge of what support is available to them [25]. To reach out to all parents, it is important to develop attractive and informative webpages for parents, with some information specifically addressing fathers [17], for example how to handle children’s emotional problems [22].…”

Does Engaging in a Group-Based Intervention Increase Parental Self-efficacy in Parents of Preschool Children? A Systematic Review of the Current Literature

“…This review was not restricted to parenting interventions; however, no studies evaluating the impact of non-parenting group interventions on parental self-efficacy were identified in the literature search, yet there are many non-parenting group activities aimed at parents such as baby and toddler swimming, baby massage and baby and toddler music groups. These groups share many of the characteristics of parenting interventions without the explicit focus on specific parenting skills and are perhaps less stigmatising than attending a specific parenting class (Johnson et al 2005 ). Their potential to improve parental self-efficacy is an area that warrants investigation.…”

Universal parental support-How to reach out: a cross-sectional random sample of Swedish parents

“…Other possible arenas for spreading information about the municipality-based webpage, and for offering parental support of various forms are, for example, through the existing childcare and school systems, and through the primary care system. All parents pass through these systems, there is research indicating that these are the arenas preferred by parents for parental support [ 39 ] and the professionals in these systems have adequate competencies. Advice and support is already being offered in primary child health care, so adding more parental support would fit in this context.…”