Parenting Support

Families will require support when faced with problems they are unable to overcome on their own. Ideally support should come from existing networks, such as extended family, religious leaders, and neighbours. Where such support is not available or sufficient, additional family and community services are required. Such services are particularly important for kinship, foster and adoptive caretakers, and child headed households in order to prevent separation and address abuse and exploitation of children. It is also vital for children affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, and those children living on the street.

Parenting support services are typically provided by social and community paraprofessionals. They focus on the individual needs of a child or family, in order to address and overcome issues which may lead to family separation or harm to the child. Such services should be provided within the context of case planning, beginning with an assessment of the child and family situation. By assessing the need first, an appropriate set of services can be offered, such as day care provision, parenting support, household economic strengthening, or psychosocial referral.

Day care services are particularly important for caretakers who are overwhelmed as a result of ill health, cannot provide adaquate care because they need to work, or who are isolated within the community. It provides an excellent opportunity for children to socialise with others, and can offer additional protection and education.

Parenting support provides caretakers with an opportunity to talk about their difficulties, and learn additional techniques for meeting their child’s developmental and relationship needs. It can enable caretakers to cope with behavioural problems, and address abusive parenting techniques, thereby reducing the need for family separation and improving the incidence of successful family reunification.

The literature in this section contains information on family support programmes for vulnerable children, including day care and parenting support.

Displaying 171 - 180 of 931

Browse Other Topics

Behavioral Change Promotion, Cash Transfers and Early Childhood Development : Experimental Evidence from a Government Program in a Low-Income Setting

Patrick Premand & Oumar Barry - The World Bank, 2020

This paper disentangles the effects of behavioral change promotion from cash transfers to poor households through an experiment embedded in a government program in Niger.

Three Trimesters to Three Years: Promoting Early Development

The Future of Children - Princeton-Brookings, 2020

This issue of the Future of Children focuses on the first years of life starting with in utero experiences.

2019/2020 Prevention Resource Guide

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, 2020

This Resource Guide offers support to community service providers as they work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child maltreatment and promote social and emotional well-being.

Impacts of Positive Parenting Intervention on Stress Management of Mothers Having Children with Intellectual Disability in Birhan Lehetsanat Rehabilitation Center, Addis Ababa

Tadele Zebrea, Belay Tefera, and Bhatara Mohit - European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 2020

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple-P) in enabling mothers to manage stress related to parenting a child with intellectual disability (ID).

Positive Parenting: For Parents/Caregivers and Social Service Workers

Miracle Foundation, 2020

This toolkit is designed for parents/caregivers and the social service workforce guiding them. It provides practical tips that can be implemented quickly and mini lessons on topics of importance to anyone raising or supporting a child.

More Resources

Parenting Practices and Socioeconomic Gaps in Childhood Outcomes

Ariel Kalil and Rebecca Ryan - The Future of Children, 2020

In this article, developmental psychologists Ariel Kalil and Rebecca Ryan examine the relation between parenting practices and socioeconomic gaps in child outcomes.

What Makes an Effective Early Childhood Parenting Programme: a Systematic Review of Reviews and Meta-analyses

Jie Gao, Clare Brooks, Yuwei Xu, Eleanor Kitto - The UCL Institute of Education , 2020

By synthesising the research evidence, this study seeks to address the questions of whether early childhood parenting programmes are effective in improving parenting and enhancing children's development; and which factors of the programme design and implementation contribute to the successful outcomes of parenting programmes.

How We Care

Family for Every Child, 2020

How We Care is an initiative of Family for Every Child designed for those working with children and families across the world, to help them to learn from other practitioners. These pages showcase a variety of their practice, in order to generate learning and exchange across the Alliance and beyond.

View Website

Learning from parents: A qualitative interview study on how parents experience their journey through the Dutch child protection system

Helen Bouma, Hans Grietens, Mónica López López, Erik J. Knorth - Child & Family Social Work, 23 Dec 2019

The authors of this study interviewed 20 parents about their experiences with the Dutch child protection system (CPS).

View Article

Parent–professional interviews in child protection: Comparing viewpoints

Michel Boutanquoi, Dominique Ansel, Maryse Bournel‐Bosson - Child & Family Social Work, 23 Dec 2019

To analyse how professionals and parents position themselves, the authors of this study chose to focus on the content of social workers' interviews with parents and on the associated interactions. To this end, the authors recorded 13 parent–professional interviews after receiving the consent of the concerned parties.

View Article