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.

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Mother–Child Relational Quality of Women in Substance Abuse Treatment

Linda Lewin, Kathleen Farkas, Maryam Niazi - Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 16 Oct 2016

According to this study, mothers who abuse substances are more likely to have impaired parenting and lose custody of their young children.

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The impact of income on reunification among families with children in out-of-home care

JoAnn S. Lee, Jennifer L. Romich, Ji Young Kang, Jennifer L. Hook and Maureen O. Marcenko--Children and Youth Services Review, 13 Oct 2016

This study examines the causal role that the source of income plays in reunification.

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Engaging Parents, Developing Leaders: A Self-Assessment and Planning Tool for Nonprofits and Schools

Annie E. Casey Foundation , 01 Aug 2016

This self-assessment and planning tool is intended for nonprofits and schools working with families to provide services that more effectively reach and engage parents in fostering their children's development.

Innocenti Adolescence Research Digest: Issue 2

Innocenti, 01 Jul 2016

This issue of Innocenti's Adolescence Research Digest includes recent news, events, and other updates as well as links to some of the latest research on adolescents and violence, health, education, street-connected youth and more.

Skills and professional practices for the consolidation of the support group model to foster families

M. Àngels Balsells, Nuria Fuentes-Peláez, Maribel Mateo, J. M. Torralba & Verónica Violant - European Journal of Social Work, 16 Jun 2016

This research addresses the need to go deeper into the acquisition and consolidation of the core professional competences for running socio-educational groups with foster families.

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Competencias y prácticas profesionales para la consolidación del modelo de apoyo grupal a las familias acogedoras

M. Àngels Balsells, Nuria Fuentes-Peláez, Maribel Mateo, J. M. Torralbc & Verónica Violant - European Journal of Social Work, 16 Jun 2016

Esta investigación se aborda la necesidad de profundizar en la adquisición y consolidación de las competencias profesionales fundamentales para la acción socioeducativa grupal con familias acogedoras.

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Interventions to improve supervised contact visits between children in out of home care and their parents: a systematic review

Tracey Bullen Research Fellow, Stephanie Taplin, Morag McArthur, Cathy Humphreys and Margaret Kertesz - Child & Family Social Work, 13 Jun 2016

The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for interventions aimed at improving the quality of contact visits between parents and their children who are in out-of-home care.

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The role of carers in supporting the progress of care leavers in the world of work

Robbie Gilligan and Laura Arnau-Sabatés - Child & Family Social Work, 07 Jun 2016

The aim of this component of a preliminary cross-national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world.

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Home on a Care Order: Who the Children are and What the Care Order is for

Montserrat Fargas-Malet, Dominic McSherry, John Pinkerton, and Greg Kelly -- Child & Family Social Work, 07 Jun 2016

Compared to children in other placements, there is much less known about the characteristics and needs of children in the UK who are returned to their birth parents with a care order still in place.

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Foster and Adoptive parent training: A process and outcome investigation of the preservice PRIDE program

Jordanna J. Nash & Robert J. Flynn - Children and Youth Services Review, 02 Jun 2016

This study investigated the widely-used but under-researched program for training resource parents (i.e., foster, adoptive, or kinship parents) known as preservice PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education). The sample consisted of 174 participants in Ontario, Canada.

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