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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Parents with Intellectual Disabilities Seeking Professional Parenting Support: The Role of Working Alliance, Stress and Informal Support

Meppelder M, Hodes M, Kef S, Schuengel C - Child Abuse and Neglect, 01 Sep 2014

This study tested whether the extent of delays in support seeking is associated with working alliance for parents with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) and whether the importance of working alliance may depend on parenting stress and availability of informal support.

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Children Grow Best in Families - Video

Wendy McMahan - Faith to Action Initiative , 01 Sep 2014

Wendy McMahan, Director of Church Engagement for Food for the Hungry, shares a personal anecdote from her own family, illustrating the importance of family care.

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What neuroscience and social science tell us about the effect of care environments on children

Dr. Kathryn Whetten & Dr. Charles Nelson, Christian Alliance for Orphans, 24 Aug 2014

This video features a segment of a talk on the effects of care environments on children, hosted by the Christian Alliance for Orphans. The key speakers featured include Dr. Kathryn Whetten & Dr. Charles Nelson, who discuss the Positive Outcomes for Orphans study (POFO) and the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), respectively.

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Does Family Matter? The Well-Being of Children Growing Up in Institutions, Foster Care and Adoption

Christie Schoenmaker, Femmie Juffer, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, and Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg - In A. Ben-Arieh et al. (eds.), Handbook of Child Well-Being, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 03 Jul 2014

In this chapter of the Handbook of Child Well-Being, the authors review the findings from research on the cognitive and social-emotional development of children growing up in institutions, foster care and adoption.

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Children, Orphanages, and Families: a Summary of Research to Help Guide Faith-based Action

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

This Summary of Research provides a concise overview of a range of studies and findings that can inform approaches to caring for children who, through orphanhood, abandonment, or other causes, have been separated from parental care.

Hague Note on the Financial Aspects of Intercountry Adoption

Permanent Bureau, Hague Conference on International Private Law, 01 Jun 2014

To address the issues related to the financial aspects of intercountry adoptions, the Hague Convention initiated an Experts’ Group, which met in October 2012 and produced nine Conclusions and Recommendations, which they brought to the Permanent Bureau to publish as a “Note”.

Family support and social protection

Elana Gaia & Denise Stuckenbruck - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support includes an overview of family trends in the CEE/CIS region, some promising practices in social protection, and thoughts for going forward.

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Parenting support in the context of violence prevention

Bernadette Madrid - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support discusses a study on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on brain development.

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Family support for prevention of family separation

Florence Martin - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support discusses family separation, including the factors leading to it, global data on children’s living situations and how it relates to preventing separation.

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Violence prevention: how to ensure parenting support

Rosana Morgado - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support focuses on the risks facing, and the needs of, poor families in Brazil.

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