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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Australia: Whose responsibility is it? Supporting the needs of informal kinship care

Professor Marie Connolly, 28 Mar 2014

In this presentation Professor Connolly reviews recent trends in the use of kinship care in Australia and discusses what this shift means in the context of the ‘residual’ model of child protection used in the country.

Residential Care for Abandoned Children and their Integration into a Family-Based Setting in Uganda: Lessons for Policy and Programming

Eddy J. Walakira, Eric A. Ochen, Paul Bukuluki and Sue Alllan, 11 Mar 2014

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. This article describes a model of care for abandoned and neglected infants in need of urgent physical, social, and medical support as implemented by the Child's i Foundation, an international, nongovernmental organization operating in Uganda.

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Adoption Policy and Evidence-Based Domestic Adoption Practice: A Comparison of Romania, Ukraine, India, Guatemala, and Ethiopia

Victor Groza and Kelley M. Bunkers - Infant Mental Health Journal, 11 Mar 2014

This article uses data collected from adoptive parents’ postadoption and governmental data in Romania, Ukraine, India, Guatemala, and Ethiopia to focus on domestic adoption in each of these countries. The article highlights both promising practices in domestic adoption as well as policies and practices that require additional research.

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Improving positive parenting skills and reducing harsh and abusive parenting in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

Wendy Knerr, Frances Gardner, Lucie Cluver, 07 Mar 2014

This article investigates effectiveness of parenting interventions on reducing harsh and harmful parenting practices in low-to-middle income countries.

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Spanking and Child Development across the first decade of life

Michael Mackenzie, Eric Nicklas, Jane Waldfogel, and Jeanne Brooks-Bunn, 06 Mar 2014

This study examines the prevalence of maternal and paternal spanking of children at 3 and 5 years of age and the associations between spanking and children's externalizing behavior and receptive vocabulary through age 9.

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Engaged Fatherhood: Group Education for Fathers and their Partners

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

This section is the second of three in Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health.

The Right of Boys and Girls to a Family. Alternative Care. Ending Institutionalization in the Americas

Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, 05 Mar 2014

This report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) analyzes children’s right to live and be raised by their families, and establishes the resulting obligations for States when it comes to supporting and strengthening families’ ability to raise and care for their children.

Mobilizing Your Community

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

This final section of Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health is designed for health sector workers and activists who are interested in developing and implementing social-awareness-raising activities in their community that promote the benefits of active fatherhood as a way to achieve gender equality, benefit children, and improve the lives of men and women.

Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

The Program P Manual is a resource developed as part of the global MenCare campaign that identifies best practices on engaging men in maternal and child health, caregiving, and preventing violence against women and children, through the lens of gender equality. Though the main focus of Program P is to engage men via the public health sector, the manual also provides tools and resources for individuals and organizations that want to work more generally with men as caregivers and fathers.