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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Families Offering Children Unfailing Support (FOCUS) Fatherhood Program: Changing Child Welfare through Child Support and Parenting Skills

M. Angela Nievar, Suhasini Ramisetty-Mikler, Mahasin F. Saleh, Natasha Cabrera - Children and Youth Services Review, 05 Aug 2020

The Fathers Offering Children Unfailing Support (FOCUS) program serves fathers referred by Child Protective Services and the Attorney General’s Office. The goal of the authors of this paper was to investigate changes in fathers’ report of parenting involvement and fathers’ instrumental support through child support payments through two separate studies of community samples.

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Multi-service prevention programs for pregnant and parenting women with substance use and multiple vulnerabilities: Program structure and clients’ perspectives on wraparound programming

Deborah Rutman, Carol Hubberstey, Nancy Poole, Rose A. Schmidt & Marilyn Van Bibber - BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 03 Aug 2020

This article presents findings from the Co-Creating Evidence (CCE) project, a three-year evaluation of eight multi-service programs located in six Canadian jurisdictions.

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Caregiver and family factors promoting child resilience in at-risk families living in Lima, Peru

Laura E. Miller-Graff, Caroline R. Scheid, Danice Brown Guzmán, Katherine Grein - Child Abuse & Neglect, 03 Aug 2020

The current study aims to evaluate relationships between child victimization and child resilience with a particular focus on caregiver and family promotive factors.

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Unwed single mothers in South Korea: Increased vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shinwoo Choi, Soo-Jung Byoun, Eun Hee Kim - International Social Work, 23 Jul 2020

This short essay presents unwed single mothers’ increased vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of childcare, financial crisis, and mental health.

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Family Partnering in Australian Therapeutic Residential Care: A Scoping Study

Patricia M McNamara - Residential Treatment for Children & Youth , 19 Jul 2020

This preliminary scoping study aimed to explore approaches to family partnering within Australian therapeutic residential care (TRC), along with elements of best practice.

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Intensive family intervention programs: Tailoring interventions to family clinical profiles

Julien Desautels, Luc Touchette, Robert Pauzé - Children and Youth Services Review, 19 Jul 2020

This treatment-process research aims to (1) identify profiles of families participating in intensive family intervention programs, based on youth and family characteristics and (2) compare the intervention received by families with different clinical profiles.

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Different Contexts, Different Outcomes: Early Childhood Parenting Context for Latina Mothers Vulnerable to Child Welfare Involvement

Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins & Deborah M. Ortega - Child & Youth Services, 15 Jul 2020

This paper explores within group differences for Mexican and Puerto Rican mothers vulnerable to child welfare involvement.

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Effects of parenting interventions on child and caregiver cortisol levels: systematic review and meta-analysis

Rafaela Costa Martins, Cauane Blumenberg, Luciana Tovo-Rodrigues, Andrea Gonzalez & Joseph Murray - BMC Psychiatry, 15 Jul 2020

The authors of this article conducted a systematic review of the impact of parent-training interventions on children’s and caregivers’ cortisol levels, and meta-analyzed the results.

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In-home video chat for young children and their incarcerated parents

Elizabeth Skora Horgan & Julie Poehlmann-Tynan - Journal of Children and Media , 12 Jul 2020

This article explores in-home video chat between children and their incarcerated parents as a potentially viable option for building relationships during incarceration, especially when opportunities for positive physical contact are limited or non-existent.

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From doubt to trust: Swedish mothers’ and counsellors’ experience testing a parenting programme for mothers exposed to intimate partner violence whose children have developed behavioural problems

Helena Draxler, Renée McDonald, Fredrik Hjärthag, Kjerstin Almqvist - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 10 Jul 2020

The aim of this study was to investigate counselors’ and caregivers’ experiences with Project Support (PS) in Sweden, a program designed for families with children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV).

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