Prague, 10-11th of November 2005 Family Policy and Parenting skills

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Prague, 10-11th of November 2005Family Policy
and Parenting skills

• Bragi Guðbrandsson, Gen.Director, The Government
  Agency for Child Protection, Iceland

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Content

• Few remarks on family policy
• Changes in the family structure different
  interpretation
• Implications for parenthood and New visions of
  parenting
• Parenting programmes identifying the needs

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Welfare and Social Policy

• Policy systematically defined choises in order
  to achieve desirable goals
• A social policy defines goals and actions in
  relation to individuals, groups and society
• Examples support to children, disabled or old
  people or addressing particular issues like
  poverty, housing etc.
• The Welfare State a combination of systems of
  Social Security and Social Policy

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What is a Family Policy

• The specificity of the family as a subject of
  policy-making
• The family as a basic unit of society
• Cuts across all social, economic, political and
  cultural boundaries in society
• Family policy thus not a sub-group of social
  policy
• Family policy as a perspective
• The needs of the family as a basic unit of
  society
• Vigourious assessment of the needs of families
  or problems they face is typically absent

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Public Family Policy

• Explicit family policy objectives deliberatly
  structured
• Interventions family planning, parent education,
  day care, family counselling, support to single
  parent families or families with multible
  children, maternal/paternal leave etc.
• Implicit/latent family policy objectives
  directed to other goals, but affect the family
• Interventions taxation policy, prevention
  strategies for substance abuse, policies for the
  disabled etc.
• Assessing public policies in terms of their
  Family Consequences

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The break down of the Normative Family

• Rise in divorce/separtion rates and cohabitation
• Rising number of children born outside of
  marriage
• Increased lone parenthood
• Re-partnering, remarriages and more step-families
• Declining birthrates, smaller average sizes of
  families and
• Two wage-earner families the adult worker
  model v.s. the male breadwinner model
• Single person housholds
• Recognition of same-sex partnerships
• Disabled parents, ethic minorities etc.

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Conflicting Interpretations The pessimist
demoralisation thesis, based on F. Williams
Rethinking Families

• Moral decline with harmful effects, esp. for
  children
• Children damaged, socially, emotionally, by
  divorce
• Lack of father figures
• Vulnerability to inadequate parenting and poverty
• Family values of duty, fidelity and
  responsibility replaced by selfish individualism
• Flight from commitment
• Diversity of sexual livestyles
• Induces general social instability
• Parenting deficit values of careerism and
  consumption
• Crime, antisocial behavior, mental illness

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Conflicting interpretationThe optimists
democratisation thesis

• Individualisation not individualism
• Individuals shape their own biographies and
  identities
• Way to sustain respect, happiness and mutal
  satisfaction
• Democratisation of both gender relations and the
  family
• The move away from traditional gender divisions
  to more equal relationships
• Unlocks womens dependency on men
• Balancing autonomy with connectedness
• Transformation of intimacy or the quality of
  personal relationships
• Partners come and go but the parent-child
  relationship prevails

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Parenting and Public Family Policy

• Both the Pessimist and the Optimist thesis
  contain a grain of truth
• Diversed family forms and increasingly fluid and
  negotiated relationships
• Loosening of marriage from parenthood
• The emphasis of parenting responsibility instead
  of marriage or the normative family
• Parenthood and parenting a less private matter
  and more an issue of public intervention

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Implications for parenthood

• Jesper Juul, a Danish family theraphist
• Todays parents are confronting a task that is
  historically unique. They literally have to
  reinvent the partnership between man and woman
  and also the leadership in relation to children
  and young people, all according to new set of
  values and goals that are equal dignity and
  genuineness to avoid violating the integrity of
  children and young people.

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Parenting programmes

• Growing up again
• Recognising the limits of our own uppbringing to
  modern times
• Learning to avoid negative experiences
• Learning to meet new challenges
• What are our perceptions of the child?
• What are the characteristics of our own
  Parenting styles
• Toxic environment Violence, drugs, IT-technology
  etc.

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Back to basics Perceptions of Children

• The Conflict Model
• The child has instinctual drives which needs to
  be controlled
• Historical roots in the notion that children are
  originally evel and their sinful tendencies
  need to be controlled
• The Laissez-faire model (Rosseau)
• Basic aspects of personality already laid down
  having to unfold
• Emhasis on permissive environment in which
  childrens potential can develop
• The child as Tabula rasa the clay melting
  model
• The child is unformed at birth and passive like a
  block of clay that can be molded into any shape
• The development of the child is determined by the
  enviromental imput

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Back to basics Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian
• To shape, control the childs behaviour and
  attitudes by rules and commands
• Obedience a virtue and favours punitive measures
• Corporal punishment and spanking accepted
• Permissive
• Submitts to the child impulsiveness and demands
• The child regulates his/her own behaviour
• The use of reason and avoids exercising power
• Authoritative
• Assertive and democratic
• Establishes guidlines and corrects mistakes
• The use of power with reason
• Others Over-indulgent, Over-protective,
  Neglecting etc.

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New perception of children - New visions of
Parenting

• New perception of the child bearer of rights
• Firmly rooted in the UN Convention on the rights
  of the child
• Two sets of rights the right to protection and
  to participation
• Three basic items of developmental pschycology
• Nurture
• Structure
• Recognition
• The new parenting style Growing up again in a
  dialogue with the child

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Parent programmesUnnderstanding the role of the
family

• To provide a shelter for emotional and physical
  vell-being of its members
• The upbringing of children To turn the infant
  into a competent human being
• To adapt to social changes and maintain its
  function

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What Makes Families Strong some significant
characteristics

• The appreciation that members of the family
  support each other and regard each other
  positively and warmly
• Spending time together
• Positive communication patterns honest, open and
  receptive
• Committment the understanding that family unity
  is important to each member
• Spiritual orientation, religious or secular
  emphasis on caring for the soul
• The ability to deal with crisis in a constructive
  way

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Parent programmes, examples of Best Practices
Families at risk

• NEWPIN, UK
• Mission To break the circle of destructive
  family behaviour by
• Addressing parental emotional abuse
• Developing parental emotional maturity and
  self-esteem
• Implementation
• Group work and councelling
• Play groups
• Projects
• Fathers project
• Young moms project
• Pregnancy support network
• Other examples HOME START, visiting parents to
  offer support

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Parenting programmes, Best Practices Child
Behavioral Problems,

• Pre-schooler The Webster-Stratton Model,
  Incredible years, Head start, Sure start
• School children PMT Parent Management
  Training
• Adolescents MST Multisystematic Theraphy
• All programmes implemented in Norway nationwide

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Parenting programmesConcluding remarks

• Resarch has shown that parents generally want
  support and are willing to learn
• Parenting programmes available for Familes at
  Risk are of particular importance, but they need
  to be
• Non-stigmatising and non-judgemental
• Bottom-up - reflecting actual needs
• Empowering families and avoid dependency
• Parenting programmes addressing child conduct
  disorders the value of evidence based approach