Universal parental support for parents of adolescents: Who wants municipality-based parental support and in what form?

Parenting a child through adolescence can be a challenge for many parents; adolescents go through notable developmental, physical, and psychological changes that affect the relationships around them. Most parents find parental support during these years important. These young people's relationships with their parents are important to their mental health, but although parental support is universally available to parents of younger children, it is still scarce for parents of adolescents. The aim of this study was to explore what factors are associated with interest in universal parental support through telephone interviews and questionnaires with 223 parents of 13- to 17-year-olds. Parents' interest in parental support was linked to their own anxious mood, their lower perceived parental capacity, their perception of the child as having psychiatric problems, the parents' perception of their adolescents' openness about things and their perception of the adolescent's overall difficulties in daily life due to psychiatric symptoms. The results show that lighter forms of support such as lectures or seminars were more appealing to parents with higher social status. Offering community-based individual counseling and leader-led parent training groups therefore has the potential to reach parents with difficulties more equally, while offering support only through lectures and seminars could increase the inequality between parents in different social situations.

Do parents of adolescents request the same universal parental support as parents of younger children? A random sample of Swedish parents.

Universal parental support intended to enhance parents' capacity for parenting is an important aspect of public health strategies. However, support has mostly been aimed at parents, especially mothers, of younger children. There is a gap in the research concerning parents of adolescents and fathers' interest in parenting support. AIM: To investigate and compare the interest in parenting support of parents of adolescents and younger children, potential differences between mothers and fathers, and their knowledge of what is being offered to them already, and to explore their requirements for future universal parental support. METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 1336 parents. Quantitative methods were used to analyze differences between groups and qualitative methods were used to analyze open-ended questions in regard to parents' requirements for future universal parental support. RESULTS: About 82% of the parents of adolescents interviewed think that offering universal parental support is most important during child's adolescence. There is a substantial interest, particularly among mothers, in most forms of support. Despite their interest, parents have limited awareness of the support available. Only 7% knew about the local municipality website, although 70% reported a possible interest in such a website. Similarly, 3% knew that a parent phone line was available to them, while 59% reported a possible interest. CONCLUSIONS: It poses a challenge but is nevertheless important for municipalities to develop support targeted at parents of adolescents which is tailored to their needs, and to reach out with information.

Universal parental support--how to reach out: a cross-sectional random sample of Swedish parents.

BACKGROUND: Young children in Sweden have good general health in comparison to children in other European countries. In contrast, teenagers display poorer mental health. Parental support is now being made available on a universal level in Sweden in order to promote youngsters general psychological health. The aim of this study was to examine (1) to what extent the parents were interested in various forms of municipality-based parental support programs; (2) whether there were any differences between mothers and fathers as regards their interest in municipality-based parental support programs; and (3) if there were any differences between high to non-users of the Internet as an information source in their parenting, regarding their interest in municipality-based parental support programs. METHODS: The study was based on a random sample of parents in 15 municipalities in Sweden. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1744 parents. The information collected included the parent's gender, number of children, age of children, what municipality-based support parents would be interested in, and information about the use of the Internet as an information source in their parenting. RESULTS: The results showed that there was a significant difference between mothers and fathers regarding interest in parental support, with mothers being more interested in all forms of parental support except a webpage for parents. Additionally, the results show that high frequent use of the Internet as an information source in their parenting was associated with high interest in municipality-based parental support. CONCLUSIONS: Parents who are active in seeking web-based information about their child and parenting are also parents interested in various kinds of parental support. The municipality is generally better at evoking the interest of mothers than fathers concerning all forms of support, except a webpage with information for parents. Municipalities should develop attractive and informative webpages for parents, with some information specifically addressing fathers.