A new book examined the distinctions between normal family troubles and 'troubled' and 'troubling' families. It considered the ways in which troubles featured in 'normal' families, and how the normal featured in 'troubled' families.
Source: Jane Ribbens McCarthy, Carol-Ann Hooper, and Val Gillies (eds), Family Troubles? Exploring changes and challenges in the family lives of children and young people, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Apr
An article examined the experiences of highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs, based on families' own accounts. It highlighted the assumptions that were made about family knowledge, and how families shared and withheld information about their needs and experiences.
Source: Kate Morris, 'Troubled families: vulnerable families' experiences of multiple service use', Child & Family Social Work, Volume 18 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Apr
Researchers examined a trial of the market potential for high-quality universal parenting classes. The trial had succeeded in offering parents a wide choice of types of parenting programme and modes of delivery. Classes had attracted a representative sample of the population with regard to family status and parent education. Lack of knowledge of the positive outcomes from parenting programmes and time constraints were the main inhibitors to participation: only 2 per cent of eligible parents had taken up classes in the first seven months of the trial.
Source: Mairi Ann Cullen, Stephen Cullen, Steve Strand, Ioanna Bakopoulou, Geoff Lindsay, Richard Brind, Emily Pickering, Caroline Bryson, and Susan Purdon, CANparent Trial Evaluation: First Interim Report, Research Report 280, Department for Education
Links: Report | 4Children press release | Daily Mail report | Guardian report | Nursery World report
Date: 2013-Mar
A report examined parenting support services in Europe. It summarized the common challenges faced by all providers of parenting support, and made policy recommendations based on what had been observed to work in different countries.
Source: Daniel Molinuevo, Parenting Support in Europe, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Date: 2013-Mar