Browsing by Author "Jekkonen, Netta"

From the year 1999 every government has aimed to support parenting (Sihvonen, 2020). Inadequate parenting has been seen as a cause for distress and unfavourable development in children and youth, which parenting support aims to prevent (Sihvonen, 2020). However, the concern directed at the quality of parenting is an old phenomenon. Concerns about upbringing at homes has influenced the founding of finnish home upbringing association (current parenting association) in the year 1907 and the founding and spreading of cribs and nurserys (current early childhood education) (Parjo, 2003; Antikainen, Rinne & Koski, 2021). Although parenting has been around through the history of humankind, the term “parenting” has formed along the societal modernization (Sihvonen, 2020). Parenting can be observed as multidimensional construct that is genetically and socially formed relation between a parent and a child and on the other hand culturally formed phenomena, that is build, learned and developed through social interaction with the surrounding community (Arell ym., 2019; Sihvonen, 2020). The quality of parenting has been proved to have long lasting effects on the child´s development. Especially the parents ability or inability to respond to the child´s needs in the right time and in an appropriate quantity and quality has long-term effects on the child´s emotional life, brain development and physical health (Kalland & Salo, 2020; Viljamaa, 2003). The purpose of this study is to identify family policy measures that targeted to parenting support, aims of parenting support and parenting support development goals. This study is conducted as a qualitative content analysis using a systematic approach and the literature consists of 22 publications from the governmental publication archive. According to my study, parenting support is implemented primarily through informative support (parenting- and family counselling, guidance), early childhood education, multi-professional cooperation, study-based parenting programs and social support. Parenting support aims to influence the overall wellbeing of families and to prevent children´s negative development, which in addition to personal challenges, causes significant costs to society. The challenges of parenting support were identified as scarce resources, availability of services, timely identification of needed support, individual-oriented culture, the increased diversity of society and the lack of cooperation between service providers. According to the study, the role of early childhood education in parenting support seemed to be conflicted.