If the nation's parents are turning to behaviour strategies such as 'the naughty step', it's largely due to the influence of the Channel Four programme 'Supernanny'.
The huge popularity of the series has underlined that hard-pressed parents are hungry for advice on how to be better disciplinarians and are prepared to put its techniques into practice.
Parenting website Raising Kids corroborates the influence of 'Supernanny'
and similar shows. Its survey of more than 3,000 parents found that 69 per cent thought such programmes were of practical help, and that strategies such as 'time out' and reward charts were effective ways of helping children to be better.
However, these television programmes should come with the warning 'for entertainment only', according to Tricia Pritchard, senior professional officer at the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses (see 'In My View', p31).
She says, 'We are not told how many takes it took for the child in question to correct his or her behaviour for the programme, nor do we see what happens in the family when the television cameras are long gone.
'We're led to believe that all problems have been resolved by techniques which have been long established as of no real value by experts in the field, and that the family lives happy ever after.'
The Raising Kids survey indicates that parents are not always taking the best advice and getting it right. Over 70 per cent of the sample felt their children's good behaviour was more important than making them feel good about themselves, and 58 per cent resorted to 'because I say so'.
One in three parents also admitted to smacking their children when the going got tough. Whether this makes parents good or bad will continue to be highly contentious, but concerns about rising levels of anti-social behaviour have moved the Government to put parenting at the top of its political agenda. Early intervention and advice on good parenting forms an important plank of its Action Plan on Social Exclusion, indicating that children's upbringing is now an issue of national concern.
But while parenting techniques as televised entertainment are one thing, do people really want advice on how they bring up their children from trained practitioners, who work for the state?
The Government's action plan identifies that the personal circumstances of parents, and how they care and interact with their children during the early years, can have dramatic long-term effects on both the child and the parents themselves.
Evidence suggests that factors such as poor emotional attachment, stress during pregnancy, postnatal depression, harsh parenting styles and low levels of stimulation can result in negative outcomes for children in later life.
No judgements
To address these problems, the aim of the action plan is to offer parenting programmes alongside antenatal and clinical care. In order to appeal to parents, such courses are designed to be non-judgemental, sensitive to parents' needs and of real practical help. To succeed, their value ultimately needs to spread by word of mouth.
One such scheme which is being held up as a shining example is Incredible Years (IY), run in Caernarfon, North Wales, through Sure Start. The IY grew out of the Bangor Child Behaviour Project which was started by Dr Judy Hutchings, with colleagues from the North West Wales NHS Trust and the University of Wales, Bangor, in 1995. Its aim was to develop and promote evidence-based interventions for children with conduct disorders and their families.
A recent assessment, which tracked participating parents for 18 months, highlighted that the behaviour of their three- and four-year-olds significantly improved following the programme, and that the parents had also grown in confidence.
These families had attended 12 group sessions and were spread across 11 Sure Start centres. According to Dr Judy Hutchings, there was no problem recruiting families.
'However, the recruitment process has to be treated as an important part of the programme, so spending time getting to know the families and their needs is vital before it starts,' she says. 'Our Sure Start research worked with very high-risk families and got great engagement.'
Dr Hutchings believes that what makes the IY programmes work is the fact they are collaborative. 'Although there is a structure to the sessions, parents are able to address their own goals and work things out for themselves,' she says.
What parents want
The emphasis that IY has placed on recruiting parents is a reminder of the constant danger that many of them will view advice from formal sources as intrusive.
This idea is supported by the findings of a survey conducted by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which polled 1,112 parents of children aged eight to 12 in England, Scotland and Wales. More than half the parents were mothers and most were categorised as working class on the basis of occupation.
The report, Resources in Parenting: Access to Capitals, said that 60 per cent of those surveyed felt that parents did not necessarily need professional guidance to help them bring up their children. Nearly 90 per cent agreed that family and friends were the most appropriate source of parenting advice.
'The parents in our research saw education and health professionals as providing legitimate advice to parents,' says co-author Professor Rosalind Edwards. 'But they generally did not feel this way about specially focused parenting advice and support. Parenting classes were not seen in the light of education and health, which are longstanding aspects of universal welfare state provision.'
According to the research, a key issue appears to be whether or not parents themselves seek out advice and who they seek advice from, rather than it being imposed on them from sources they have not approached or may see as irrelevant.
Professor Edwards says, 'The in-depth interviews we carried out after the survey revealed that parents of disruptive children may want education and health services, such as speech therapy, special needs provision, educational psychologists and child mental health provision. These are services which do not, as part of their specific remit, place parents as at fault.'
She points out that such services are often hard-pressed and under-funded, with long waiting lists - 'and parents find it difficult to gain access to them when they feel that their children need them'.
Professor Edwards questions how the results of parenting courses are being measured. 'Are they judged in the light of what parents themselves would think important, or ones that professionals judge to be important in terms of child outcomes?'
However, Judy Hutchings believes that what makes Incredible Years successful is the fact that parents themselves set their own goals.
She says, 'In our experience, parents are pleased to be helped to improve their children's challenging behaviour, and along with this their chances in life.'
With widespread recognition that better parenting skills lead to better child outcomes, it will be interesting to see how many parents are prepared to take time out to get advice from the professionals.
FURTHER INFORMATION
* www.incredible yearswales.co.uk
* www.raisingkids. co.uk
* Resources in Parenting: Access to Capitals by Professor Rosalind Edwards and Professor Val Gillies, www.esrc societytoday.ac.uk
