Children at aged 6: grandparents, school and weight

Virtually all children have at least one living grandparent and the majority have three for more grandparents alive, according to key findings from the annual Growing up in Scotland (GUS) report.

The Growing up in Scotland (GUS) reports look at life as a child in Scotland. This year the children are aged 6, and the report focusses on three areas: the involvement of grandparents, early experiences at primary school, and weight and physical activity.

 The 2012 findings include:

Grandparents

• 99% of children have at least one living grandparent and 80% have three or more of their grandparents alive
• A significant minority of children do not have a local grandparent at aged 3 (42%).
• Children in the highest income households (22%) were most likely to have no grandparents living locally, as compared to children in the lowest income households (8%).
• Local grandparents are more likely to be the maternal grandmother and grandfather.
• Maternal grandparents tend to be closer and have more contact with grandchildren than paternal grandparents.
• 64% parents of children whose mother were under 20 at the time of their birth stay overnight with their maternal grandparents at least once a month, compared with 12% amongst children whose mothers were 40 or over at birth (and 31% of all children).
• Reliance on grandparents increases markedly when children started school, with 67% of parents making use of grandparents for childcare. High income households are more likely to use grandparent care during term time (43%) and during holiday time (23%) - even when grandparents are not local, as compared to low income households (24% and 11% respectively).

Early experiences at school

• Nearly all parents felt their children had adjusted well to starting school, although some 22% felt that their child was happier with the way he or she learned things in pre-school.
• Children who attended pre-school at a private or partnership nursery were perceived to be more ready for school than children who did not attend a nursery, and generally boys were perceived to have more problems adjusting to school than girls.
• Virtually all parents had attended at least one parental involvement activity since their child had started school. The most common activity (86%) was visiting their child's classroom.. Just 5% had not participated in any activities or events.
• Family type was associated with higher parental involvement. Lone parents (23%) were slightly less likely to have attended four or more events than couple families (30%), and young mothers aged 20-29 years (30%) were less likely to attend four or more events than mothers aged 40 or older (46%).
• Most children (71%) receive homework everyday, and virtually all of these children (93%) said that they always completed it.
• 95% of parents were involved in helping their children with their homework, but many others were involved too, particularly grandparents (29%) and siblings (21%).

Obesity and activity

• Among GUS children, 22% were overweight (including obese) and 9% were obese.
• 15% of these children exercised for less than the recommended level of 60 minutes a day and 31% either watched television or been on the computer/games consule for 3+ hours on a typical weekday.
• Only 14% of mothers recognised their child as being overweight, although mother's were more likely to recognise their child was overweight if their child was a girl, the mother was overweight herself or if the child was obese.
• Factors which increased likelihood of the child being overweight or obese were:
• The mother being overweight or obese
• Frequent snacking on sweets or crisps at toddler age
• Skipping breakfast
• Not eating the main meal in a dining area of the home
• Low  parental supervision

More information about the study can be found at: http://www.growingupinscotland.org/.
The research findings can be downloaded from the Scottish Government website at:

Growing up in Scotland: The involvement of grandparents
Growing up in Scotland: Early Experiences of Primary School - the transition to school
Growing up in Scotland: Early Experiences of Primary School - parental involvement
Growing up in Scotland: Overweight, obesity and activity

Full reports are also available.

Is Scotland the best place to bring up children?

Parenting Across Scotland has published a new collection of essays about parenting in Scotland. Entitled 'Scotland: the best place in the world to bring up children', the publication puts forward proposals from leading researchers about how to make Scotland a world-leader in parenting. Two CRFR staff members contributed essays about their projects:

Parenting young children

Growing up in Scotland (GUS) is tracing the lives of thousands of children across Scotland from birth to the teenage years and beyond. This information can tell how  parents are parenting, what influences parenting and how parenting styles impact on children. Findings include:

• Home learning environment: Most parents of children under five are providing a good 'home learning environment: at age 22 months, 79% of children were read to every day, 58% sang songs  while 28% had the opportunity to paint or draw every day. However, children from less advantaged households were doing these activities less frequently. Children taking part in more activities scored higher on cognitive ability tests, even after other socio-demographic factors were taken into account.
• Discipline techniques: While one third of parents in Scotland had used smacking by the time their child was aged four, only 13% of parents agreed that it was a useful technique.
• Parenting support: A quarter of parents with a child under one said that they found it difficult to know who to ask for help or advice about being a parent. Young mums were more likely to say they did not like classes or groups.
• Parenting and children's health: A lack of parenting skills were associated with poorer health and health behaviours amongst children. In particular, high levels of parent-child conflict were associated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

By Lesley Kelly, CRFR and Paul Bradshaw, ScotCen Social Research: Growing up in Scotland. 

Parenting teenagers: relationships and behaviour

Calls to helplines indicate that parents of teenagers often struggle and feel isolated, particularly with behaviour and relationship issues. The About Families project has highlighted a number of themes emerging from research about the key issues for parents of teenagers:

• Conflict: Conflict between parents and teens is not necessarily a bad thing and can play a useful role in teenagers' development. It is how often, with whom, and why conflict happens that is most important, along with how parents manage their own behaviour. Conflict with friends, which usually involves some attempt to limit the damage and preserve a friendship, can help teenagers to learn how to manage conflict and develop emtional responses.
• Communication and relationships: Teenagers who are communicated with and involved in family decisions are more competent in making decisions about their lives and less likely to engage in problem behaviour.
• Moving to independence: It is natural for parents to feel some anxiety as teenagers become more independent. However, problems can arise if this anxiety makes them act in a way which is instrusive or inhibits a teenager's exploration of new environments and relationships. Parents may manager better when they see becoming independent as a healthy part of adolescent development.
• Parent satisfaction: How happy parents feel about their parenting is linked to how they view the development of their teenagers.
• Parenting together: Parents agreeing about their approach to parenting is more important than who does what, or how much each is involved. Both parents of disabled teenagers are likely to be involved in all areas of their teenagers life.
• How much do parents about their teenagers?: There are differences between mothers and fathers in how they find out about their children's lives. Howevere, how much they know could be the result of what teenagers choose to tell them rather than what they try to find out. Ensuring a teenager feels comfortable about sharing information cold be more effective in deterring them from problem behaviour than trying to control their activities.
  Although some parents of disabled teenagers think that more detailed communication is necessary, generally the issues are thought to be the same, regardless of disability.

By Karen Mountney: About Families

New journal on families and relationships launched

 

CRFR is pleased to support the launch of a new social science journal, Families, Relationships and Societies. The journal explores family life, relationships and generational issues from a social science perspective and with a strong policy and practice focus. The aim to present high-calibre work and stimulate debate has been well achieved in the first issue:

• Editorial: Tess Ridge and Brid Featherstone
• An ethic of care and sibling care in older age: Marian Barnes
• Doing family, contesting gender and expanding affinity: Family practices of married women in Hong Kong: Anita Chan
• Family structure, family stability and outcomes of five-year-old children: Terry-Ann Craigie et al.
• Farewell to family? Notes on an argument for retaining the concept: Ros Edwards
• The effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving access to the health and mental health services for looked after children and young people: A systematic review: Roy Jones et al.
• Reflections on governing the family: The close relationship between child protection and social work in advanced Western societies – the example of England: Nigel Parton
• Care relations and public policy: Social justice claims and social investment frames: Fiona Williams
• Open Space: A review of social trends and family and relationships policies in England and Wales: Martina Klett-Davies

 Marian Barnes offers insight into the under-researched area of sibling care, and together with Anita Chan's article on married women in Hong Kong, demonstrates the value of qualitative approaches in exploring family practices. The journal has taken on an international perspective and the quantitative study by Craigie, Brooks-Gunn and Waldfogel from the United States is an important contribution to a contested area in families research. Edwards and Gillies have offered a similarly stimulating argument, and the editorial team are hopeful that many readers respond to the ideas put forward in these two articles in forthcoming issues. The systematic review by Roy Jones and colleagues, and the article by Nigel Parton are required reading for those interested in child welfare and protection, and again the editors would welcome alternative views of policy and practice in this area. Finally Fiona Williams' article builds on her groundbreaking work on care ethics.

Open Space is a unique feature of the journal providing space for more critical reviews of research, policy, practice initiatives and recent publications and providing an opportunity, over time, for authors to test out new viewpoints, stimulate debates and bring one another up-to-date on local and global contexts. Martina Klett-Davies kicks this off with a policy review in the area of relationships support.

The journal is available in print and online, and all institutions have free online access to the journal in 2012. Go to http://www.policypress.co.uk/journals_frs_trial.asp? for more information.

CRFR would like to congratulate everyone on the editorial board for this important contribution.

Informing the Parenting Strategy

CRFR recently facilitated a meeting at the Scottish Government to help inform the development of the Parenting Strategy.

Through conversations with Scottish Government staff we saw an opportunity to highlight research from our Associate Director, Professor Claire Wallace of Aberdeen University and Associate Researcher Dr Jeni Harden, which we felt made an important contribution to our knowledge on parenting in Scotland. Professor Lynn Jamieson, a co-Director at CRFR also presented findings from Growing Up in Scotland, the national longitudinal study of children's experiences from across the country.

Prof Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen

Work-Care Synergies Project

This project has provided a comparative analysis of parenting in Europe, looking at the quality of life for parents in different European countries and the strategies adopted by parents in managing work and care in different national contexts. The team has also developed a typology based on a policy analysis of work and care for families with young children in different European counties. The research ran from 2010-2011.

The project found that parenting policy varied across Europe. There was convergence in the progress of women's rights but women still do the majority of domestic chores. Men are contributing more, but the general trend across all countries was that men are more involved in childcare, not domestic chores. This results in a lot of pressure on women to manage professionally while also taking primary responsibility for the upkeep of the household and childcare. The project identified barriers facing men in getting time off work to look after children: both in terms of paternity policies and with colleagues not taking them seriously after taking the decision to focus more on parenting. There were five strategies that working families use to help with childcare that there shared by all countries included in the research: using flexible working arrangements where available, taking on shift work to share responsibility between both parents, relying on formal care and using informal care support from grandparents and others where possible.

For more information please contact Claire at claire.wallace@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Jeni Harden, University of Edinburgh

Work and Family Lives: The changing experiences of ‘young families’

This project explored how families achieve a work life balance over time, drawing on the changing experiences and perceptions of families with primary school-aged children. Both parents and children were involved in the research, providing their different perspectives, as well as exploring the processes of negotiation between parents and children in addressing issues raised. The project is a qualitative longitudinal study with fourteen families in Scotland, conducted between 2007 and 2010.

The project identified a number of themes relating to parental responsibility that impact on families ability to achieve a work-life balance:

• Parents faced competing demands on their time relating to their responsibilities as parents and employees. This is experienced through the difficulties of synchronising work and family life and results in a sense of harriedness, of feeling constantly busy, tired and stressed. Parents expressed feelings of guilt and anxiety about not being able to give 100% to either work or family.
• Challenges of keeping clear boundaries between work and home, particularly when parents are working from home or 'catching up' on work at home.
• Children do support parents by complying with routines, helping with chores, looking after themselves and younger siblings.
• Negotiating changes in responsibility for children as they get older, particularly when they move to secondary school
• Helping children to understand work as part of everyday life is often justified by financial gains.

For more information please contact Jeni at jeni.harden@ed.ac.uk


Growing Up in Scotland

Growing Up in Scotland is a major longitudinal research study following the lives of over 10,000 children across Scotland from infancy through to the teenage years. Parenting is one of a number of topics covered in the study, with the data able to tell us how parents in Scotland are parenting, what factors influence parenting and parenting practices, and how parenting affects childrens' outcomes. Some of the findings include:

• The support provided by grandparents should not be underestimated, with many grandparents involved in childcare or babysitting on a regular basis.
• Social support networks are very important in the lives of families with young children.
  
• Most mothers have contact with professionals, although young mothers, particularly lone mothers in low income groups are most wary of asking for help from professionals.
  
• Early parenting approaches and experiences have an impact on social, emotional and behavioural development at age 5.
• Children living in low-income households are doing home-learning activities like reading and singing less frequently, which impacts on cognitive development. They are also less likely to visit places like farms and museums.
  

For more information go to: www.growingupinscotland.org.uk

The National Parenting Strategy aims to highlight the value and importance of parenting, recognising the wide range of influences on growing children - mums, dads, grandparents and the wider family, foster, kinship and adoptive parents. The Government has asked partner organisations to engage with parents and others with a parenting role across Scotland, seeking their views of what would help them to be the best parents they can be for their children. They will then gather views from practitioners through the consultation on the Children's Services Bill, with a view to publishing the strategy later in 2012.

For more information please contact Clare.Collin@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Challenge on Dementia

Co-Director, Heather Wilkinson, has had her collaborative research project, Healthbridge, included as a case study in the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia.

According to a recent Alzheimer’s Society’s report, three-quarters of people in the UK feel that society is not geared up to deal with dementia. It also found that three in five (61 per cent) people diagnosed with dementia are left feeling lonely, four in five (77 per cent) feel anxious or depressed and nearly half (44 per cent) have lost friends.

The PM has announced his commitment to make the UK a world-leader in dementia research and care, saying that not enough is known about the disease and has set out how the UK Government will lead on research in this area.

Healthbridge is an evaluation of the English Dementia Strategy. The strategy stresses the importance of promoting the quality of life and well-being of those living with dementia and their carers. As part of the implementation of the Strategy, dementia advisers and peer support networks were established in 40 demonstrator sites across England. These have developed a range of different methods and approaches for enhancing the well-being and increasing the resilience of those living with the disease. The Healthbridge evaluation aims to:

• describe the range of dementia adviser and peer support organisational models developed; and their evolution, management and governance.
• evaluate the impact of the new service models in terms of:
• the well-being of patients and carers
• their contribution to the objective of the Strategy
• the integration, sustainability and transferability of the organisational models involved
• examine in depth the patient/carer experience of the new service models, in respect of increasing accessibility, improving involvement and information, enhancing support for making choices, and increasing independence.

The study began on 1 April 2010 and is due to complete in September 2012. Interim findings indicate:

• strengthened partnership working;
• increased awareness of dementia on the part of providers;
• support provided being seen to fill a 'gap' in existing provision;
• a perceived reduction in carer stress;
• appreciation from other providers of the value of the new services;
• a reduction in demand for statutory services; and
• a network built on commonality of experience.

Led by University of Edinburgh the Healthbridge team have been brought together from Edinburgh University and Glamorgan University. 

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:

“Dementia is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society and we are determined to transform the quality of dementia care for patients and their families. In England today there are an estimated 670,000 people living with dementia, a number that is increasing with one in three people set to develop dementia in the future.

“That is why the Challenge sets out the Government’s ambition to increase diagnosis rates, to raise awareness and understanding and to strengthen substantially our research efforts so we can help those living with dementia have a better quality of life.”

Two-thirds of families worse off compared with last year

Coinciding with this year’s budget announcement, research suggests nearly two-thirds of families find paying their bills is harder now than it was a year ago.

A third of households with children said they had suffered a significant downturn in their finances over the last 12 months, a sharper decline in fortune than homes with no children.

The survey was commissioned by Parenting Across Scotland, who are working with the University’s Centre for Research on Families and Relationships and Capability Scotland as part of the About Families partnership.

More than a thousand individuals in Scotland were asked if their household found it more or less difficult to pay bills such as mortgage, rent, council tax, TV licence or landline telephones compared to this time last year. The survey discovered that 61 per cent of households with children find it harder.

One third (32 per cent) of households with children found it a lot more difficult, significantly more than households without children (24 per cent), said the survey by TNS-BMRB.

The About Families partnership has produced a new report, Parenting On A Low Income. It found that specific family types, such as single parents and large families, are at most risk of sliding into poverty.

The report found that two-thirds of families affected by disability (64 per cent) said that the additional costs related to living with a disability impacted family life and increased stress.

Researchers found that cutting back harms parenting, there is little evidence that low income families mismanage their money, and most people living below the poverty line do not live in deprived areas.

The report calls for more affordable childcare to be made available.

Sarah Morton, Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, said:

“We know that the experience of living in poverty is overwhelmingly negative and has a range of impacts on families, including damage to health and well-being and restricted opportunities.  Current and future changes to welfare are forecast to increase child poverty, as well as poverty amongst families affected by disability. By gathering research evidence on this topic we hope that those delivering services will be better able to reflect on how living on low incomes affects family life and well-being, and develop effective ways to support parents to manage the many stresses it brings.”

Alison Clancy, Project Officer for Parenting Across Scotland, said: 

“Undoubtedly the economic downturn and welfare changes are having an adverse affect on family finances.  This survey finds that the scale of the challenge faced by families in Scotland is great.  Financial difficulties have an impact on the emotional well-being of families and can lead to family breakdown and stress.  We should and must continue to invest in families and children, we need to ensure that all Scotland's children are assured of an equal chance of health, well-being and economic prosperity.”

For more information about the project and to download the research reports please visit www.aboutfamilies.org.uk

Systems thinking, knowledge and action: towards better models and methods

Allan Best and Bev Holmes

Many thanks to the Annette Boaz, managing editor of Evidence & Policy and to Policy Press for agreeing to make this article open access until April 16 2012. 


Best and Holmes (2010) paper has been an important publication in informing recent approaches to knowledge exchange at CRFR. The KE reading group met to consider how thinking in different ways about the processes of knowledge exchange might inform our work.

The authors set out three ‘generations’ of thinking:

1. Linear models
2. Relationship models
3. System models

  

LINEAR MODELS

·        One-way process, ie research passed from researcher to user ·        Knowledge = product ·        Generalised across difference contexts and settings ·        Good when: Well defined criteria is met Good support for behaviour change Well-resourced

RELATIONSHIP MODELS

·          Characterised by relationships between people (networks) ·          Knowledge = from multiple sources ·          Collaboration in both creating research and using research ·          Good when Needs to be adapted to local setting Organisational culture favours evidence-informed planning

SYSTEM MODELS

·        Knowledge cycle tightly woven within priorities, culture and context ·        Circular model with emphasis on the importance of relationships, linkages and exchange ·        Explicit and tacit knowledge need to be integrated to inform decision-making and policy ·        Feedback loops essential ·        Good when: All stakeholders are active collaborators Partnering organisations willing to invest time and resources KE = business strategy

Members of the reading group easily identified examples of linear and relationship models of knowledge exchange in their own work and the work of others, and it was clear to see when each approach might work in relation to different kinds of problems or projects.  It was apparent that most of the work we were now involved with followed a relationship model and acknowledged the value of working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders in the both the planning and implementation of research.

Good working examples of a systems approach to knowledge exchange were less evident, although the About Families project based at CRFR was established within this type of approach.

We reflected on our experiences of trying to positively influence relationships through knowledge exchange activities in terms of how we set up and conduct  meetings, conferences and online forums. Allowing for engaged dialogue, especially between people from different sectors, and avoiding approaches where academics are seen as experts with all the answers, can help shape more productive exchanges.. There is though, still a difficulty in getting people from different sectors and organisations together to address issues, especially when their core work focuses on different areas, and their incentives and rewards push them in different directions.

Often the most effective people in bringing about change can be people on the periphery of the system rather than leaders, partly because people on the sidelines can afford to be more innovative and have less to lose than people in the centre. This might inform our choice of partners for KE, especially in more entrenched or controversial areas of work

We also questioned how easy it would be to define the parameters of working relationships within a system model, as such close working relationships and continuous feedback loops can lead to a greater dependence on key workers if not properly managed.

But using this framework helps us to think through the ways we communicate research, the relationships through which KE occurs, and the systems and contexts where change might happen. This is helpful for planning for more effective approaches to KE. It challenges us to move beyond some of the basic and tired approaches, and to think more deeply about what we are doing and why.

Best, A. and Holmes, B. (2010) Systems thinking, knowledge and action: towards better models and methods, Evidence & Policy, 6(2): 145-159.