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Members’ Exchange Seminar 2007
Supporting Immigrant Parents
Belfast, 27 April 2007
Simten Goren, Hogeschool Amsterdam
Henk Dries, Nederlands Jeugdinstituut
Families and Children
 Age of the mothers at first birth - 29 year
 33% of marriages ends in divorce
 6-10% of children lives in poor households
 1-4% of children engaged in reports on child
abuse
 10% of the children live in single parent families
 3% live in stepfamilies
The Balance of Parenting
• 75 % of parents seeks support (in their own
environment)
• 15 % of parents has moderate problems: active
looking for professional support
• 5 % of parents experiences serious problems:
searching for help
• 2% multi-problem families
Governement policy
 Modest national policy > local responsibility
 Reasonable amount of basic institutions
 Minister of Youth & Family
 Well baby clinics > well child & family centers
 ‘What works’ databank
 National legislation:
5 tasks: detection, info, advice, help, coordination
Entitlement to youth care
Responsibility for communities
Centres for Youth and Family:
• to inform and advise all parents, children and young
people
• to detect developmental and parenting problems at
an early stage
• to show the way to support and care
• to help parents to parent (selfhelp, training skills,
social support)
• to coordinate care (assistance on dayly practice at
home)
Parenting Support is:
• providing information on development and
upbringing;
• organizing self-help and social support around
children and parenting;
• giving pedagogical advice and initial pedagogical
assistance;
• detecting developmental problems at an early stage
and referring parents to the appropriate agencies.
Successful and effective methods
• Home-Start: Volunteers offer support, friendship
and practical assistance to families with young
children who are under pressure
• Mothers Inform Mothers: For a period of 18 months
after the birth of their first child,mothers are visited at
home once a month by an experienced mother
• Home-visiting by Public Health nurses (D. Olds)
Successful and effective methods
− Parent training in groups: (parenting courses)
•
Opvoeden en zo! A parent training course
aimed at increasing parenting theory and skills
and at exchanging experiences between parents
of children aged between 3 and 12.
•
Beter omgaan met pubers: A similar training is
developed for parents of 12–18-year-olds
Triple P in The Netherlands
The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is a multilevel, parenting and family support strategy. Triple P
aims to prevent behavioral, emotional and
developmental problems in children by enhancing
the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents.
Triple P incorporates five levels of intervention of
increasing strength for parents of children from
birth to age 16.
This program has been chosen as evidenced-base
program for the implementation in Holland
Opstapje & Opstap
General objective is to prepare children adequately for
the basic level needed in primary schools
facilitate transition from home to elementary, from
home and elementary to primary school
for 2-4 and 4-6 years old with disadvantaged
backgrounds
Programme aims:
• stimulating mother-child interaction
• stimulate language and cognitive development as
well as social development (till the level Dutch
primary school expects the child to have)