Need and demand for parenting programmes in general practice

• Published in: Archives of disease in childhood Vol. 87; no. 6; pp. 468 - 471
• Main Authors: Patterson, J, Mockford, C, Barlow, J, Pyper, C, Stewart-Brown, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 01.12.2002; BMJ; BMJ Publishing Group Ltd; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Age; Attitude to Health; Behavior; behaviour problems; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Behavior; Child Behavior Disorders - psychology; Child behaviour; Child Development; Child Health; Child mental health; Child Rearing; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Education; Employment Level; England; Ethnic Groups; Ethnicity; Families & family life; Family Practice - organization & administration; Female; Forecasting; general practice; Health aspects; Health Promotion; Health services; Health Services Needs and Demand - statistics & numerical data; Health Services Needs and Demand - trends; Housing; Humans; Inventory; Male; Marital Status; Medical sciences; Mental health; One Parent Family; Original; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parenting - trends; parenting programmes; Parents; Parents & parenting; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Population; Prevention and actions; Psychological aspects; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Qualitative research; Questionnaires; Single parents; Social Class; Social classes; Social Development; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Specific populations (family, woman, child, elderly...); Study and teaching; survey; Tenure; England; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Human; Socioeconomic status; Parent; Call for information; Social need; Educational schedule; Child; Statistical study; Public health; Care
• ISSN: 0003-9888; 1468-2044
• DOI: 10.1136/adc.87.6.468

Aims: To establish the prevalence of behaviour problems and the level of interest in parenting programmes in a population sample of parents of children aged 2–8 years, and to assess to what extent they are associated with socioeconomic factors. Methods: Postal survey of parents of children aged 2–8 years registered with three general practitioner surgeries; 70% response rate. Results: One fifth of parents from this population sample were experiencing difficulties with their children’s behaviour. While behaviour problems were more prevalent in the manual social classes, “need” was high across all social groups. Just under a fifth of parents reported prior attendance at a parenting programme and 58% expressed interest in attending in the future. Interest in attending a parenting programme was not class related, but was predicted by the age of the eldest child and the existence of behaviour problems. Conclusion: Behaviour problems are an important public health issue. Findings support the use of a non-selective approach to the provision of parenting programmes in the UK.