The conditions of parenthood are affected by several factors, such as access to social support and parenting support, but also the parent's self-efficacy. In addition to these factors, foreign-born parents risk being affected by difficulties in adapting parenthood to the cultural and normative differences that exist between their home country and Sweden. They can therefore be seen as a group where society's offer of parenting support is particularly important.The aim of the study was to investigate how group leaders experience that the parental support program Parenting in Sweden can promote parental self-efficacy. The method was qualitative with an inductive approach where the purposeful sampling was supplemented with snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted in semi-structured form and analysed based on a manifest qualitative content analysis.The results showed that group leaders have positive experiences of the parental support programs’ promotive ability. On the other hand, the short duration of the programme is seen as an obstacle. The conclusions were that the parenting support program has the potential to promote parental self-efficacy through access to social support, the knowledge enhancing approach and the opportunity to improve the relationship between parents and their children. / Förutsättningarna i föräldraskapet påverkas av en rad faktorer, såsom tillgången till socialt stöd och föräldraskapsstöd men också förälderns självtillit. Utrikesfödda föräldrar riskerar att utöver dessa faktorer också påverkas av svårigheter att anpassa föräldraskapet till de kulturella och normativa skillnaderna som finns mellan hemlandet och Sverige. De kan därför ses som en grupp där samhällets erbjudande om föräldraskapsstöd är särskilt viktigt.Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur gruppledare upplever att föräldraskapsstödsprogrammet Föräldraskap i Sverige kan främja självtillit i föräldraskapet. Metoden var kvalitativ med induktiv ansats där det målstyrda urvalet kompletterats med snöbollsurval. Intervjuerna genomfördes i semistrukturerad form och analyserades utifrån en manifest kvalitativ innehållsanalys.Resultatet visade att gruppledare har positiva upplevelser av föräldraskapsstödsprogrammets främjade förmåga. Däremot ses programmets korta varaktighet som en hindrande faktor. Slutsatserna var att föräldraskapsstödsprogrammet har förutsättningar att främja självtilliten i föräldraskapet genom tillgången till socialt stöd, det kunskapshöjande tillvägagångssättet och möjlighet att förbättra relationen mellan föräldrarna och deras barn.

Intellektuellt funktionsnedsatta personers rättigheter och levnadsomständigheter har avsevärt förbättrats de senaste decennierna vilket även lett till att de i allt större utsträckning väljer att skaffa barn. Då den intellektuella funktionsnedsättningens begränsningar kan vara en försvårande omständighet för föräldraskapet kan dessa familjer behöva samhällets stöd. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka tankar och erfarenheter kring de utmaningar professionella upplever i sitt arbete med att stödja dessa familjer. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med professionella som arbetar med målgruppen. Empirin har analyserats utifrån Michael Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater vilken belyser de professionellas upplevda utmaningar i arbetet i relation till den byråkratisering och organisationsstruktur som präglar offentliga förvaltningar och leder till oönskade konsekvenser för såväl professionella som för klienter. Resultatet ger en djupare förståelse för hur organisatoriska förutsättningar kan ligga till grund för de olika utmaningar professionella upplever i sitt arbete med familjer där föräldrar har en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. / The rights and living conditions of intellectually disabled people have significantly improved in recent decades, which has also led to them increasingly choosing to have children. Since the limitations of intellectual disability can be an aggravating circumstance for parenthood, these families may need the support of society. The purpose of the study has been to investigate thoughts and experiences about the challenges professionals experience in their work to support these families. The study has been conducted with a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews with professionals working with the target group. The empiricism has been analyzed based on Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats, which highlights the professionals' perceived challenges in the work in relation to the bureaucratization and organizational structure that characterizes public administrations and leads to undesirable consequences for both professionals and clients. The result provides a deeper understanding of how organizational conditions can form the basis for the various challenges professionals experience in their work with families where parents have an intellectual disability.

This thesis focuses on the development of Gestalt guidelines to assist parents to enhance psychosocial development in middle childhood. The researcher made use of the four stages of the intervention research process, namely project planning, information gathering, design, and early development of the guidelines to complete this research study. For the purposes of this study middle childhood is defined as male and female children between the age of seven and twelve years. Some areas of psychosocial development and relevant Gestalt principles are highlighted in this study. Functional elements of existing parenting programs are discussed and utilised along with the views of the respondents in this study, those of experts, and literature reviews to design Gestalt guidelines with an observational system. / Social Work / M.Diac.

This thesis focuses on the development of Gestalt guidelines to assist parents to enhance psychosocial development in middle childhood. The researcher made use of the four stages of the intervention research process, namely project planning, information gathering, design, and early development of the guidelines to complete this research study. For the purposes of this study middle childhood is defined as male and female children between the age of seven and twelve years. Some areas of psychosocial development and relevant Gestalt principles are highlighted in this study. Functional elements of existing parenting programs are discussed and utilised along with the views of the respondents in this study, those of experts, and literature reviews to design Gestalt guidelines with an observational system. / Social Work / M.Diac.

The political debate concerning parent education and parenting support between 1964 and 2009 has been scrutinized in this study in the light of the development of and changes in the welfare state. The investigation is based upon the analysis of official government inquiries and parliamentary papers dealing with parent education and parenting support. This study analyzes the different choices in the organization of welfare relevant to children and the family for which political actors have argued, and it examines the views on the relations between children, parents, family and the welfare state that were expressed in the argumentation. Parent education and parenting support aim at changing the living conditions of children by means of the parents. The study shows that the interest in this type of investment has been shared by both the political left and center-right, but from different arguments and political visions on how welfare for children and families with children should be organized, as well as from different views of the role of parent education and parenting support in the welfare. / I den här avhandlingen granskas den politiska debatten om föräldrautbildning och föräldrastöd mellan 1964 och 2009 i ljuset av välfärdssamhällets utveckling och förändring. Studien bygger på en analys av betänkanden från statliga utredningar och riksdagstryck i frågan om föräldrautbildning och föräldrastöd. I studien granskas vilka vägval i organiseringen av välfärden kring barn och familj som politiska aktörer har argumenterat för och vilken syn på relationerna mellan barn, föräldrar, familj och välfärdsstat som kommit till uttryck i argumentationen. Föräldrautbildning och föräldrastöd syftar till att förändra barns villkor genom att påverka föräldrarna. Analysen visar att intresset för denna typ av åtgärd har delats av såväl vänster som borgerliga, men utifrån skilda argument och politiska visioner för hur välfärden kring barn och barnfamiljen ska organiseras, såväl som utifrån olika sätt att se på föräldrautbildningens och föräldrastödets roll i välfärden.

Intensifying interventions to improve the quality of care that children receive from parents/ primary caregivers is mandated by several strategic objectives, such as the National Plan of Action for Children 2012-2017 (South Africa 2012), the White Paper on Families in South Africa (2013), and the Children’s Amendment Act 41 of 2007 (South Africa 2007). Parenting programmes remain popular parenting interventions (Daly, Bray, Bruckauf, Byrne, Margaria, Pecnik & Samms-Vaughan 2015:18; Richter & Naicker 2013:9) reporting outcomes of enhanced parent-child relationships, improved behaviour of children, and reduced parental stress. There is a concern that parenting programmes offered in South Africa lack evidence of their efficacy (Wessels 2012:9) and cultural and contextual relevance for the recipients (Begle, Lopez, Cappa, Dumas & de Arellano 2012:56; Richter & Naicker 2013:1). The study developed a locally specific parenting support intervention for parents/ primary caregivers living in the low-cost housing development of Welbedacht East using the Intervention Development Design model. Parents/ primary caregivers were involved throughout the study, contributing to the intervention’s applicability, as well as its contextual and cultural relevance. Bioecological and social inclusion theories framed the study. A qualitative research approach supported by an exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Two purposive samples (parents/ primary caregivers and community champions) were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke 2006) produced the findings that were presented at a consultation workshop attended by research participants and relevant stakeholders where the parameters of the intervention were determined. These were subsequently developed into the elements and intervention protocols by four indigenous community experts following the Delphi process. Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) approach to trustworthiness as presented by Porter (2007:85) and Thomas and Magilvy (2011:152) was used. Cultural competence was maintained throughout and ethical considerations were observed to circumvent harm to participants and uphold the integrity of the research process. The perceptions of the parents/ primary caregivers were consistent with scholarly indicators of ‘good enough’ parenting, but the contextual stressors they experienced challenges their ability to fulfil some of these indicators. An intervention was needed to increase parental capacity to improve parent-child relationships, cultivate life skills for improved psychological health, and advance the financial independence of parents. It was concluded that a parenting programme on its own would fail to address the most pressing needs of parents/ primary caregivers living in disadvantaged circumstances and custom-made parenting support interventions were needed to increase parental capacity to manage the structural challenges that compromised parenting, such as socioeconomic interventions of a social developmental nature. / Social Work / D. Phil. (Social Work)