Christopher Eisenstadt is Policy and Research Officer at Parenting NI, the charity that has been dedicated to providing free support for parents across Northern Ireland since 1979. Here, he writes about the findings from the organization’s latest survey of more than 1,300 local parents, which is released today.

 

More than 82 per cent of Northern Irish parents say that they feel there is not enough support for parents here, while more than two-thirds say they are more worried than hopeful about parenting in Northern Ireland in the future.

It is clear from the results of the latest “Big Parenting Survey” that there is a need for greater provision of parenting support. As the leading local provider of these services, Parenting NI is calling for more to be done urgently to expand the availability of help. More must also be done to address issues of accessibility for families, including addressing the pervasive stigma attached to seeking help with parenting.

Research indicates that parents are concerned that asking for help may result in being judged or their child being treated differently. In this way, the challenges for a provider of parenting support mirror challenges faced by mental health service providers. However, in order to deliver support that parents want and are willing to make use of, it is first necessary to ask them their views and experiences.

Over 1,300 parents from Northern Ireland answered our “Big Parenting Survey” this year. This is the second year we have run the survey and we had around 200 more responses than last year. The parents who answered represented a wide range of ages, family structures and community backgrounds.

This is of course an imperfect snapshot and there are areas where we will continue to look to improve representation in future reports. But nonetheless, we feel the survey presents an in-depth picture of parenting in Northern Ireland today.

And that picture is a deeply challenging one for policymakers and service providers.

An overwhelming number of parents – 82 per cent – felt that they did not get enough support; a level that is unchanged from last year’s survey. Additionally, 69 per cent of parents said they were more worried than hopeful about parenting in the future. This was an increase of three per cent compared to last year, indicating that little has changed in that time and that hope is even on the decline.

Parents said they had a number of areas of concern, but the three most pressing were mental health, technology and changes in society. An interesting aspect of these answers was that parents were noting concerns about their own mental health more often than those of children. Parents expressed clear concerns about the impact of poor parental mental health on children. Around 30 per cent of parents told us that they felt their hopes for their children were “unachievable” in Northern Ireland.

Concerning technology, social media and smartphone use were seen as having the biggest bearing on children’s wellbeing. Three-quarters of parents agreed that it had a significant impact. More than 70 per cent said they felt it was hard to monitor. Less than a quarter felt they got sufficient help with technology.

We also asked parents what kind of support they wanted to receive. For technology issues, schools were identified as most appropriate for help. With general parenting issues, there was a fairly even split between those parents that wanted a form of online support and those who wanted in-person help. Online supports like an app, website or webchat were popular, as were counselling and parenting programmes.

Overall, the survey made clear that parenting in Northern Ireland in 2020 is difficult. Parents are clear that they need more help, and are clear on what they wanted to see.

I would encourage you to read the full report and if you are a parent who might need help, know you can reach out to Parenting NI, either on our support line (0808 8010 722) or via our website.