Tekijät

• Central Union for Child Welfare
• Taloustutkimus

Asiasanat

children, families, family benefits, family life, family members, parent attitude, parental role, parents, public services

Sisällön kuvaus

The survey charted the needs of Finnish families with children. Different forms of aid were also investigated. The questions focused on sources of aid, the role of organizations as service providers in the society, child-free services, and the internet as a source of help and information.

The respondents' participation in organizations was investigated first by asking if they were a member, a volunteer, in a position of responsibility or did not participate at all in organizations. Next, the respondents were asked to choose between organizations, municipality, parishes, or private companies as service providers given that they all would cost the same. The services included children's day care, therapy, competitive and non-competitive recreational activities, and advice for parenting, among other things. Sources of aid were investigated by asking who had aided the family within the past year.

The respondents were asked to choose whether they would rather receive help from their friends and family, a volunteer, or a professional in case of family-related problems. Examples of these problems included "a situation where I need help setting boundaries for my child", and "a situation where I need legal counsel on matters related to my family and children". Next, the respondents were presented with a list of words and short statements and asked to attribute each of the statements to either organizations, municipality, parishes, or private companies. The words and statements included, for example, "qualified", "reliable", "only available to people who are well off" and "I have bad experiences".

The respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with several statements regarding organizations and parenting. The respondents were also asked about whether they had sought help on the internet on issues such as bullying or financial situation. Opinions on child-free services were examined by presenting the respondents with a set of statements such as "Parents who take small children into aeroplanes are more selfish than those who wish for child-free flights" and "I'm interested in child-free hotels when I'm on vacation without children". Finally the respondents were asked if they were familiar with the logo of the Emma & Elias support programme for families with children.

The background variables included gender, year of birth, regional variables, educational level, profession, latest employer, family type, ages of children living at home, household size, and yearly household gross income.