Parenting in Poor Environments

With a unique focus on the effects of poverty on parenting in Britain, this book explores what professionals and policy makers can do to support families living in poverty.

The authors examine community-level poverty and its relationship to family and individual problems such as low income, poor mental health and child behavioural difficulties. Using data from the first nationally representative survey of parents living in especially poor circumstances, they assess the wider help parents receive, both through formal support services and through informal networks of family and friends. Drawing on a study of 1750 parents by the Policy Research Bureau for Department of Health, this book shows what service-users think of the resources available to them and how policy and practice in family support services could be improved.

Deborah Ghate was formerly Director at the Policy Research Bureau (PRB), an independent not for profit centre specialising in applied social policy research in the area of children, young people and families. She has since become a Principal Research Officer at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. Her recent work has included a national evaluation of services for parents provided through the youth justice system, research on how fathers use family support services, a major review of the international research evidence on ‘what works' in parenting support, and a number of evaluations of community-based initiatives supporting parents and children in high need communities.

Neal Hazel was a Senior Research Fellow at the Policy Research Bureau. Since 2003 Neal Hazel has been a lecturer in criminology at the University of Salford, UK.