Young Jailbirds Get Parent Education

Eight teenage fathers or fathers-to-be aged between 16 and 18 at Christchurch Prison’s Youth Unit went through a five-session course on parenting and fatherhood facilitated by Father & Child Trust staff at the request of the Youth Unit.

The course is believed to be the first such initiative anywhere in New Zealand.

The course was designed after a focus group was held to determine what participants most wanted to get out of it, and the resulting course covered early childhood development as well as Family Law issues and the impact of ‘lifestyle choices’ such as drugs and alcohol on parenting.

Feedback obtained after the course was unanimous in that the course was too short and more was needed.
Trust workers were surprised by the high proportion of parents in the 40-bed unit, which is about 100 times higher than in the general population of this age group.

New Fathers Misunderstood Says Nelson Study

A study by the Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology and the Public Health Service has found that new fathers are worried about different things than what their partners think they are worried about!

The new fathers participating in the study ranked three issues most important of all: the lack of involvement in the transition process to parenthood, a stressed relationship with the partner, and the joys of being a dad.

However, the mothers in the study thought their men are at least just as concerned with money, sex and the gender of the baby – issues that were mentioned in the men’s interviews, but not even ranked as important.

“The data ranked as important by the women (but not by the men) tends to reflect commonly held views about how men respond to fatherhood.” write researchers David Mitchell and Philip Chapman.

“This raises questions about discourse that is dominant, where it originates and whose interests it reflects.”
The researchers acknowledge the limitations of their study, which involved only 11 couples who were interviewed in gender-specific groups before the birth and 6 months after.

The fathers in the study also widely criticised not being involved by midwives, Plunket nurses or other providers and ranked this as one of the top issues.

Father & Child Trust Coordinator Harald Breiding-Buss, who has worked with men in antenatal classes for 9 years, agrees with the findings. “The failure of ‘maternity’ services to address, or even know about, new fathers real concerns is a major contributing factor to relationships making an irreversible turn for the worse around this time”, he says.

“We’re having a 21st century maternity service system based on 1950′s stereotypical beliefs.”

Previous research by the Mitchell/Chapman team had found similar discrepancies between views and needs that men expressed to their interviewers, and perceptions held by maternity health professionals

Father Initiatives Snubbed by Government Funders

Funding for father services in New Zealand remains marginal after both national and local government funders have declined parting with money for solid project proposals by the Father & Child Trust.

The Trust is the only legal entity in New Zealand providing on-the-ground services specifically for fathers and the children in their care.

S.K.I.P., a fund administered by the Ministry of Social Development, declined an application for renewal of funding for the Trust’s parent education project, targeting specifically marginalised groups of fathers, after having provided financial support since 2004.

The position was subsequently made redundant.

A research project aiming to establish support needs of solo fathers was declined by the ‘Blue Skies Fund’, a Families Commission fund.

And shortly before Christmas the Christchurch City Council decided not to support a Trust project on parent education for inmates at Christchurch Prison’s Youth Unit for funding through the Ministry of Youth Development’s ‘Youth Development Partnership Fund’.

In all three cases the reason given was that the funders felt applications did not match the criteria closely enough.

The Trust has never received significant amounts of government funding in its 10 year history with the exception of two years of SKIP funding worth about $55,000.

Its teenage fathers survey, for example, had been funded by a Netherlands-based Early Childhood Development agency because no monies could be obtained in New Zealand.

Growth in Single Parent Households Halted – Census

The steady growth of single-parent households that began in the early 80s has turned into a small decline, according to 2006 Census data.

30% of households with children were single parent households in 2006, compared to 31% in 2001. Only the West Coast regions of both islands were bucking the trend with slight increases.

The drop in single parent households was strongest in the South Island, especially in Canterbury, Otago and Tasman regions.

The region with the highest proportion of single parent households is Gisborne at 40%, the lowest is Tasman at 24%.

More detailed data, such as sex of parent in single parent households, or age of parents, is not yet available from Statistics New Zealand.

Census and other statistical data is available from the Statistics New Zealand web site www.stats.govt.nz or through any of their offices.