Parental empowerment-Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or queer parents' perceptions of maternity and child healthcare.

AIM: Describe empowerment in maternity and child healthcare from the perspective of self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer (LGBTQ) parents in Finland. BACKGROUND: Parental empowerment is a core aspect of maternity and child healthcare. However, knowledge about LGBTQ parents' perceptions about empowerment is still lacking. METHOD: Qualitative design, 22 parents participating. The interviews were conducted in between July and September 2016 and analysed using inductive content analysis. FINDINGS: Three core categories emerged as follows: (a) recognition and acknowledgment, particularly being treated as a parent, irrespective of any biological or legal ties to a child; (b) cooperation and interaction, such as working together, respecting parents' autonomy, and supporting parents' full involvement; (c) equitable care, such as parents' trust in services, but also a health-care professional's knowledge of a family's special needs. CONCLUSION: Empowerment was perceived as the parents' sense of being visible and recognized as a parent. This recognition requires education and structures that are inclusive of all families. In addition, the language used by professionals was a key indicator for promoting positive feelings of comfort and safety for all families.

Perceived influence, decision-making and access to information in family services as factors of parental empowerment: a cross-sectional study of parents with young children.

BACKGROUND: Parental empowerment is known to increase parents' resources and to reduce stress, and therefore to improve family well-being. Professionals working in family services (child health clinics, school health care, day care, preschool and primary school) encounter families in various everyday settings and can significantly support parental empowerment. AIM: This study aimed (i) to identify associations between parental empowerment and demographic and family service characteristics (i.e. parents' participation and perceived influence, decision-making and access to information) and (ii) to identify predictors of maternal and paternal empowerment. METHOD: Study design was cross-sectional. Participants were mothers (n = 571) and fathers (n = 384) of children aged 0-9 who were selected by stratified random sampling in 2009. Associations were analysed by t-test, one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Sufficient perceived influence and joint decision-making by family and professionals on family service appointments emerged as significant variables of increased parental empowerment. Access to adequate information about municipal services was also associated with high empowerment. These family service characteristics were associated with parents' sense that they were able to manage in everyday life and had influence on specific service situations and family services in general. Mothers with a child aged under 3 or a child in home care or primary school, and fathers with a lower education feel less empowered in family services than other parents. CONCLUSION: Knowledge about the factors associated with parental empowerment can contribute to further reinforce parental empowerment, help identify parents who need special attention and contribute to the development of family services.

Validity and reliability of the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale (FES) for the social, health and educational services in Finland.

AIM: This paper reports a study testing of the validity and reliability of the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale in family services in Finland. BACKGROUND: The role of family services in parental reinforcement is important, given their extensive reach to most families and their aim of promoting family welfare. No instruments applicable to this situation were available in Finland. The Family Empowerment Scale is a widely used instrument that measures parent's empowerment. The personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale enables an evaluation of the reinforcement of empowerment. DESIGN: This study used a cross-sectional survey design. METHODS: The Family Empowerment Scale was modified to measure how family services personnel evaluate reinforcement of parental empowerment. In May 2009, a questionnaire was sent to unit heads (n = 457) in public social, health and educational services for families with children aged 0-9 years. The construct, convergent and discriminant validities, reliability and responsiveness of the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale were assessed. RESULTS: According to confirmatory factor analysis, the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale comprised three subscales (family, service system and community) as in the original Family Empowerment Scale. Confirmed convergent and discriminant validities supported the same construct. The reliability of the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale was acceptable. The reinforcement level of parental empowerment was high. Parental empowerment was reinforced most in health and least in educational services. CONCLUSION: The psychometric properties of the personnel version of the Family Empowerment Scale were acceptable. It can serve as a generic instrument for assessing reinforcement of empowerment in family services in Finland.

The systematic review of effective interventions to promote collaboration between families and social and health services.

The increasing need for support and the fragmented nature of the service system challenge us to develop services for children and their families. Child and family services are provided by the public, private and third sectors, which according to research have little or no reciprocal co-operation. The review produced information on co-operation interventions used by service providers in the field of health care, social care and education. The current evidence base is too heterogeneous and sparse to draw conclusions on the overall effectiveness of interventions to co-operation. Further high quality studies examining the effectiveness of co-operation interventions are required.

Functionality of cooperation between health, welfare and education sectors serving children and families.

INTRODUCTION: Children and their families use a lot of different services, which poses challenges in terms of cooperation between service providers. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the functioning of this cooperation between services for children and families in Finland's mainland municipalities from the viewpoints of employees and managers. METHOD: The study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey design. Data were gathered using two postal surveys from employees and managers working in health care, social welfare and educational settings. The data consisted of responses from 457 employees and 327 managers. RESULTS: Employees working in primary health care and education services assessed cooperation as working better than did those working in social welfare, special health care or mental health and substance abuse services. Well-functioning cooperation at the operational and strategic level was related to good awareness of services and to agreed and well-functioning cooperation practices with few barriers to cooperation. Employees were more critical than managers concerning the occurrence of barriers and about the agreed cooperation practices. CONCLUSIONS: Successful cooperation in providing services for children and families requires an awareness of services, management structures that support cooperation, agreed practices and efforts to overcome barriers to cooperation.

Predictors of depressive symptoms among coronary heart disease patients: A cross-sectional study nine years after coronary artery bypass grafting.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to identify the incidence of depression and its associations with demographic, lifestyle, perceived health, symptoms, treatment, and social support variables in patients 9 years after a coronary artery bypass graft. METHODS: The questionnaire was mailed to 152 surviving patients who had undergone a coronary artery bypass graft 9 years earlier, and who had been respondents in an earlier study. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and social support was measured using Social Support from the Network Scale. Descriptive statistics and the linear regression method were used for analysis. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were reported by one fourth of the patients. The predictors for depressive symptoms included gender, perceived health, cardiac ischemic symptoms at rest, and emotional social support, which explained 24% of the variance. Controlling for gender revealed that the predictors for women and men were different. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is more difficult to predict in men than in women.

The design and development of the father-child instrument (FCI) for assessing the characteristics of fathers' availability and engagement with their preschool children.

Despite the fact that father-child involvement has extensive effects on the health and well-being of the family, there is a paucity of research on fathers' presence in health care research. The design and development of an instrument for assessing the characteristics of fathers' availability and engagement with their preschool-aged children in Finland is presented. Data collection was undertaken in two separate periods involving 263 and 821 fathers. Results indicate that the father-child instrument (FCI) is ready for use in research seeking to assess fathers' availability and engagement with their preschoolers. Further research is nonetheless required to assess the potential for a more sensitive interaction and for the generalization of the FCI.