De behoefte aan opvoedingsondersteuning op Curaçao.<br> Een onderzoek onder opvoeders met kinderen in de leeftijd van 0-4 jaar

Abstract

The need for parenting support of parents and other caretakers of children in the age of 3 months to 4 years were examined. 151 primary caretakers were interviewed in Well Baby Clinics on the island of Curaçao. The caretakers were asked about (the burden of) their questions, worries or problems, their needs for support and their unfulfilled needs for support. They were also inquired about their sources of support, the number of risk factors and the degree of parenting stress. The study showed that almost all caretakers had questions concerning raising children, especially pertaining to difficult behaviour of the child, during the past twelve months. One third of these questions comprised an actual burden. Family functioning was the largest domain of need for support. Housing, social network, behaviour and parenting problems followed in that order. This need of support was unfulfilled in half of the cases. Especially caretakers in impoverished neighbourhoods had a highly unfulfilled need for support. Caretakers do not only want support from their social network but also from the professional network. Especially the Well Baby Clinic and the general practitioner are important sources of support. Furthermore it was found that the unfulfilled needs for support and the total amount of burdened questions both had strong relations with the amount of experienced stress and with the number of risk factors.