CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION
6.1 This report has examined data from the first sweep of Growing Up in Scotland and the data is somewhat limited in the extent to which it permits detailed exploration of the informal support networks of parents with young children. As such, the report represents an introduction to the more comprehensive examination of informal support networks that will be possible after future sweeps of data collection. Nevertheless, it does present a number of important findings about the significance and structure of informal support networks for parents with young children and how structures and patterns of use vary amongst different parents.
6.2 One important and central finding from this report supports that of other research in this area (Edwards and Gillies, 2004). That is, that rather than bringing up children in isolation, most families are involved in often complex informal support networks; almost all parents have access to and make considerable use of an informal network variously composed of friends, family and other parents for support, information and advice on a range of parenting concerns. For example, around one-third of parents in the birth cohort were classed as having high access to sources of informal support - indicating that all, or almost all, of the informal resources considered were available to them - less than one-fifth were classed as having only low access and virtually none reported that they had no access to any of the informal resources considered.
6.3 The examination of attitudes towards seeking help and/or advice indicated that groups of parents who may be described as economically disadvantaged or socially excluded, particularly in terms of a lack of educational qualifications, lack of employment, and with a lower household income, were less sure about asking for help and more wary of the implications of seeking professional help than those of more educated, economically active and affluent status. This lack of confidence in seeking help and wariness of formal intervention impacted on network structure and use of informal support.
6.4 Study of the composition of social networks, that is, the actual sources used, provided some further insight into the types of sources available to parents and identified some small but important distinctions in the types of informal support that different parents accessed. Younger mothers, those who were unemployed and those on lower incomes, for example, were shown to draw on a more limited support network, relying much more on their own parents for support than did older mothers and those with higher incomes. There is an indication in the data in fact, that mothers in the latter groups appear to draw on support largely, and in some case only, from people who are already known to them before having the child. In contrast, for those mothers in more economically advantageous situations, having a child seems to extend their social and support network so that their resources, whilst including both kin and friends, move beyond 'known' individuals to also include 'other parents' such as those they may encounter at mother and child groups for example. Indeed, the report has shown how older mothers and those in couple families were more likely to attend mother and child groups, and thus have the opportunity to extend their informal support network, than younger mothers and lone parents were.
6.5 For the most part, different parents - those of varying age or socio-economic circumstances for example - accessed and used informal support in very similar ways and only small differences in the extent to which informal support was used were evident in the data. Around 90% of parents in both samples had drawn on an informal source for advice or support in at least one of the situations included and many did so regularly in many circumstances. Support from the child's grandparents was also well used across the sample. Around one-third of families in each cohort scored 6 or 7 on the grandparent support index indicating that the child's grandparents provided all, or almost all, types of help and support considered.
6.6 Although having a more limited network structure, for the most part, younger mothers and those on low incomes relied on and used informal support just as much as other mothers. However, the particular composition of their networks suggests that almost all of this support is being provided by a smaller number of people than in other cases, and possibly just one person in some circumstances - most likely the respondent's mother (the child's maternal grandmother), although the data is not detailed enough to support this. Analysis of support from grandparents reinforces this; mothers in the youngest age group and in the lowest income quartile were more likely to report high grandparental support than those who were older and those with higher incomes.
6.7 Despite generally widespread use of informal support amongst all parents, there is some indication that parents who are unemployed and those with no qualifications - that is, the same groups who have most difficulty seeking help, who are most wary of formal support, and, according to previous research (Anderson et al, 2007), are less likely to be using formal support - are also less likely to be drawing on informal support. It is arguably these socially excluded parents, with a more limited support network at their disposal, who in fact require higher levels of support in order to ensure that the barriers caused by unemployment, low income and lack of education are overcome and the child involved reaches his or her full potential. In policy terms therefore, there is a case for considering appropriate and targeted initiatives which aim to compensate for the support deficit that these parents experience. This is particularly challenging because of the observed wariness of formal intervention among these parents and their dislike of support delivered in traditional formats (such as ante-natal classes) suggesting the need for consideration of more innovative and less obvious formal services.
6.8 Subsequent sweeps of Growing Up in Scotland have collected further and more detailed information on the composition and use of informal networks by parents of young children. When this data is available, further analysis will allow a more thorough examination of informal support and, through longitudinal analysis, permit exploration of how differences in the structure of informal support networks and levels of use of informal support impact on both child and parental well-being.