Opinions and expectations of fathers of young families of family counselling--the Finnish Family Competence Study.

Abstract

Opinions and experiences of fathers of young families were studied from questionnaires distributed through maternity welfare centres (MWC) and child welfare centres (CWC) in the provinces of Turku and Pori, southwestern Finland. The first phase of the Finnish Family Competence Study included a total of 1,414 fathers of families expecting their first baby. Of these, 1,279 responded to the first survey questionnaire. After the baby's birth, 1,134 responded to a second questionnaire. The present study used results obtained from these two inquiries. Special attention was paid to factors associated with fathers' participating in family counselling. The conventional methods of family training used in MWCs and CWCs do not always seem to be suitable for the Finnish man. Industrial employees and young fathers were irregular attendants of the family training sessions, although young fathers found them useful, especially for combating anxiety in novel family situations. They would have liked to receive more information on social support available to young families. Despite the apparently positive results, these subgroups clearly did not realize that they were expected to ask for more information during the training sessions, due to their low base of knowledge. The heaviest criticism of the training system was presented by fathers belonging to the professional subgroup. The fathers specifically complained that they had not been sufficiently informed about the possible psychological changes which they might experience during the wife's pregnancy and the birth of the child.