Abstract
This article explores parenting support as a field of social policy in Europe by comparing developments in England, France, Germany and Italy. The results suggest cross-national diversity and a need to differentiate between parental support for more general family purposes and measures oriented to teach parents particular skills in childraising. Comparatively, England has by far the most extensive architecture of services to engage with parents and is set apart from the other countries also in terms of the extent to which ‘support’ means intervention to (re) skill or (re)train parents through standardised parenting programmes. Elsewhere, ‘support’ has deeper roots in education for family and social life and interventions tend to be more tailored and home-grown. However, despite varying philosophies of child and family welfare, they all show evidence of a move in the direction of greater state engagement with how parents rear their children and their competence in this role.
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