Swedish child health nurses treat fathers more equally in 2014 than 2004, but mothers remain their primary focus.

Abstract

This study focused on Swedish child health nurses' attitudes and the support they provided to fathers and mothers, highlighting changes from 2004 to 2014. In 2014, 363 child health nurses in Stockholm County completed a 23-item questionnaire, similar to the questionnaire by Massoudi et al. in 2004, on their attitudes and the support they gave to fathers and mothers. Analyses were completed using chi-square tests of nurses' attitudes and support to fathers and mothers, and the results from the 2004 and 2014 studies were compared. In 2014, the vast majority of nurses fully agreed that it was important to have close contact with both parents, but more than two-thirds did not feel they had the same competencies for mothers and fathers and three quarters found it complicated to support both parents. The majority viewed fathers more equally in 2014 than in 2004 and although they did provide more support to both parents, mothers in 2014 still received more support than fathers. While Swedish child health nurses viewed fathers as more equal to mothers in 2014 than 2004, mothers still received the majority of the parenting support.