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CHAPTER FOUR USING SOURCES OF INFORMAL SUPPORT

Introduction

4.1. Having access to various sources of informal support does not imply that those sources were necessarily used nor does it provide any information on the nature of the support for which the various sources were used. To examine the extent to which parents actually used informal sources for support, and the type of support provided, a further set of variables were considered. As the questionnaire contained a discrete section on the specific support offered by the child's grandparents, these variables are considered separately in chapter five.

Mother and child groups

4.2 Informal mother and child groups are common throughout Scotland, and the rest of the UK, existing in some form in most localities. Often attached to community centres, churches or other neighbourhood hubs, these groups provide space and resources for children to play and allow mothers access to other mothers as an informal resource.

4.3 Around four out of ten respondents in both cohorts said they had attended a parent and child group in the last year with attendance slightly higher amongst parents in the older cohort (39% in the birth cohort, 43% in the child cohort). Attendance was also higher among mothers from couple families and older mothers than among lone mothers and younger mothers. In the child cohort, for example, 47% of mothers in couple families said they had attended such a group compared with 29% of lone mothers and 47% of mothers in their thirties had attended a group compared with 28% of mothers aged under 20.

4.4 The most common reason given for not using such groups by parents in both cohorts was lack of time - this was mentioned by around a third of those who had not attended classes. Over one in ten said it was because there were no classes available or accessible to them. Many parents simply did not want to attend and a significant proportion either felt shy or awkward about attending or said they did not like groups. These latter sentiments were most common among lone parents, younger mothers and first-time mothers.

Informal advice during pregnancy

4.5 Pregnancy is a period during which expectant mothers seek the answers to many questions. Respondents were asked what sources of information they had used when they had any questions or concerns whilst pregnant. Although formal services delivered via health professionals such as GPs or Midwives emerged as the main source of this information, two of the response categories - 'friends and family' and 'other mothers' - referred to informal sources.

4.6 Virtually all mothers in both cohorts (98%) had sought advice or information during their pregnancy and around three-quarters had used at least one informal source. Family or friends were a more popular resource than 'other mothers'; 69% of all mothers and 95% of those who had used any informal source reported using family or friends compared with 29% and 40% who had used other mothers.

4.7 Despite there being little difference in the propensity of different mothers to have sought advice during their pregnancy, younger mothers were significantly more likely than older mothers to have used informal sources for advice. In the birth cohort, 85% of mothers aged under 20 had used at least one informal source compared with 70% of mothers in their thirties and 60% of those aged 40 or older.

4.8 Although more likely to use informal support generally during pregnancy, younger mothers were in fact less likely to use 'other mothers' as a resource than older mothers were (Table 7). In both samples, around half of mothers aged forty or older had used other mothers for advice during pregnancy compared with only a quarter of mothers in their teens.

Table 7 Types of informal sources used for advice during pregnancy by cohort and age of mother at birth of sample child

Base: All parents who had used an informal source of advice during pregnancy

4.9 Some small but significant differences were evident across other sub-groups reflecting the trends evident in the access to informal support index. In both cohorts, likelihood of using informal sources of advice during pregnancy increased with household income and with socio-economic classification. Likewise, use of informal sources in this context was higher amongst respondents who lived in areas of low deprivation compared with those living in areas of high deprivation.

Information on child health

4.10. The majority of parents in both cohorts reported having some concerns about the sample child's health and almost all (89% overall) said they had consulted at least one person or service for information or advice on the cohort child's health. Parents in the birth cohort were slightly more likely to have had sought health advice about their child than parents in the child cohort were.

4.11 Again, the principal sources of information were health professionals. However, parents could also indicate the extent to which they had used any informal sources. These could be the respondent's (or their partner's) parents or grandparents, other friends or family with children and other parents.

4.12 Overall, use of any informal source for help or advice about child health concerns was less common than using informal sources for pregnancy-related queries. A little over half of respondents in the child sample (51%) and just under six out of ten in the birth sample (58%) said they had used at least one informal source and most had used only one or two sources. The respondent's parents were the most common informal source cited whereas grandparents of the respondent or partner were least likely to have been used.

4.13 Although maternal age did not impact on the extent to which parents had a concern about their child's health, mothers in the younger age groups were more likely to have used an informal resource in this context than were older mothers. There were also differences in the particular sources used by mothers of different ages matching those seen in chapter 3 (Table 8). Younger mothers again placed greater emphasis on kin sources whereas older mothers drew support from a broader network which was significantly more likely to include other friends or family with children and other parents.

Table 8 Types of informal sources used for information about child health by cohort and age of mother at birth of sample child

Base: All parents who had used an informal source for information on child health

Information on child behaviour

4.14 As well as sources of information on child health concerns, parents of children in the child cohort were asked who they had turned to with concerns about their child's behaviour. In general, this type of concern was less common than those about health. Half of toddlers' parents reported seeking information about a behavioural matter with most of these having used only one source, although a small proportion had used two or three sources.

4.15 Unlike health concerns, the principal sources of information on child behaviour were informal rather than formal. Overall, around 37% of respondents in the child cohort had used at least one informal source for information about their child's behaviour. Almost one-quarter (24%) had consulted their own parents and one-fifth had spoken to other friends or family with children. This compares with 18% who had spoken to a health visitor and just 6% who spoke to a GP.

4.16 In contrast to concerns about health, maternal age did appear to impact on the likelihood of having a behavioural concern with older mothers less likely to report they sought information or advice than younger mothers were. However, patterns in the types of informal sources used for advice on child behaviour by maternal age were similar to those seen in relation to sources of info on child health. That is, younger mothers relied more on their own parents and less on other friends and family with children than did older mothers (Table 9).

Table 9 Type of informal source used for information about child behaviour by age of mother at birth of sample child

Base: All parents in the child cohort who had used an informal source for info on child behaviour

4.17 Household income did not affect whether or not a parent had sought information on their child's behaviour but it did appear to influence use of informal sources. Parents in higher income households were more likely than those in lower income households to have used any informal source; 46% of parents in the highest income quartile had used an informal source in this context compared with 33% in the lowest income quartile. Respondents in higher income households also made greater use of a wider range of informal sources for advice on child behaviour. For example, they were twice as likely as those in the lowest income quartile to use other friends and family with children (57% compared with 24%).

Use of informal childcare provision

4.18 The provision of regular childcare by friends or family members constitute an informal resource for many parents of young children but some families rely more heavily on this type of provision than others. Childcare data was examined to identify those families most reliant on informal childcare provision. For the purposes of this paper, childcare provided by grandparents was excluded from this part of the analysis because support from grandparents, including childcare, is considered separately in the next section. As such, informal childcare was defined as that provided on a regular basis by other relatives, an ex-spouse or partner, the child's older sibling, or a friend or neighbour.

4.19 In general, parents of children in the child cohort were more likely to be using any type of childcare than were parents of children in the birth cohort (75% compared with 60% respectively). However, parents in each cohort were just as likely to be using informal childcare provision. Around one in ten parents reported a regular arrangement with an informal provider. Amongst those families who use childcare however, slightly more in the birth cohort reported using informal provision than in the child cohort (20% compared with 16%).

4.20 Use of informal childcare varied by maternal age; in both cohorts, younger mothers, particularly those under 30, were more likely to be using informal provision than older mothers were and parents in lower income households were also more likely than those in higher income households to be doing so.

Index of use of informal support

4.21 A further scale was created to allow exploration of differences in the use of sources of informal support across the sample. Again, an extra item (sources of information on child's behaviour) was included for the child cohort scale. Scores for the birth cohort ranged from 0 to 4, and for the child cohort from 0 to 5.

Table 10 Scores on index of use of informal support by cohort

Base: All children

4.22 The data in the table demonstrates that the vast majority of parents in both samples had used some form of informal source of support and many had used several. Parents in the older cohort were slightly more likely to have drawn on informal support than parents in the child cohort were. To further explore use of informal support, each respondent was classed as either a low, medium or high user ⁶ and a regression model was created to examine the independent effects of factors related to low use. ⁷ The key variables are summarised in Table 11.

Table 11 Scaled use of sources of informal support by key independent variables: birth cohort

Base: Children in the birth cohort

Row percentages

4.23 As may be expected, both attitudes towards seeking help and/or advice, and access to sources of informal support were shown to be strongly related to use of informal support. Almost half of those classified as having 'most difficulty' seeking help fell into the low use group and a little over two-fifths of parents with low access also reported low use of informal sources. However, low access did not always imply low use - a little over one-fifth of parents who had limited informal sources available were classed as high users of informal support suggesting that they received a high level of support from a more limited network. Parity and maternal education were two of the strongest independent predictors of low use of informal support in the regression model. Mothers who had previously had children, and those who had no qualifications were significantly more likely to be in the low use group than first-time mothers and employed mothers were. Findings for the child cohort were very similar.

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