Universal parental support--how to reach out: a cross-sectional random sample of Swedish parents

Young children in Sweden have good general health in comparison to children in other European countries. In contrast, teenagers display poorer mental health. Parental support is now being made available on a universal level in Sweden in order to promote youngsters general psychological health. The aim of this study was to examine (1) to what extent the parents were interested in various forms of municipality-based parental support programs; (2) whether there were any differences between mothers and fathers as regards their interest in municipality-based parental support programs; and (3) if there were any differences between high to non-users of the Internet as an information source in their parenting, regarding their interest in municipality-based parental support programs.

The study was based on a random sample of parents in 15 municipalities in Sweden. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1744 parents. The information collected included the parent's gender, number of children, age of children, what municipality-based support parents would be interested in, and information about the use of the Internet as an information source in their parenting.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between mothers and fathers regarding interest in parental support, with mothers being more interested in all forms of parental support except a webpage for parents. Additionally, the results show that high frequent use of the Internet as an information source in their parenting was associated with high interest in municipality-based parental support.

Parents who are active in seeking web-based information about their child and parenting are also parents interested in various kinds of parental support. The municipality is generally better at evoking the interest of mothers than fathers concerning all forms of support, except a webpage with information for parents. Municipalities should develop attractive and informative webpages for parents, with some information specifically addressing fathers.