Are the social workers prepared to assist a changing population of dysfunctional parents in Sweden?

What kind of support can an affluent society as the Swedish offer dysfunctional parents in order to give the infants an optimal start in life? The purpose of the present study was to analyze the social situation in families precipitating the admission of infants to institutional care in 1970, 1975 and 1980. The results show that in 1980 more complex forms of parental dysfunction were common including mental disorders, criminality, abuse of alcohol and drug addiction. The reported incidence of domestic violence had increased significantly from 1970 to 1980 as well as the number of maltreated infants. The social welfare agencies had greater difficulties and to a larger extent lacked adequate methods of providing assistance to the dysfunctional parents in 1980 than in 1970.