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Universal Parenting Support in Norway – An Unfulfilled Promise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2018

Astrid Ouahyb Sundsbø
Astrid Ouahyb Sundsbø*
Affiliation:
Uni Research Rokkan Centre, Bergen E-mail: astrid.sundsbo@uni.no
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Abstract

This article examines the expansion and underlying aims of structured parenting support in Norway. Norway's approach to parenting support differs from that of most other countries (Glavin and Schaffer, 2014), in supposedly being universal and offered to all parents (Eng et al., 2017). However, it is difficult to determine whether parenting support in Norway is actually unique, since little is known about how it is implemented in practice (Bråten and Sønsterudbråten, 2016; Wesseltoft-Rao et al., 2017). This article contributes further knowledge of how parenting support travels from national-level policy-making down to the level of municipal institutions where it is implemented. The analysis draws upon insights from a comprehensive case study in Bergen, Norway's second largest city, that included fieldwork observations and service mapping over a period of two years (2015–2017), a large number of in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, and analysis of relevant documents (advertisements, project applications and project reports, budgets, etc.).

Keywords

Parenting supportpolicy implementationearly interventionwelfare state
Type
Themed Section on Parenting Support in the Nordic Countries: Is there a Specific Nordic Model?
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 2018 , pp. 503 - 517
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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