Unmet need for family support social services.

Authors

• Katja Ilmarinen Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos
• Maaret Vuorenmaa
• Sakari Karvonen
• Johanna Lammi-Taskula

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23990/sa.109129

Keywords:

availability of services, families with children, inadequate services, inequality, socio-economic status

Abstract

The study analyses the unmet need for services and support in family life and parenthood in families with young children in Finland. Our special focus was to assess whether there is variation according to social status or region in unmet need. A nationwide survey (2018) covering parents of four-year-old children (n=10 458) was used to find out: 1) How prevalent is the self-reported unmet need of family social work and home help, and support from professionals and 2) which socioeconomic and regional factors associate with unmet need. Among parents who reported need-ing services or support the prevalence of unmet need was sizeable: approximately half of them reported unmet need for family social work, while two thirds reported unmet need for home help. A fifth reported unmet need for support related to child’s behavior and more than half for their own coping. Logistic regression analyses suggest that individual socioeconomic factors were associated with the unmet need while regional factors were not associated with it. The unmet service need was more common among vulnerable parents, especially among those who felt lonely, reported poor health, or did not receive income support. The results show that the Finnish social welfare and health policy goals to better cope with the needs of families and early prevention have not been completely met. Contrary to the policy goal of equal access, services and support were not received according to the needs. Moreover, Finnish parents and families appear to be in an unequal position in the availability of services and support as there are clear differences between socioeconomic groups.