The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) families and social capital research group conducted a survey of 1,112 parents of children aged eight to 12 in England, Scotland and Wales. More than half the parents were mothers and most were working class by occupation. Further in-depth interviews followed with 755 of the parents.
The report, Resources in Parenting: Access to Capitals, said that more than 60 per cent of those surveyed felt that parents did not necessarily need professional advice and guidance to help them bring up their children.
Nearly 90 per cent agreed that family and friends were the most appropriate source of support for parents.
Report co-author Professor Rosalind Edwards said, 'Professional advice is often sought within the long-standing skilled areas of health and education, as opposed to everyday child-rearing. In this case, informal support was more positively viewed than formal parenting advice.'
This was particularly true for working-class and ethnic minority parents, who were wary about having advice pushed on them and about being 'judged'.
The study comes in the wake of the Government's action plan on social exclusion, which will target 'at risk' families for early intervention. But Professor Edwards said, 'Parents may feel they've been convicted before they've committed the crime. I think early intervention is going to be based on quite unsophisticated characteristics and I don't feel that it is a positive way forward.'
Professor Edwards has been researching parenting and family advice for more than a decade. 'People weren't saying to us that they felt a crying need for support. Nobody I interviewed saw themselves as socially excluded. An over-riding feature of this study is that, for the most part, parents manage,' she said.