How research evidence is transforming national policies on parental conflict and childhood outcomes

Image by Hanz Kretzmann via Pixabay

Image by Hanz Kretzmann via Pixabay

Image by Hanz Kretzmann via Pixabay

A body of academic research, including that of Professor Gordon Harold, is being used to inform an expanding programme of policy measures aimed at improving the life chances of young people who are affected by parental conflict.

Harold’s work is extensively cited in a collection of new reports, published last month, examining the initial phases of the Government’s ‘Reducing Parental Conflict’ programme. The initiative, run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), targets relationships between parents that are characterised by sustained and poorly-resolved conflict and acrimony. By supporting the relationships between parents themselves, it aims also to improve outcomes for children.

Gordon Harold is Professor of the Psychology of Education and Mental Health at the University of Cambridge, and he and representatives from DWP will be discussing the programme, and the research evidence behind it, at the Cambridge Public Health Showcase on 18 May.

"If we want to achieve sustained, positive outcomes for children, the relationship between their parents has to be recognised as an important site for early intervention, alongside that of the relationship with the child"

Gordon Harold

The Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme reflects a growing appreciation at policy level that there are clear links between conflict among parents and young people’s mental health, their attainment at school, and ultimately their life chances.

While this association may seem intuitive, until relatively recently the bar set for support services when defining inter-parental conflict was relatively high. Young people were only regarded as being ‘at risk’ either if their parents were separated or divorced, and where conflict levels were high, or if domestic violence was a regular feature of their family life. As one of the recent DWP reports notes, it has been ‘common for local authorities not to have thought about tackling parental conflict below levels amounting to domestic abuse’.

That picture began to change significantly in 2016, however, with the publication of a report for the Early Intervention Foundation, led by Harold, which highlighted the need to extend the definition of parental conflict and consideration of its associated impact on young people. Harold and his co-authors drew together a large body of published scientific evidence to show that any form of ‘frequent, intense and poorly-resolved’ conflict between parents can harm young people’s development; combining this with original research led by Harold and international collaborators. This may, for example, also refer to parents who live together, but whose home life is defined by high levels of stress and anxiety, leading to ongoing and unresolved hostility and friction, to which children are continually exposed.

Equally importantly, the report highlighted a need to target the relationships between couples, as well as the relationships between parents and their children, to help young people. The researchers found that a couple’s relationship serves as a ‘primary’ and ‘substantive influence both on the quality of parenting that children experience and on their long-term mental health and future life chances’.

“If we want to achieve sustained, positive outcomes for children, the relationship between their parents has to be recognised as an important site for early intervention, alongside that of the relationship with the child,” Harold said. “Once that is acknowledged, it has implications for a large number of important policy areas – such as how we support young people’s mental health, or how we prevent the development of behavioural problems as they grow up.”

As early as six months old, children who witness ‘frequent, intense and poorly-resolved’ inter-parental conflict demonstrate signs of distress, for example through an increased heart rate.

Further research has continued to demonstrate the impact that inter-parental conflict can have on young people, whether their families are separated or intact, and regardless of whether the conflict is characterised by physical violence.

It has been shown that as early as six months old, children who witness ‘frequent, intense and poorly-resolved’ outbursts demonstrate signs of distress, for example through an increased heart rate. Up to five years old, they show distress through crying, acting out, or withdrawing into themselves.

In the longer term, wider problems may emerge, including academic difficulties, physical health issues, social and inter-personal relationship problems, ‘internalising’ problems (such as withdrawal, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression); ‘externalising’ problems (such as behavioural issues, antisocial behaviour and aggression) and substance misuse. Any or all of these can have consequences for young people’s employability as they reach adulthood, their chances of leading fulfilling, happy lives; and, potentially, the outcomes of their own children in turn.

Evidence such as this led to the implementation of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme in England in 2018. In line with the findings of Harold and others, the programme targets the relationships between couples, whether together or apart, at key stages in children’s lives to promote positive outcomes for the children themselves.

Some 70% of participants had, before the RPC programme, never received training on parental conflict; 74% said that it was ‘very relevant’ to situations they face in their work.

A key aim of the programme is to find the best ways of supporting local authorities and their partners to embed sustainable support to reduce parental conflict in local services for families. Its other principal objective is to develop the evidence base on what works in supporting parents. As part of this, in four areas across England, the programme is assessing which models of intervention work best. Eight different relationship support interventions are being tested in 31 local authority areas, while further, tailored approaches have been tested with particular groups of disadvantaged families, including various forms of online support.

Another work strand has been a joint programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England: ‘The Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents programme’, to explore how to improve the outcomes of families where parental conflict is linked to dependency on alcohol. This includes efforts to provide support to those living with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and to reduce the number of alcohol-exposed pregnancies to prevent further cases.

Alongside specific interventions to help boost capacity to support parents in local areas, the RPC programme has involved the delivery of Parental Conflict Practitioner Training to an extremely wide range of local services that work with families. These include workers in education settings; police, youth and mental health services; GP practices; health visitors and midwives; library services; drug and alcohol services; social workers; those working in tenancy support roles; citizens’ advice volunteers and specialists who support families with children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

For the first time, the DWP notes in one of the newly-published evaluations, this training has addressed parental conflict ‘below the threshold of domestic abuse’. There is also clear evidence from the same assessment that local authority service providers on the ground regard the shift in approach as beneficial. A majority told DWP that they believe the programme will, in time, improve outcomes for children and reduce strain on resource-intensive services. Some 70% of participants had, until the RPC programme was introduced, never received training on parental conflict before; 74% reflected that it was ‘very relevant’ to situations they face in their work, or those faced by the families they work with.

In light of those early positive signals, the RPC programme has been funded for a further year and was allocated an additional £11million for this purpose in the Government’s 2020 Spending Review. This includes the opportunity to bid for a Workforce Development Grant, through which local authorities can obtain funding to train practitioners (including those from partner agencies) to deliver parental conflict interventions in-house.

As well as the interim evaluation of the early phases of the RPC programme, Harold’s work is also cited in a DWP review examining the connections between parental conflict and substance misuse. His research has found ‘consistent evidence of an association between substance misuse and parental conflict’ in both directions, and through it, an increase in the risk of negative outcomes for young people. It again highlights the need for intervention at the level of the parents’ relationship and for ‘whole family’ approaches. It suggests that interventions that support parents to understand the impact that their actions may have on families, relationship and their children, can help to build their motivation to improve their relationship, and thus reduce their misuse of drugs, alcohol, or both.

The Reducing Parental Conflict Programme will be one of the topics of discussion at the Cambridge Public Health annual showcase 2021, where Professor Harold will be one of several leading scholars discussing recent research promoting positive mental health for children and adolescents. The event will be on Tuesday, 18 May, from 9.30am to 2.40pm. Further information and registration details are available here.