Half of families at risk of poverty get no extra support
The study, conducted jointly by the Children’s Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin and the Family Support Agency, also found that the recession was taking its toll on families, leading to domestic problems such as marital rows and failing relationships between parents and children.
The study is based on quantitative data collected during the first phase of the Growing Up in Ireland study between Sept 2007 and Jun 2008, involving 8,568 nine-year-olds and their families, and then focused on families whose household income categorises them as being at risk of poverty.
It concluded that living in relative poverty reduces many aspects of family well-being, but that there were other factors that contributed towards difficulties in the family home.
“Although many families experienced financial hardship when the economy was good, many more are now struggling to deal with changes to their standard of living,” stated the report.
“Findings here show that almost 40% of all families living at risk of poverty receive no financial support from social welfare beyond child benefit payments.”
The report said two notable characteristics of families living at risk of poverty were the high percentage of parents with low levels of educational attainment and who were unemployed or in lower paid jobs.
It recommends that parents in trouble should be made aware of the presence of Family Support Centres or similar local agencies that could help them work through their problems.
It claims that local counselling services could also help in reducing parent-child conflict.
On conflict between partners, the report stated: “Frequent disputes between parents, particularly those that escalate to the use of verbal or physical aggression or result in one partner walking out on the other, had the strongest negative associations with relationship quality, so that more arguing, aggression and avoidance was associated with less satisfaction.”
The report was launched in Dublin yesterday by Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald.
