Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

164 Children’s Needs – Parenting Capacityby 8% of children of this age and 1.7% admitted to regular bullying (Smith andThompson 1991).Learning does not only take place at school. Many children are involved in outof-schoolactivities such as football, boxing, swimming or playing music.Possible impact on educational and cognitive abilityThe negative impact of parental mental illness, learning disability, problem alcoholor drug use, or domestic violence on youngsters’ education results from a lack ofparental support; an inability to concentrate; performing below expected ability;and missing school because of the need to look after parents or siblings.Parental problems can result in parents not attending meetings and other schoolevents or failing to support and encourage learning at home. Parental involvementin the form of interest in the child, particularly parent–child discussions, has beenshown to have a positive effect on children’s behaviour and achievement, irrespectiveof factors such as social class or family size (Desforges with Abouchaar 2003). Theopposite is also true and an overview of the available research suggests that parentalneglect is associated with adolescents and young people having poorer educationalengagement, conduct and achievement in school (Stein et al. 2009).The impact on children’s education and academic competence is varied. Childrenof parents with learning disabilities, mental illness, alcohol or drug problems anddomestic violence are more likely to develop problems at school, including learningdifficulties, loss of concentration and general poor performance (for parental alcoholmisuse, see Velleman and Orford 2001; Girling et al. 2002; for learning disability, seeCleaver and Nicholson 2007; for parental substance misuse and domestic violence,see Cleaver et al. 2007 and Barnard 2007; for parental mental illness, see Downeyand Coyne 1990). Education and learning may also be impaired because familyproblems preoccupy the child’s thinking.I can’t get on with my work at school because I’m always thinking about what’sgoing on at home ... Mum drinks and Dad left.(Sam 11 years, quoted in ChildLine 1997, p.37)In contrast, other children and some parents see school as a source of help and asanctuary from problems at home (Joseph et al. 2006). For this group school is theone area of their lives which is ‘normal’ and academic or sports achievement andschool friends are viewed as an escape route. Indeed, one US study of the childrenof opiate users found practically three-quarters of the children participated in afterschoolactivities and a similar proportion received academic awards (Kolar et al.1994).