Restricting Family Life An Examination of Citizens’ Views on state interventions and Parental Freedom in Eight European Countries.
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Date
2023Metadata
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Original version
10.1080/13691457.2023.2227772Abstract
This paper examines the public views – a total of 10,348 persons – on
restrictions of personal autonomy of others to protect the interest of
children. We use representative country samples of the adult
populations of Austria, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland,
Norway, and Spain, and ask them to consider an experimental vignette
with three different parental conditions: substance abuse, mental health
problems, and learning difficulties. The findings display that most
people would restrict parental freedom to protect the child, and a
stricter restriction when the parent struggles with substance abuse
compared to mental health compared to learning difficulties. There are
some country differences, and when examining the role of institutional
context of child protective system, a correlation is detected with
significant differences between population views in a right-oriented
system versus a well-being system and maltreatment system. In light of
the ongoing European debates about child protection and how
controversial and contested this area of the welfare state seem to be, it
is interesting to learn (also) from this study that people, across
countries, individual differences, child protection systems, overall are
supportive of state intervention and support in a situation with a child
at potential risk.