This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Australia has no shortage of policies relating to children. In fact, these policies are often in the headlines.
Billions of dollars are invested each year trying to improve outcomes for children and young people. Yet we continue to see stubbornly high rates of child maltreatment and family violence, mental ill-health, school disengagement, youth offending and child protection system involvement. The problem may not be that we are doing the wrong things.
It may be that our policy architecture lacks the most important piece of the puzzle: parents. For three decades, I have examined child maltreatment, child protection systems and family welfare. Across these areas, one theme repeatedly emerges: we are remarkably willing to invest in systems that respond to problems, but much less willing to invest in parents—the people who have the greatest influence on children's lives.
Parenting is one of the strongest determinants of child well-being. Warm, responsive, consistent parenting is associated with better mental health, stronger educational outcomes, healthier relationships and lower risks of abuse, neglect, violence and offending. But for all its importance, parenting remains largely invisible in policy.
Support for parents is fragmented, inconsistent and often only available once families reach a crisis point. We have pockets of excellent practice, but these don't add up to a coherent national parenting support system. Imagine if we approached health this way.
We would never expect better health outcomes if we only invested in hospitals and ambulances, and not primary care physicians and vaccination programs. Yet when it comes to parenting, we often treat support as optional, episodic or targeted only to "problem" families. One of the most significant findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study was not simply that child maltreatment is common.
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