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Identification of children from alcohol‐affected homes
Author(s) -
Fischerman Mia
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2397.00119
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , medicine , family medicine , day care , data collection , pediatrics , psychology , nursing , sociology , social science
As the background for an improved basis for relevant intervention in favour of children in families with alcohol problems, 208 day‐care centres in the Municipality of Copenhagen with children between the ages 0–6 years received a questionnaire on children attending the centre. Two data collection methods were used, yielding two sets of data: the first consists of staff‐generated data from 136 centres with a total of 5,929 children and the second of manager‐generated data from 43 centres with a total of 1,942 children. In the staff‐generated material, 59% of the centres identified children coming from families with alcohol problems and 24% of the centres knew of families with three or more such children. A total of 215 children corresponding to 3.6% of all children enrolled at a day‐care centre were identified by the centres' staff. In the manager‐generated material, 2.3% of the enrolled children were recognised as living in families with alcohol problems. Considerable variation by district was found regarding the day‐care centre staff's recognition of children coming from families with alcohol problems. The nurseries had by far the lowest level of recognition. Possible explanations are discussed. In the concluding discussion, some possible reasons are presented for the discrepancy between the estimates of the current study and those of other studies concerning alcohol problems in families with children in general. Proposals are made for strengthening day‐care centres’ capacity and role in early identification of and intervention with families with alcohol problems.