Parenting Capacity 9
Copyright © 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Child Abuse Review Vol. 13: 5–17 2004
determinant of the experience for the child resides within the parent and is referred to by us as parenting capacity. We
propose that misattribution of shortcomings in parenting to other causes, for example poverty or poor social supports,
results in suboptimal decision-making and management. We advocate an assessment process that addresses the standard
three domains of parenting by the gathering of relevant in- formation but which gives priority to parenting capacity,
which is the product of the interaction of child, parent and environmental factors, not just a summation of separate prob-
lems. In our approach we ask:
1. How well
could these parents perform the tasks required of them given optimal circumstances?
The information gained from the domain of ‘parental factors’ gives some guidance to the areas where parenting perform-
ance might be impaired, for example a history of significant childhood abuse. Parenting capacity may indirectly refer to
how people go about the parenting tasks required of them but it primarily relates to the
psychological qualities they bring to those tasks. Therefore, the crucial concerns are:
•
The parent’s ability to create and sustain intimate rela- tionships with their child within which the needs of that
child can be empathically recognized and met. Being able to identify the child’s needs does not guarantee adequate
parenting. The parent must also be able to give priority to those needs, if necessary at the expense of meeting his
her own needs. Thus a mother might have to exclude a potentially violent partner from her house to protect her
children, even if this robs her of intimacy and support. An indication of the parent’s capacity for intimacy with the
child can be gleaned from the quality of the intraparental relationship, particularly with regard to dependency, dis-
harmony and levels of violence.
•
The parent’s awareness of the potential or actual effects of adverse relationship stresses on their child; in par-
ticular, the various forms of family violence.
•
The parent’s ability to avoid dangerous impulsiveness and to take responsibility for their behaviour. The ability
of an individual to take responsibility for their day-to-day activities might not be tested until they become parents
carers.
These psychological qualities are relatively fixed, but not immutable. Change in parenting capacity is personal level
change and therefore is unlikely to be achieved just by educational input. Someone who has undergone a signific-
ant change in parenting capacity is likely to be perceived by self and others as a changed person. While having
children might expose deficiencies, we have seen cases where a woman with apparently limited parenting capacity
‘How well could these parents
perform the tasks required of them
given optimal circumstances?’
‘Change in parenting capacity
is personal level change’
10 Donald and Jureidini
Copyright © 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Child Abuse Review Vol. 13: 5–17 2004
grows through the experience of childbearing to the point that she is then able to provide good parenting.
2. How difficult is this child to parent?
