Children’s Rights (Absent) in Universal Parenting Training

Abstract

In public health policies the child-parent relationship is regarded as a determinant for children’s development and future health. During the first two decades of the twenty-first century Sweden implemented parenting training on a universal level as a proactive measure. Sweden ratified the UN Convention on the rights of the Child in 1990 by which follows that all policies involving children are entwined with children’s rights. Still, research on society’s universal manual-based parenting training interventions depicts that the concept of rights is not an intrinsic value. Adult norms and a preventive approach tend to rule over health promotion goals involving children. Moreover, research results show that children possess an awareness of democratic values and insight in how to handle a dynamic interchange in daily family life. Children’s involvement in parenting training should be investigated and discussed as an ethical public health challenge for the future.