Parenting skills and competences of families at risk in the Republic of Moldova

Parenting skills are cognitive and emotional concepts that refer to parents' assessments of their ability to perform the tasks of raising and educating their children. At-risk families live in personal or environmental circumstances that affect their children's well-being. Quantitative research conducted with 38 parents of children in foster care highlights their parenting limitations and competencies. The research was carried out in 2022 by the PRODOCS Association through the project "From Vulnerability to Inclusion" with the participation of parents of children from 7 placement centers. One of the competences assessed was the parents' duty to support the child in difficult or conflictual situations. According to the results of the study, half of the parents supported their child every time it was necessary, every fifth mentioned that they did not do this very often, and 11 of them explained the lack of this behavior by the difficulty of doing it. Another aspect analyzed was the parents' knowledge of their child's needs. On this item, 26 out of the 38 parents, approximately 64%, indicated that they knew their child's needs better than before, nearly every fourth parent mentioned that they knew their child's needs as well as before, and 2 did not know very well. The need to study parenting skills has been motivated by the numerous incidents that have damaged children's lives and health in their own families due to lack of knowledge about healthy growth and development. Families at risk need support and training to improve parenting skills for raising and developing children to their full potential, as a prerequisite for transforming the child into a well-integrated adult in the family and society.