Parenting Support in France: Policy in an Ideological Battlefield

Claude Martin (1, 2)

1 ARENES - Arènes: politique, santé publique, environnement, médias
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Since the beginning of the 1990s, a set of measures and interventions has been progressively implemented in France under the heading of 'parenting support' (soutien à la parentalité). The aim of this article is to describe this policy process in France in order to understand the drivers, instruments and actors at work, and also to highlight the controversies and ideological roots of the policy and its framing. We argue that parenting support policy is the result of a complex process engaging a potent combination of old and new ideas, objectives and instruments which involve political and ideological contestation. The current turn to parenting in France is mainly a recalibration of previous experiences that were themselves also the site of important contradictions and controversies. Since the beginning of the 1990s, a set of measures and interventions has been progressively implemented in France under the heading of 'parenting support' (soutien à la parentalité).

Keywords: Parenting support; Parenting; Social policy; Family policy; Childhood; Children; France; Parental responsibility

Domains: Sociology; Political science

Claude Martin. Parenting Support in France: Policy in an Ideological Battlefield. Social Policy and Society, 2015, 14 (4), pp.609-620. ⟨10.1017/S147474641500024X⟩. ⟨halshs-01178946⟩