Working Group of the European Parliament on the Quality of Childhood s2

INVITATION FOR ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE QUALITY OF CHILDHOOD IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

hosted by MEP Evelyn Regner MEP Karin Kadenbach MEP Corina Cretu MEP Lívia Járóka MEP Gerald Häfner MEP Edward McMillan-Scott

This session will be hosted by:

MEP Jürgen Klute (Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left)

Working Group on the Quality of Childhood at the European Parliament (QoC)

45th session:

'Parents’ partnership stability and quality as a context for child development. What are the challenges, and what policies and programmes are in place? Some insights from Germany'

The presentation will be given by Professor Dr. Sabine Walper, Research Director of the German Youth Institute in Munich.

Time: Tuesday 4 March 2014 from 13.00 until 15.00 hours. Location: European Parliament, Rue Wiertzstraat 60, Brussels, The Room Number: Altiero Spinelli PHS 1C047. Entrance: we will gather at the Entrance at Place Luxembourg at 12.30 hours and enter together into the building.

Introduction: The focus of the Working Group on the Quality of Childhood is to get a better understanding of all the factors that play a role regarding the environment in which children grow up. In this context it is self evident that the Working Group will also look into the situation of families, where children and young people spend most of their time, and which have a profound influence on their development and their well-being. 2

In the past in most EU member states parents’ partnership was considered a private subject which required little attention unless domestic violence threatened child well-being or partnership breakup caused legal conflict which required the authorities to intervene in various ways. Today nearly all EU member states have extensive strategies and policies in place to support families in many different ways and the EU institutions play already an important role as a EU platform for peer learning. With this QoC session we will focus on the subject as mentioned above.

Partnerships as a context for child development During the past three decades, not only research into the consequences of parents’ partnership breakup, but also research on the effects of interparental conflict in “intact” nuclear families provided a substantial increase in our knowledge about the significance of the interparental relationship as context for child development. Furthermore, given the increase in the number of unmarried cohabiting parents, such “fragile families” have received increased attention, focusing – among many other issues – on the quality of coparenting among unmarried mothers and fathers. This presentation will address insights from these various lines of research and discuss their implications for current policy and practice. The importance of preventing partnership problems and promoting positive coparenting will be highlighted as important means to facilitate children’s healthy development. Last but not least the challenge of post-separation conflict resolution will be addressed pointing out how continued conflict and hostility may turn contact to the non-residential parent from a protective into a risk factor for child well-being. These findings are of particular relevance in the light of the strong norm to maintain children’s contact to both parents after separation/divorce.

How can we prevent that partner relationships go wrong? In addition to counselling, several more structured programmes have been developed in various countries to support positive partnership relations either in the early phase around marriage/cohabitation or during later phases when problems are likely to have become more pronounced and chronic. Their main focus is on promoting positive communication styles, constructive conflict resolution, and supportive dyadic coping in the context of stressors. While these programs address adults, some approaches reach out to the earlier phase of adolescence. Given the evidence of elevated rates of violence in teenagers’ romantic relationships, such early prevention targeting gender stereotypes, issues of power, and communication about sex, seems particularly worthwhile, especially among youth with multiple risk factors. In addition, various formats of prevention and intervention are available to divorced parents including media-based information for divorcing parents, specialized counselling, mediation, open groups, and parent training. They vary in the degree to which they focus on issues of post- divorce parenting and coparenting. It should also be noted that a partnership exists in an ecological context where various pressures such as housing conditions, working shifts, unemployment, poor service facilities, and poverty may become too high and threaten the partnership. Families need support from society to cope with these challenges.

Kinder im Blick / A programme in Germany to take the position and the well-being of children into account during the divorce process Children of divorce, compared to children with continuously married parents score higher on measures of conduct and internalizing problems and lower on academic success, self-esteem, and parent-child relationships (Paul A. Amato 2009). 3

Because of this circumstance Sabine Walper and her team together with the Familiennotruf, a counselling institute specialized on working with divorced parents, developed a coaching programme for parents and children, that are involved in a divorce trajectory. This programme has recently been launched and gives good results. The programme consists of 6 building blocks:  block 1: I – we (as divorced/separated parents) - our child in the divorce trajectory;  block 2: What are my objectives for the child; what role is there for us (i.e. the two parents)?  block 3: My child and me: developing a good relationship with the child.  block 4: What to do if my child has stressful feelings? A focus on emotion coaching  block 5: We (i.e. the two parents) have something in common: our child.  block 6: I - We - our Child: the present situation and the future. Professor Walper will give more background information about the programme and its evaluation.

Relationship and Parenting Education Professor Walper is also involved in an organisation that focuses on developing family strengths in promoting parenting competencies and the quality of coparenting among parents. This organisation is called Familien-Team, Institut zur Stärkung der Erziehungskompetenz (i.e. Family Team, Institute to strengthen the competence of the parents to raise their children). They provide parent courses that support parents’ nurturing, connectedness, emotional availability, guidance, and control in child rearing as well as respectful cooperation in the family, even when times are difficult. The short term goal of the course is to strengthen the emotional and communicative capabilities, which will help them to nurture an authoritative family culture characterized by emotional warmth, respect, clear rules and boundaries, whereby the autonomy of children is stimulated. The long term goal is to strengthen in this way the coherence and cohesion in the family and to reduce the chance that children will externalise or internalise their problems, but instead learn to cope with these problems in a healthy way.

The course helps the parents to addresses the following questions:  What is for me important when raising my children?  How can I give my children the attention that they need?  What can I do when my children drive me crazy?  How to solve conflicts cooperatively and how to create a win-win-win situation for all?  How can we as parents support each other in our roles as parents?  How to take care of myself, and how to revitalize myself regularly?

Overall objectives of these meetings:  To gain a better understanding of the Quality of Childhood in the EU member states. This time we will focus on ' Parents’ partnership stability and quality as a context for child development. What are the challenges, and what policies and programmes are in place? Some insights from Germany'.  To think about the role that the European institutions could play to improve the situation.  To get to grips with the values, principles and approaches that could lead to improvements for children.  To form an effective working group and to get a sense of how to move on. 4

We take pleasure in inviting you for the 45th session on 4 March 2014. We believe that we as members of the European Parliament working together with like-minded public interest advocacy groups and committed individuals can and should play an important role in this area.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Regner Karin Kadenbach Corina Cretu Lívia Járóka Gerald Häfner Edward McMillan-Scott Members of the European Parliament

Programme Outline for Tuesday 4 March 2014

Time Subject Speaker / facilitator 13.00 Opening MEP Jürgen Klute 13.05 Update about the Alliance for Christopher Clouder, co-founder Childhood of the international Alliance for Childhood. 13.15 Parents’ partnership stability and Professor Dr. Sabine Walper, quality as a context for child Research Director of the development. What are the German Youth Institute in challenges, and what policies and Munich. programmes are in place? Some insights from Germany' 14.30 Discussion MEP Jürgen Klute 15.00 Miscellaneous and closure MEP Jürgen Klute

Disclaimer: The organiser organises this session on a best effort basis. However changes in parts of the programme or in the entire programme may occur due to unforeseen circumstances and the organiser cannot be held liable for that.

Secretariat for this session: Michiel Matthes Tel: +32.2.762 2557 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.allianceforchildhood.eu 5

This programme was developed in cooperation with the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group, whose members are:

ARGE-Erziehungsberatung, Austria Dr. Martina Leibovici The Linkedness Project, Belgium Heidi Defever Experiential Education Project, Belgium Professor Dr. Ferre Laevers Flemish Institute for Family Sciences, Belgium Professor Dr. Hans van Crombrugge Saharan & North African Toy and Play Cultures, Belgium Dr. Jean-Pierre Rossie Belgium Dr. Jan van Gils Idee Kids vzw, Belgium Björn Accoe Centre for Relational Competence, Denmark Claes Solborg Pedersen Finland Professor Dr. Lea Pulkkinen, liaised with the University of Jyväskylä, and Chairman of the Haukkala Foundation Le Furet, France Marie-Nicole Rubio European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI) Silke Mader Legambiente, Italy Vanessa Pallucchi Stichting Universele Ontwikkeling (NL) Marijke Sluijter Janusz Korczak International Society Theo Cappon and Helma Brouwers Center for Youth and Development, The Hague University for Professional Education, The Hague Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg (NL) Professor Dr. René Diekstra NIVOZ (NL) Professor Dr. Luc Stevens / Nickel van der Vorm / Gabrielle Taus Beweeg.nl Elise Sijthoff Verein mit Kindern Wachsen, Germany Lienhard Valentin/Sabine Heggemann Familienforum Havelhöhe GmbH und Emmi-Pikler-Haus e.V., Germany Dr. med. Christoph K. Meinecke Fundación Botín, Spain Fátima Sánchez Santiago and Christopher Clouder International Association for Steiner / Waldorf Early Childhood Education (Sweden) Clara Aerts Movium and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp Maria Nordström Familylab International, Switzerland Jesper Juul The Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey Universal Education Foundation, Brussels Daniel Kropf European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education, Brussels Dr. Richard Landl and Rosmarie Bluder ELIANT, Brussels Michaela Sieh Secretariat of the Group, Brussels Michiel Matthes 6

With the support of the following organisations:

The sessions held / to be held by the Working Group on the Quality of Childhood at the European Parliament in the period 2006-2014:

5 December 1. ‘The Toxic Childhood Syndrome and the Quality of Childhood’ with 2006 Christopher Clouder (UK) and Professor Hans van Crombrugge (Belgium). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. 9 January 2. ‘Really Improving the Education in the European Union requires Systemic 2007 Changes’ with professor Luc Stevens (Netherlands) and Professor Ferre Laevers (Belgium). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. 6 March 3. ‘The Quality of Child-Adult Relationships in Families and School’ with 2007 Jesper Juul (Denmark). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. 15 May 2007 4. ‘The Child: his/her Networks and Neighbourhood’ with René Diekstra. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. September 20 5. ‘How can we improve in the European Union the Early Childhood 2007 Educational Systems’ with John Bennett, the author of the OECD Study Starting Strong. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. November 6 6. ‘How to let children and adolescents acquire key competences for the 2007 world of the 21st century? with Dr. Martina Leibovici-Mühlberger from Austria and Geseke Lundgren from Sweden. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits January 8, 7. ‘Attachment, what it is, why it is important and what we can do about it to 2008 help young children acquire a secure attachment?' with Sir Richard Bowlby. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. March 4, 8. ‘A vision on children and childhood in the European Union’ by Michiel 2008 Matthes. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. May 14, 9. Professor René Diekstra about ‘The Changing Face of Adolescence. 2008 Accounting for changes in adolescent development and their effects on education and social policies’. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. July 1, 2008 10. Professor Steen Hildebrandt (University of Aarhus, Denmark) about the ‘Multiple intelligences in the knowledge-based society’. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb. September 11. Presentation of the report of the Fundación Marcelino Botín entitled 16, 2008 ‘Social and Emotional Education, An International Analysis’ by Christopher Clouder and Fátima Sánchez Santiago. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. November 12. Professor Boris Cyrulnik from France: 'What measures can we take to 12, 2008 improve the quality of childhood in the European Union?' Host: MEP Rovana Plumb. 7

November 13. Organisation of a Symposium in Bucharest, Romania at the request of 17, 2008 MEP Mrs Rovana Plumb: ‘A European Policy Agenda for the Quality of Childhood with special emphasis on the case of the children of Romanian migrant workers’. January 27, 14. Dr. Michel Vandenbroeck (University of Ghent, Belgium) about 2009 'Diversity and Equity in Early Childhood Services'. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. March 3, 15. ‘Taking stock of what has been achieved with the Working Group since 2009 December 2006 and looking forward’ with Michiel Matthes, Secretary- General of the Alliance for Childhood European Network. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits. April 28, 16. Professor Peter Moss (University of London) about young children and 2009 their services: developing a European approach. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb. September 8, 17. 'Continuing to work on improving the Quality of Childhood in the 2009 European Union during the present economic downturn' with Professor Emeritus Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the book ‘The Spirit Level, Why More Equal Societies Almost Always do Better’. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb. November 18. The Technical University of Dortmund won the tender issued by the 17, 2009 European Commission to execute a Research Project to identify the key research questions regarding families and family policies. The leader of this project, Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff gave a briefing on this Project and spoke about ‘Developing a European Research Agenda for Families and Family Policies’. Host: MEP Lívia Járóka. December 8, 19. Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain, and the policy 2009 requirements in this respect with Sue Gerhardt, author of the book with the similar title. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner. January 12, 20. The PISA Study and lessons learned regarding the Quality of Childhood 2010 with Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division of the OECD Directorate for Education. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner. March 2, 21. ‘Improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union: the Case of 2010 Roma Children' with Ivan Ivanov, Executive Director of the European Roma Information Office (ERIO) and Bernard Rorke, Director of the Roma Initiative Programs of the Open Society Institute (OSI). Host: MEP Gerald Häfner. April 13, 22. Improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union: the Aspect of 2010 Parental Leave Policies by Professor Peter Moss of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner. June 8, 2010 23. ‘The City for the Children’. Key-note speaker: Vanessa Pallucchi, Director for Education of Legambiente, Rome, Italy. Host: MEP Vittorio Prodi and MEP Karin Kadenbach. August 31, 24. 'The impact of television and screen media on the Quality of Childhood 2010 and what are good policies in this respect on the level of the family, on the level of the country and on the EU level?' with Dr. Aric Sigman, author of the book 'Remotely controlled, how television is damaging our lives'. Host: MEP Karin Kadenbach. November 25. ‘The proposed research agenda for the European Commission re families 17, 2010 and family policies' with Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff of the Technical University Dortmund, Germany. Host: MEP Mr Gerald Häfner January 11, 26. 'The Quality of the Physical Environment of the Child, the Current 8

2011 Problems in this area, and what needs to be done?' together with the Health and Environment Alliance and the INCHES Network. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner. March 1, 27. 'Educating the Art of Life: Resilience and Creativity in Contemporary 2011 Education' with David Brierley, Associate Professor at the Rudolf Steiner University College, Oslo Norway. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner. March 29, 28. 'A reflection on the European Commission's High Level Group on 2011 Literacy' with emeritus Professor Margaret Clark from the UK. Host: MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij. May 31, 29. 'Learning to move and moving to learn. Why physical development in the 2011 early years supports later learning, behaviour and achievement' with Sally Goddard Blythe, Director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in the UK. Hosted by MEP Edward McMillan-Scott. September 6, 30. Presentation of the report 'Learning for Well-being: a Policy Priority for 2011 Children and Youth in Europe, A Movement for Change' by Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies in Geneva. Host: MEP Karin Kadenbach. November 8, 31. Alcohol Nation, How to protect our children from today's drinking culture' 2011 with Dr. Aric Sigman. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner. January 10, 32. Presentation of a Proposal to set up a European Academy for 2012 Complementary Pedagogy by Jesper Juul. Host: MEP Judith Merkies. March 6, 33. ' What Contribution can the Digital Environment make to the 2012 Improvement of the Quality of Childhood? with Professor Martine Delfos from the Netherlands and Thibaut Kleiner of the Cabinet of Euro- commissioner Neelie Kroes. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner. April 11, 34. 'Improving the Quality of Childhood as a challenge to European 2012 institutions: Reflections from the Ombudsmen for Children' with Maria Kaisa Aula, the Finnish Ombudsman for Children. Host: MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari. 5 June 2012 35. The State of Affairs of the Child in the City, and What Needs To Be Done? with Dr. Jan van Gils, President and founder of the European Network of Child Friendly Cities and President of the International Council for Children’s Play. Host: MEP Karin Kadenbach 4 September 36. '500,000 Preterm Births in Europe Each Year. What are the Dangers, and 2012 What are the Main Components of a Successful Strategy to Address this Challenge?' with Professor Luc Zimmermann (Belgium / Netherlands), Professor Dominique Haumont (Belgium) and Silke Mader (Germany), all working with the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI). Host: MEP Peter Liese. 13 November 37. 'How can we help children to reach their unique potential and how can we 2012 support the parents, caregivers and teachers in their role vis-à-vis children' with Dr. Gordon Neufeld from Vancouver, Canada. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner. 9 January 38. 'Children and their connection with nature: why it is important and how 2013 can it be stimulated?' with Tim Gill from the UK. Host: MEP Judith Merkies and MEP Gerald Häfner. 5 March 39. 'IFFD's Family Enrichment Courses: the Case Study Method applied to 2013 Family Settings. What it is and how to provide it to more families?' with Marina Robben, President of the International Federation For Family Development (IFFD). Host: MEP Anneli Jäätteenmäki and MEP Anna 9

Záborská. 9 April 2013 40. Finland has the best literacy score in the European Union. What are the main elements of its strategy and to what extent can it be copied by other countries? with Professor Heikki Lyytinen. Host: MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari. 4 June 2013 41. 'The commercialisation of childhood in the USA: what is the current situation, to what extent is it harmful for children, what needs to be done and what are the lessons for the European Union? with Susan Linn, Founder and Director of the 'Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood'. Host: MEP Anna Záborská. 3 September 42. 'The Human Biotechnology Revolution is opening the door to the creation 2013 of genetically modified 'designer babies': what is the current situation?, what is at stake at the moment?, what needs to be done?, and what role could the European Union play in this respect?' with Enola Aird, Founder and Director of 'Mothers for a Human Future'. Host: MEP Anna Záborská. 12 November 43. 'Positive human development: a spontaneous or guided process? 2013 45 years of experience with longitudinal research and the policy lessons that can be drawn from it' with Professor Lea Pulkkinen. Host: MEP Anneli Jäätteenmäki. 7 January 44. 'Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Systems in Europe: what 2014 are the current trends and what needs to be done?' with Professor Dr. Mathias Urban, Professor of Early Childhood and Director of the Early Childhood Research Centre, University of Roehampton, London, Great Britain. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner 4 March 45. Parents’ partnership stability and quality as a context for child 2014 development. What are the challenges, and what policies and programmes are in place? Some insights from Germany' with Professor Dr. Sabine Walper, Research Director of the German Youth Institute in Munich, Germany. Host: MEP Jürgen Klute.

Four yearbooks were published with the reports of these sessions:  session 1-16: Improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union: Current Perspectives.  session 17-23: Improving the Quality of Childhood in Europe 2011, Volume 2.  session 24-30: Improving the Quality of Childhood in Europe 2012, Volume 3.  session 31-37: Improving the Quality of Childhood in Europe 2013, Volume 4. All books can be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.ecswe.org/publications.php