About

Parent holding hand of child

A child’s serious health condition can lead to a high care burden for parents. This, in turn, can lead to various challenges in life, such as the parent’s worsening health or financial difficulties.

Background

The COST project, led by Professor Salla Atkins, investigates how the support and care provided by parents to their child with, for example, diabetes, cancer, mental health conditions, or developmental disabilities are connected to the parents’ long-term health and financial situation.

Goal

The project studies the parents of children with special needs born in 1987 over a 30-year period. It also maps the use and availability of social security by parents and how social security may have affected the parents’ health and finances. The research project combines registry data from the 1987 birth cohort in Finland, and interviews with parents, focusing on how parents experience the formal and informal support they received. Economic modelling is then used to theorise what kind of social protection could better support these parents in the long term.

Impact

The project’s innovation is a comprehensive combination of methods, allowing for policy relevant results for future well-being and equality for parents of children with special needs. It maps and understands the challenges faced by parents but also searches for solutions, rather than problems. The register analysis, combined with theoretical economic modelling has the potential for great policy impact in Finland and internationally.

Funding

Project is funded by Academy of Finland

Partners and co-operators

TBC