COST - Consequences of caring: A 30-year follow-up of the health and wellbeing of parents with special needs children in a Nordic welfare state
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 worsening health or financial difficulties for the parents.
The COST project, led by Professor Salla Atkins, investigates how the support and care provided by parents to their child with conditions such as diabetes, cancer, mental health issues, or developmental disabilities are connected to the parents’ long-term health and financial situation.
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 for parents and how social security may have affected their health and finances.
The research project combines registry data from the 1987 birth cohort in Finland with interviews of parents, focusing on how they experience the formal and informal support they received. Economic modelling is then used to theorize what kind of social protection could better support these parents in the long term.
The project’s innovation lies in its comprehensive combination of methods, allowing for policy-relevant results for the future well-being and equality of 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 significant policy impact in Finland and internationally.