Family Policy and Child Well-Being: The Case of Montenegro in the European Perspective

Branko Bošković, Harriet Churchill and Oriola Hamzallari
Additional contact information
Branko Bošković: Humanistic Studies, University of Donja Gorica, Oktoih 1, 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro
Harriet Churchill: Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Elmfield Building, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
Oriola Hamzallari: Department of Psychology, Aleksander Moisiu University, Rruga Miqesia, Spitalle, 2000 Durres, Albania

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-13

Abstract: Family policies and family support measures have been identified as having major implications for child well-being, particularly through their role in influencing parental and family resources, circumstances and behaviour. The official approach to family policies focuses on opportunities for families to balance their work and family duties and care for their children. This paper analyses the type of policies available in Montenegro compared to the European Union. Potentially, Montenegro will become an EU member state, thus it is important to take a look at Montenegrin practice, as children should have equal life chances and protection of their well-being. Having a solid legal framework per se does not necessarily result in significant positive outcomes, and this paper analyses whether children in Montenegro have the same opportunities for development, in the context of family policies, as their counterparts in the rest of Europe. The focus of the paper will be on the criteria that define family rights and obligations, eligibility, availability and use of family policies in Montenegro. Based on the specific measures and datasets examined, the analysis considers the degree to which a period of family policy investment in Montenegro has been accompanied by improvements in child well-being and family resources, and undertakes comparisons in these regards with EU-wide family policy and child well-being trends. The paper uses a welfare state theoretical approach, with the focus on social investment and relevant data on children’s well-being obtained from the Eurostat, the OECD and the official national statistics.

Keywords: family; children; parents; well-being; Montenegro; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9118/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9118/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:17:p:9118-:d:624678

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().