The Baby Box scheme in Scotland: A study of public attitudes and social value.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Scottish Government introduced a free Baby Box scheme for all new parents in 2017, modelled on the Finnish scheme, to give every baby 'an equal start in life'. There is little evidence that it results in better health outcomes, but there has been limited research into different perspectives and discourses on such schemes.

Methods

Four focus groups were conducted with 21 parents in North-East Scotland. Recordings were transcribed verbatim, anonymized and analysed thematically with NVivo 12 software. Our thematic analysis was both inductive and deductive-remaining open to themes identified by participants themselves but also informed by the social policy literature on universalism and social cohesion.

Results

Across all the focus groups, we found a high d

SUBMITTER: Skea Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9700131 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature