International food and beverage company Nestlé has launched the Parenting Index, which seeks to provide an understanding of experiences faced by parents across the world through comparable and quantifiable data.

The in-depth study, which will be conducted every two to three years, was designed to measure the overall perception of parenting, as well as the detailed perceptions of economic, social, and material issues.

Speaking at the virtual media launch on February 25, head of Nestlé Nutrition, Senior Vice-President Thierry Philardeau said the Parenting Index is a benchmark for understanding the challenges faced by parents and will create a road map for change.

“It is a new way to get real life facts, figures and insights about parenting. It is also a way to understand the key factors influencing parenting,” said Philardeau.

“We are convinced that well-informed, supported and happy parents make healthier and happier babies. This index is only one pillar of our global Nestlé parenting initiative which will make parents' life easier,” he added.

According to Karin Perrot, senior manager of market intelligence and innovation at research agency Kantar, over 8,000 parents across 16 countries who had children up to 12 months were interviewed last year for the Parenting Index 2021. Among the countries were Brazil, China, Mexico, United States of America, and Nigeria.

Perrot explained that based on the 36 dimensions measured, the survey revealed that eight major factors were impacting parents.

“It appeared that our eight factors explained 85 per cent of the differences among countries, and the first few ones make up 55 per cent of the index core. The factors with the highest contribution are the ones where actions have their strongest impact on parents' lives,” she said.

Perrot pointed out that the eight factors include the absence of pressure, financial resilience, support for working life, perception of an easy baby, health care resources, supportive environment, shared parenting, and parenting confidence.

Additional research was carried out to identify other factors which revealed another nine per cent of differences among countries. These factors include the length of paid maternity leave, gross domestic product per capita, and gini coefficient.

Perrot said although there were high and low factors in the index ranking, every country has areas to improve in order to further support the parenting journey.

“These factors identify ways to improve the ease of parenting in each country that can provide insight into how government, employees, communities, families, friends and partners might offer improved support for parents in today's changing and intellectual world,” said Perrot.