New research reveals that more than eight out of ten parents are too scared to talk about the problems they are having.

The research by national charity Parentline Plus was unveiled to launch the first ever Talking Families Week this week.

A study which included an in-depth analysis of 110 cases of people who had called the charity's helpline found that 81 per cent of callers said they lacked confidence in communicating with their partner or ex-partner which was a factor in the problems they were facing with their children's behaviour.

"Looking at the findings, it becomes abundantly clear that it is not possible to separate children's needs from the needs of their families," said Dorit Braun, Chief Executive at Parentline Plus.

"The behavioural difficulties of the children in this study were sometimes serious; the parents who rang the helpline were very concerned to support their child - but they themselves needed support to do this."

Parentline Plus runs a range of services including a confidential free helpline and parenting courses. Almost 400,000 parents and carers accessed Parentline Plus services last year.