Tracing the lives and support needs of young fathers: A participatory, qualitative longitudinal and comparative analysis

拟议的研究促进了对一个研究不足的主题的理解；被边缘化的年轻父亲（25岁及以下）的生活经历和支持需求。它有一个雄心勃勃的目标，即理解和改变社会目前对年轻父亲的看法，以及这些想法对政策和实践支持的影响程度，这些政策和实践支持使他们能够积极参与子女的生活。在当前的英国背景下，年轻的父亲通常被视为家庭社会政策中的“问题”（Duncan 2007）。在专业环境中，包括产妇、儿童和家庭支持服务，这些普遍存在的负面假设被发现转化为从业人员的监视或边缘化做法（Neale & Davies 2015）。这种做法也将年轻父亲排除在“参与式父亲”的主流期望之外（Miller 2011），尽管事实证明，男性参与照顾孩子、母亲和父亲会带来社会和广泛的好处（Ives 2018）。因此，在对年轻父亲的多样性和动态的了解仍然有限的背景下，目前的政策和做法加强和再现了它们试图减少的耻辱和排斥。本研究的广泛目标是解决这一知识差距，提供一个独特的扩展、纵向和国际证据基础，以及促进性别平等和成为父亲的年轻男性公民身份的实证实践和政策解决方案。所产生的数据和发现将通过新的理论和实质性的镜头进行讯问，解决以下研究问题：1)边缘化年轻父亲面临的多重劣势如何影响他们的养育轨迹和长期结果和愿望？2)年轻父亲的经历是如何在不断变化的政策和专业实践气候以及不断演变的参与式父亲意识形态中形成的？3)在英国启动支持性、以客户为中心的干预模式的好处和主要挑战是什么？在比较的国际背景下可以学到什么？这项研究将记录并深入追踪一些年轻父亲在不同时期和不同比较背景下不断变化的生活，并实施和评估有利于平等的做法。这将使人们能够更清楚地了解不同的理解和期望文化对年轻父亲的影响，以及不同的专业反应如何影响他们的经历、他们对父亲的定位以及他们与子女和家庭维持积极关系的能力。这项研究的范围是多学科的，涵盖青年、家庭和父母关系的研究和提供，以及社会工作、住房、就业和保健政策；将被吸收和整合的场。它还涉及到自新工党的10年少女怀孕和生育战略（1999-2010）以来不断变化的政策格局。利用创造性的、参与性质的纵向调查方法，这项研究将对家庭、养育子女和青年政策的这种变化及其对年轻父亲生活的影响产生新的理解。三个互补的工作将确保研究的影响和吸收，包括：1)对英国年轻父亲生活和支持需求动态的扩展QL研究，在不断变化的政策和专业实践气候以及不断发展的参与父亲意识形态中进行研究；2)与年轻父亲集体和格里姆斯比的实践伙伴进行纵向接触，跟踪和评估创新形式的良好实践的发展，通过承认年轻父亲是“经验专家”，直接应对关键的政策挑战；3)进行国际比较调查（英国和瑞典），并建立一个关于年轻父母的国际研究网络。

The proposed study advances understanding of an under-researched topic; the lived experiences and support needs of marginalised young fathers (aged 25 and under). It has an ambitious aim of both understanding and transforming the way society currently thinks about young fathers and the extent to which these ideas influence policy and practice support that enables them to be positively engaged in their children's lives. In the current UK context, young fathers are often viewed as 'a problem' within family social policy (Duncan 2007). In professional settings, including maternity, child and family support services, these negative pervasive assumptions have been found to translate into practices of surveillance or sidelining by practitioners (Neale & Davies 2015). Such practices also exclude young fathers from dominant expectations of 'engaged fatherhood' (Miller 2011), despite proven societal and wide-ranging benefits of men's involvement in caregiving for children, mothers and fathers (Ives 2018). Current policy and practice approaches therefore reinforce and reproduce the very stigma and exclusion they seek to diminish against a backdrop where knowledge about the diversity and dynamics of young fatherhood remains limited. The broad aim of this research is to address this gap in knowledge, offering a unique extended, longitudinal and international evidence base, and evidenced practice and policy solutions that promote gender equality and the citizenship of young men who are fathers.The data and findings generated will be interrogated through fresh theoretical and substantive lenses, addressing the following research questions:1) How do the multiple disadvantages faced by marginalised young fathers impact on their parenting trajectories and longer term outcomes and aspirations?2) How are young fathers' experiences shaped within a shifting climate of policy and professional practice and evolving ideologies of engaged fatherhood?3) What are the benefits and key challenges of initiating supportive, client centred models of intervention in the UK and what might be learnt across comparative, international contexts?The study will document and intensively track the changing lives of a number of young fathers, both over time and in different comparative contexts and implement and evaluate equality friendly practice. This will enable a clearer picture to emerge about the impact of different cultures of understanding and expectations on young fathers and how varied professional responses shape their experiences, their orientation to fatherhood and their capacity to sustain positive relationships with their children and families. The study is multidisciplinary in scope, straddling youth, family and parenthood research and provision, and social work, housing, employment and health care policy; fields that will be drawn upon and integrated. It also engages with a shifting policy landscape that has moved on since the days of New Labour's 10-Year Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood Strategy (1999-2010). Using creative, participatory qualitative longitudinal (QL) methods of enquiry, the study will produce new understandings of this shifting landscape of family, parenting and youth policy and its impact on the lives of young fathers. Three complementary strands of work will ensure research impact and uptake including: 1) an extended QL study of the dynamics of young fathers' lives and support needs in the UK, examined within a shifting climate of policy and professional practice and evolving ideologies of engaged fatherhood; 2) longitudinal engagement with practice partners from the Young Dads Collective and Grimsby to track and evaluate developments in innovative forms of good practice that respond directly to key policy challenges by recognising young fathers as 'experts by experience'; and 3) an international, comparative enquiry (UK and Sweden) and the development of an international research network on young parenthood.