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

这项拟议的研究增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，既要理解和改变社会目前对年轻父亲的看法，也要了解这些观念对政策和实践支持的影响程度，使他们能够积极参与孩子的生活。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一个“问题”(Duncan 2007)。在包括产妇、儿童和家庭支持服务在内的专业环境中，这些负面的普遍假设已被发现转化为从业人员的监督或旁观做法(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、母亲和父亲的社会和广泛的好处(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并复制了它们试图消除的耻辱和排斥。这项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的、纵向的和国际的证据基础，以及有证据的实践和政策解决方案，以促进性别平等和作为父亲的年轻男性的公民身份。所产生的数据和发现将通过新的理论和实质性的视角进行询问，解决以下研究问题：1)被边缘化的年轻父亲面临的多重劣势如何影响他们的育儿轨迹和长期结果和抱负？2)年轻父亲的经历是如何在不断变化的政策和专业实践氛围以及不断演变的积极父亲意识中形成的？3)发起支持的好处和关键挑战是什么，英国以客户为中心的干预模式，以及在比较的国际环境中可以学到什么？这项研究将记录和深入跟踪一些年轻父亲随着时间的推移和在不同的比较环境中生活的变化，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塑造他们的经历、他们为人父的取向以及他们与子女和家庭保持积极关系的能力。这项研究的范围是多学科的，涉及青年、家庭和为人父母的研究和提供，以及社会工作、住房、就业和保健政策；这些领域将被借鉴和整合。它还涉及到自新工党的十年少女怀孕和育儿战略(1999-2010)以来一直在变化的政策格局。使用创造性的、参与性的定性纵向(QL)调查方法，这项研究将对这种不断变化的家庭、育儿和青年政策及其对年轻父亲生活的影响产生新的理解。三项相辅相成的工作将确保研究的影响和吸收，包括：1)一项关于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以及不断演变的积极父亲意识的氛围下进行审查；2)与青年父亲集体和Grimsby的实践伙伴进行纵向接触，以跟踪和评估创新形式的良好做法的发展，这些良好做法通过承认年轻父亲是“经验专家”而直接应对关键的政策挑战；以及3)国际比较调查(英国和瑞典)，并发展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.