Children, Young People and Families
This research theme embraces the richness and complexity of contemporary childhood, youth and family life at a national and international level. Children and young people have been at the centre of three major policy debates:
- the commitment to reduce child poverty;
- recognition that children and young people are active agents and subjects of rights;
- concern that many young people are at risk.
Our research contributes to the knowledge base in all three. Families lie at the heart of society and our research engages with the governance of family life, family poverty, employment, family practices and the diversity and fluidity of family relationships.
Research studies carried out by members of this thematic group have received national and international recognition and played a significant role in the university being awarded the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The award recognised - among others - the contribution of our path-breaking studies of lone mothers and employment, children’s experiences of divorce, child protection in settings of political violence and child poverty from children’s own perspectives.
Our research in this area
| Research | Staff |
|---|---|
| Evaluating new developments in Children’s Services. | |
| The making of public policy for children and young people. Children and young people's accounts of contemporary childhoods. |
|
| Intergenerational mobility. Life chances of poor children and youth unemployment. |
|
| How employment is distributed across families: the implication for child poverty and wider youth outcomes. | |
| Children and youth on the economic/political margins in the Middle East and global South. The role of international organisations in protecting children from political violence. |
|
| Violence against women and children. |
|
| The evolution of familistic welfare regimes in Southern Europe (especially in Greece) and other semi-peripheral countries. Comparative family policy in EU. |
|
| Motherhood, disability and identity. Young survivors of rape. |
|
| The impact of death and loss on family relationships and different age groups. | |
| Mobilising social networks to assist those caring for someone dying at home. How murdered children are used to change public policy. |
|
| Religion, marriage and family relation in South Asia: and more generally, how social identities, culture and relationships are engaged and represented in international development process. |
