A collaborative exploration of young people's happiness in Laos
PhD project
Christina McMellon's current research uses collaborative ethnography to explore young Laotian’s experiences and understandings of their subjective wellbeing and how these experiences and assessments are informed by Lao culture and changing global cultures.

About families: gathering evidence, informing action
Current project
This project aims to ensure that the changing needs of parents and disabled people
are met by using evidence to help inform policy and service development.

Children and Young People's Participation: From fashion accessory
to part of the fabric
Current project
The project aims to identify sustainable ways of working which support children and young people's participation

Children's concerns about the health and wellbeing of their
parents and significant others
Completed project
A collaboration between Childline Scotland and CRFR led to an ESRC award to explore ChildLine
Scotland’s unique database. This project focused on children’s health-related concerns about
parents and significant others.

Children's concerns about their sexual health and wellbeing
Completed project
This project arose as a result of a previous collaboration between ChildLine Scotland and CRFR
and led to a Scottish Executive award to utilise ChildLine Scotland’s unique caller database to examine children and young people’s self-identified concerns about their sexual health and well-being.

Connect in Care
Completed project
The purpose of Connect in Care is to support learning and practice development across all settings
in order to improve the quality and experience of care for older people in Scotland.

Cool with Change
Completed project
CRFR, in collaboration with Scotland’s Families, was awarded a grant from the Community Fund
to explore the impact of family change on the lives of young people aged 11-14.

Creative methods in research with children
Current project
This project creates opportunities for exchanging innovative research practice, by developing
and running an advanced level Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course at CRFR
at The University of Edinburgh

Delayed Childbearing and Childlessness in Britain:
the 1958 and 1979 Cohorts Compared
Completed project
Roona Simpson is conducting research to investigate the factors associated with changing patterns
in the timing and propensity to childbirth in Britain.

Early years longitudinal survey
Completed project
CRFR along with the National Centre for Social Research conducted a 2 stage evaluation of integration
of early years policies on behalf of the Scottish Executive.

Early years policy and services
Completed project
CRFR along with the National Centre for Social Research conducted a 2 stage evaluation of integration
of early years policies on behalf of the Scottish Executive.

Early Years Practice – Consulting with Young Children
– A Discussion Paper
Completed project
CRFR undertook a ‘desk-top review’ of evidence-based practice on participation methods
with young children.

Embedding information rights in schools
Current project
Exploring how information rights could be embedded within primary and secondary school curricula.

Engaging with involuntary service users in social work
Completed project
This project involves 6 local authorities covering a variety of knowledge exchange activities
around a range of involuntary service user groups

Evidence & Policy Seminar Series (Norface)
Completed project
The University of Edinburgh is organising a seminar series on Evidence and Policy with the University
of Iceland, National University of Ireland, University of Oslo and Erasmus University (Rotterdam). The seminars aim to advance international and comparative understanding of the use of different forms of knowledge and evidence in the policy process through a process of sharing of ideas and discussion
across these jurisdictions.

Examining Agency and the Politics of Reproductive Choice
Completed project

Exploring and assessing research impact in the social sciences
PhD project
The overall aim of this project will be to explore the assessment of the impact of social science research
on local and devolved policy contexts.

Exploring children and young people's experiences and support needs
when affected by parental (or significant carer) alcohol problems
PhD project
This project is a colloboration between the University of Edinburgh and the national voluntary childcare organisation, Barnardo's and is funded as an ESRC Case studentship.
The main objectives of the study are: to understand the diverse experiences of children when a parent
is a problem drinker; to identify these children's understandings of, and engagement with, services that support them in relation to parental alcohol misuse.

Family Values in Scotland
Completed project
CRFR and the Scottish Centre for Social Research studied attitudes to changing families based on a specially commissioned module of the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2004 that canvassed public views and knowledge on a range of family matters including knowledge of the law about, and attitudes to wider
kin relationships.

Fertility variations in Scotland: socio-cultural attitudes
and interactions
Completed project
The General Register Office (GRO) for Scotland has identified low fertility in Scotland as a problem, and a major contributory factor in population decline and population ageing. However fertility rates vary widely across the country. This project concerned the social interactions and attitudes underpinning the variation
in fertility rates within Scotland.

Food, families and parenting skills
PhD project

Grandparents and teenage grandchildren
Completed project
This research explored relations between grandparents and teenage grandchildren.

Growing up in Scotland within an international context
PhD project
This studentship will extend the existing evidence base for policy, enhancing knowledge of early years in Scotland and how it compares to early years experiences and contexts elsewhere.

GUS - Growing up in Scotland
Current project
GUS is a study that follows the lives of a national sample of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens. This is one of the largest longitudinal studies ever done in Scotland and will provide information that will help develop policies affecting young children and their families in Scotland.

Habit of a lifetime? Babies diets and family life in Scotland
PhD project
The research project concerns the development of children's nutritional habits and child health within the context of the family. This is explored primarily through the Growing Up in Scotland longitudinal survey of young children under five years of age.

Half-blood Princes and Princesses: Identity among the Second Generation
of Immigrants in Taiwan
PhD project
In this study, Hung-Chieh will explore what the childhood of children in transnational families is like
and how they define themselves and construct their identities.

Health of all children: how professionals and parents experience
the implementation of Hall 4
PhD project
The study explores the implementation of Hall 4 in Lothian from the perspectives of health professionals
and parents.

Heroes and heroines of just like us? Exploring children's views
on childhood in children's fiction
PhD project
The study explores children’s views on how childhood is represented in
children’s books. It considers children’s perspectives as to whether fictional texts accurately reflect their everyday lives and relationships, comparing these with children’s experience of other forms of popular culture such as television and films.

How do individuals make fertility decisions?
PhD project
This project explores the factors that influence how people make fertility decisions.

How rural communities respond to and prepare for climatic changes
PhD project

Impact of Learning Disability Liaison Service on health experiences and outcomes
of people with learning disabilities attending for general hospital care
Completed project

Theorising Children’s Participation: learning across countries and across disciplines
Current project

Impact of Learning Disability Liaison Service on health experiences
and outcomes of people with learning disabilities attending for general
hospital care (Learning Disability Liaison Nursing Services in South East Scotland...)
Completed project

Investigating young people's attitudes to violence against women
PhD project
Examining younger children's (aged 10 & 11) attitudes to violence against women.

Legal practitioners’ perspectives on the cohabitation provisions
of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006
Completed project

Life in low income families
Completed project
This research project explored the views and experiences of poverty amongst those living within low
income households with at least one child under the
age of 18.

Linking social care, housing and health data
Current project
This project will explore the views of social and health care clients and patients
(or carers), on linking social care, housing and health data for statistical
and research purposes.

Looking After Children: A study of young people’s experiences of home
supervision in Scotland
PhD project
Emerging data suggests that children who are ‘looked after’ at home, are likely to have the worst
outcomes amongst ‘looked after’ children in general. The aim of this research is to explore whether
the poor outcomes for children ‘looked after’ at home are attributable to their experiences of being
looked after per se, or to wider experiences of disadvantage.

Me and my befriender
Current project
This 18 month research project will explore the views of children, from lone mother households,
attending befriending projects in Scotland and England.

Narrative research with people who have Down's syndrome
and dementia
PhD project
This two stage mixed method research project will first involve determining how dementia was suspected
in the person someone was caring for and who was involved in this process and secondly how they see their sense of identity in relation to those around them.

NHS Lothian Values Based Framework - Knowledge Exchange
and Sustainability Manager
Completed project

Older women and domestic violence
Completed project
CRFR was commissioned by NHS Health Scotland to carry out a short research project on older women
and domestic violence. An overview of issues regarding domestic violence for women later in life was
the object.

Parenting support and drug use
Current project

Participation for Change: carers influencing policy
Completed project
In September 2002, new legal rights in the form of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 recognised the contribution of many thousands of unpaid carers in Scotland. Carers were active in the
policy process leading to the act, Supported by Carers Scotland.
CRFR, in collaboration with CARERS Scotland and funded by the Scottish Executive, studied what
helped carers become involved in this policy process.

Participation in practice: school councils
Completed project

Person-focused approach in services for older people with intellectual disabilities:
doing life story work with older people with mild or moderate intellectual disability
PhD project
The project will focus on life story work, service recipient’s reactions and the effects
of knowing a person’s life story on the attitudes and practice of service providers.
The project is planned with field work in Norway and UK which hopefully will start
in autumn 2009, with results in spring 2011.

Personal Development Project (PDP) evaluation
Current project
The PDP Project offers outdoor based activities for the target group of 14-17 year olds who have a ‘significant’ risk of offending. The evaluation draws upon contribution analysis and allows for the identification and consideration of which elements of potential outcomes the PDP project has under
direct control and which can be achieved through direct and indirect influence.

Policy influence of children’s voluntary organisations
PhD project

Rural and Urban solo living study
Completed project
singleness / solo living; demographic trends; kin relationships / networks; housing; migration and mobility; transport & families / relationships
This two year ESRC funded study investigates the experiences and expectations of people living alone between the ages of 25 and 44, a period of adulthood conventionally associated with partnership and parenting. The aims of the study include deepening our knowledge and understanding of the social
capital and quality of life of working age adults living alone, and to consider how this might vary in
different types of rural and urban localities.

Secretly connected?
Anonymous semen donation, genetics and meanings of kinship
Current project

Solo Living
Completed project
CRFR was awarded a grant to study the growth in solo living across the life course, based on looking at
data already collected in British and Scottish long term surveys, for example the Scottish Household Survey.

Someone To Talk To Study
Completed project
An examination of contemporary views and experiences of emotional support and emotions talk,
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

South Ayrshire consultation research exercise
Completed project
A team of researchers worked in South Ayrshire between January 2003 and October 2004 to find out what people think about integrated children’s services, and to explore the best ways of asking for their views.

Staying Together
PhD project
Staying Together: an exploration of longer term married relationships, is an ESRC CASE funded
project, being undertaken in collaboration with Care for the Family, an organisation that aims
to strengthen family life.

Supporting Care Homes Residents with Dementia at Night
Completed project

Supporting staff working with people with a learning disability and dementia:
practice development pack
Current project
This project is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The aim is to produce training
material that will enable internal practice development among staff who support people
with a learning disability.

Sure Start Mapping
Completed project
CRFR and the Scottish Centre for Social Research were commissioned by the Scottish Executive
Education Department, Research and Economic Unit to conduct a second mapping exercise of
Sure Start Services in Scotland.

The experiences of older children of drug and alcohol
using parents
Completed project
Children whose parents have substance misuse problems are at greater risk of various adverse outcomes, both during their childhood and in later life. CRFR was awarded a 22 month grant to study older children’s accounts of their childhoods, pathways to independence and thoughts about the future.

Theorising Children’s Participation: learning across countries and across disciplines
Completed project

Timescapes - Work and family lives; the changing experiences
of ‘young’ families
Current project
Timescapes aims to explore the ways in which personal relationships and identities unfold over the life course by focusing on the ways that people’s relationships with significant others – parents, siblings, widerfamily, children, partners, friends and lovers – develop and change over time.

Training in Research with and about Children
Completed project
The aim of this project was to develop an advanced, interdisciplinary training package for those undertaking research with and about children.

Twenty+ futures: recession, global threats and young people's
anticipated futures as partners and parents
Current project

Understanding contructions and perspectives of quality of life
in dementia care
PhD project
In this study, Jane is using focused interviews to elicit subjective perspectives on quality of life from people with dementia and their carers.

Veteran’s and their Families in Scotland
Current project
Developing a research agenda with charities and individuals working with veterans from
UK Armed Forces in Scotland and their families.

WELLCHI: the wellbeing of children
Completed project
The project has set up and operates a network to improve our knowledge of the impact of changing family forms, the working conditions of parents, and social policy and legislative measures on the wellbeing of children and their families.

Wellcome Strategic Programme in the Human Body,
its Scope, Limits and Future
Building on established research groups with diverse expertise, this multidisciplinary programme
will follow five strands of innovative research.

Women in their fifties: wellbeing, ageing and anticipation
of ageing
Completed project
This small qualitative study explored the everyday experiences of women aged
50-59 – a topic area in which there has been little previous research. The study focused on the opportunities and challenges facing fifty-something women in a range of different social and economic circumstances.

Work-life balance in Scottish food retail companies
Completed project
A research project based in Scottish food retail companies, exploring: employers’ views on work-life
balance policies; women’s experiences of combining paid work and caring for family members and
other dependents; best practice’ in terms of work-life balance policies in the food retail sector.

Young People Creating Belonging: spaces, sounds and sights
Current project
This project aims to explore the notion of belonging in domestic spaces.

Young People's Experiences in Residential School:
Concerns and 'Complaints
PhD project
Using institutional ethnography, this research explores young people's experiences in a residential
school with expressing concern or making 'complaints' about the services they receive.