| |
| Project title |
Timescapes
Work and Family Lives:
The Changing Experiences of Young Families |
| Funding details |
Funded by the ESRC |
| Research
team |
Kathryn Backett-Milburn,
Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Lynn Jamieson, Jeni Harden and Alice
MacLean. |
| Dates |
2007 to 2010 |
| Type of project |
Current research
project |
| Keywords |
Work and families / relationships
|
| Project
description |
CRFR is delighted to be taking
part in Timescapes, the ESRC-funded qualitative longitudinal
research initiative which involves a consortium of 5 universities
based across the UK. 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, wider family,
children, partners, friends and lovers – develop and change
over time.
The CRFR-based study, entitled ‘Work and Family Lives;
The Changing Experiences of ‘Young’ Families’,
began in February 2007. It aims to explore the ways in which
families reconcile their work and family lives over time by
drawing on and comparing the changing experiences and perceptions
of a sample of ten low income and ten more affluent families.
The study will focus on children’s perspectives as well
as those of their parents.
Policies at national, UK and European level emphasise the need
to support all working families and to address the needs of
children. However, researchers are increasingly illuminating
the challenges, contradictions and inconsistencies facing working
parents trying to achieve a work-life balance. These are especially
acute for low income families who may also experience considerable
movement in and out of low paid employment.
As part of this three-year qualitative study, primary school-aged
children and their parents will be interviewed three times.
The research will investigate processes of negotiation between
parents and children in addressing issues raised by working
parenthood. It will look at the ways such issues impact on everyday
family practices and will explore any ways that these may change
over time in response to changes in work and family circumstances,
including those in the children’s lives. By comparing
the experiences of low income and affluent families, the study
aims to deepen our understanding of how work and family issues
are constructed and ‘worked out’ by parents and
children living under different socio-economic and labour market
conditions. |
Publications/
dissemination |
|
| Contact |
Alice
MacLean |
|
