Children’s hearing system fails to address child sexual exploitation
Research by Barnardo’s Scotland and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration considered 44 cases where child sexual exploitation (CSE) was referenced in reports (mostly by police or social work). They also considered 30 more cases where researchers identified the child as a very likely victim.…
Inclusion of parents and LGBTQ youth in teen dating violence research and prevention programs
In North America, teen dating violence among adolescents is a significant health concern. LGBTQ youth disproportionately experience bullying, peer aggression, suicide and peer harassment. In the United States, 1 in 9 adolescent women and 1 in 12 adolescent males have experienced a form of TDV…
South Asian child sexual abuse – what we need to know
The June report published by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) discusses how children and young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities (BAME) can face additional barriers to disclosing and reporting child sexual abuse. I have been researching one such barrier for three years, investigating how concepts of Shame and Honour in South Asian communities can amplify…
A conversation: indigenous knowledges and intersectionality
The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships is holding its seminar, ‘Intersectionality Families and Relationships – Colonisation, Climate Change, Children’s Rights: Has Covid-19 changed the agenda?’ on the 11th and 12th of November 2020. In this short blog, two of our guest speakers Helen Moewaka Barnes and Ros Edwards, talk…
Family conversations online and abroad during Covid-19: the differences between Chinese families with daughter and with son
International students at the uncertain stage between teenage and independent adulthood have been particularly vulnerable during lockdown. Many are living far from relatives, with limited social networks and lacking the experience to navigate this public health emergency. At the same time, forms of socialisation shifted.…
How resilient do we want our children and young people to be?
As a social worker I was fortunate to meet a number of children and young people who I would describe as ‘resilient’. The work of Gilligan (2001) was highly influential on my practice and I considered ways in which I might foster resilience in the children I worked with, particularly those children to whom we owed corporate parenting responsibilities
In the Shadow of a Pandemic: Harare’s Street Youth Experience COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has had unprecedented impact on all our lives. In Zimbabwe, where two-thirds of the population live in poverty (World Food Programme, 2019), lockdown has exacerbated water and food shortages and seen curfews, roundups and forced removal of young people living on the streets.…
Doing friendship at a distance
Friendships are valued as a form of exchanging social support – information, resources and mutual confiding – and for the enjoyment of taking part in activities together, sharing humour and having fun. These diverse ways of ‘doing friendship’ contribute to our sense of self and belonging.…
Why we need to listen to families in fuel poverty about smart meters
Fuel poverty is a pressing issue, one likely to be magnified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Many households will increase their energy use through spending more time at home at the same time as incomes may be reduced. Smart technology has been positioned by developers and government as potentially able to alleviate fuel poverty, yet there has…
Educating Children During and After Covid-19, Opportunity for Change?
When in January 2020 I first heard about a virus sweeping through China, I rolled into a big branded pharmacy and bought the last 2 remaining anti-viral hand-sanitiser. These types of items were already flying off the shelves. Those of us purchasing at that time would most likely be the ones preparing for a pandemic, we at best guessed the virus would be here very soon, and at
Family planning DURING COVID-19: A baby ‘bust’, not ‘boom’
The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to have a significant impact on women’s and couples’ reproductive lives. Social distancing and ‘stay at home’ measures have already seen a significant disruption to fertility treatment, maternity services and access to family planning services, leading to concerns…
Listening to young people during Covid-19 challenges common adult assumptions about their peer relationships
The experiences and perspectives of children and young people are generally missing from coverage and discussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects. This is not a unique situation, as children’s status in society positions them as a marginalised group. In this blog post, I will focus on what children and young people’s experiences of …
Birth and beyond in a pandemic: Findings from a project with mothers in the England lockdown of spring 2020
When I found myself sitting with PPE-clad nurses in a GP surgery with my 8 week old infant being vaccinated amidst pin-drop silence in an empty clinic, I knew that I would raise her, locked down, unable to meet friends, my parents unable to fly in from India to see me, unable to attend post-natal clinics, unable to catch day-time moments of sleep with our 4 year old also home now, as nurseries closed…
COVID: Outside Our Door
A pandemic is outside our door, outside the safe walls of our little home. We’re both cooped up, inside two tiny rooms, trying to maneuver our way through another period of unchartered waters. Over the years, you grew from a small boy to a young man. And in this time…
The vicious circle of familism in housing and care during Covid-19 in Greece
COVID-19 impacts all aspects of family life and inter-generational relationships, through housing and informal systems of social care in Greece. In the centre of the political discourse is home and its association with care. ‘Stay safe’ is the wish among people both in personal and work-related communication as well as…
Capturing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the family relationships of young fathers
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting on all our lives, albeit in markedly different ways. A frequently over-looked population, especially in family research, are young fathers. Even before the crisis, young fathers (aged 25 and under) already faced a range of disadvantages and were stigmatised…
Mothers who allege abuse more likely to lose custody of their children
To work at length with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in the UK is to become aware that mothers who voice fears of abuse by the father, after separation or divorce, often find contact with their child reduced or lost. This raises serious child protection concerns.…
Digital by default: the new normal of family life under COVID-19
Just a few weeks ago, children went to school, parents worried about their screen time at home, and the digital future was the stuff of science fiction. Under COVID-19, school has gone online, worries about screen time have gone through the roof, and life is fast becoming digital by default.…
Introducing The Centre for Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) blog
There is a growing body of activity focused on collecting and disseminating the early experiences of COVID-19 and its wide-ranging impact on communities of research, policy and practice. The Centre for Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) blog series is one such initiative.…
The social life of self-harm, in lockdown
There has been much written recently on the effects of the lock down on mental health. How do people react to being alone? How does isolation reinforce previous vulnerabilities, and give rise to the perceived need to reinvent one’s everyday life in the face of rampant anxiety? …
Locking Down or Breaking Up: Newly Cohabitating Couples in the Time of Coronavirus
The lockdown in the United Kingdom has changed relationships and dating drastically. Gone are the one night stands and the casual hook-ups, and budding relationships have either been put on hold or ramped up to warp-speed. Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer of England, gave some unexpected advice to new couples during a press briefing: move in together…
Stay-at-home measures and domestic violence amid the Covid-19 crisis
Media attention has picked up on the risk of an increase in domestic violence in conditions of lockdown under the Covid-19 emergency. It is obvious that being confined to the home with an abusive partner is likely to have dramatic affects on the everyday life of women in this situation. For obvious reasons, direct evidence of…
The Children (Scotland) Bill – Justice Committee’s Recommendations Stage 1
The Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament have just issued their Stage 1 Report on the Children (Scotland) Bill. The Bill will reform family law in Scotland, and particularly promises to improve the participation rights of children within family law proceedings. While the Committee approved of this promise, it felt substantial changes and additions were needed to achieve this. We agree.
Families and relationships amidst the Covid-19 pandemic: Call for blog submissions
COVID-19 is impacting on all aspects of family life and personal relationships, as well as on our formal and informal systems of social care. How are we ‘doing’ family life and practicing intimacies during lockdown? What are the consequence on our intergenerational relations – with the youngest and oldest – and how are we protecting those most vulnerable?…
Research with young environmental activists in the UK
Like many researchers, particularly those whose focus is empirical, my data collection was stopped in its tracks in the days leading up to lock down in the UK in March 2020. Along with my research grinding to a halt, so did my ability to think beyond the basics in those days. This rotated around; how could I keep myself and family safe…
COVID and ‘BIG QUAL’
It seems appropriate to review the possibilities of secondary analysis of data that has already been gathered by face-to-face techniques, as the current pandemic closes down many such forms of research. The substitution of virtual means of data collection for face-to-face means, such as interviewing using internet telephony, is not the only possible…