Dr Becca Bland has completed a PhD by publication at the University of Brighton examining how individuals who are estranged from family experience societal disadvantage. Her research challenges the tendency to view the breakdown in family relationships solely as a private family matter, arguing instead that people who are cut off from family support face systemic barriers embedded in UK policy informed by dominant cultural beliefs about family unity. 

The study highlights how dominant assumptions that all adults can rely on family backing leave estranged individuals particularly vulnerable in areas such as student finance, housing, and mental health provision. By bringing together published work that documents these structural blind spots, Dr Bland’s doctoral research reframes estrangement as an issue of social inequality. It calls for greater institutional recognition and policy reform to address the hidden disadvantages faced by this often-overlooked group.

Click here to read the thesis.