Dr Georgia Philip
ESRC Funded Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Utilising fathers’ narratives to inform interventions for supporting separated parents
Over the past decade academic and political attention concerning the role and involvement of fathers has steadily increased. In terms of social policy, individuals and institutions alike are expected to consider the role of fathers in children’s and family lives (Clegg 2010). Given current proposals to reform legal aid in private family law and the Coalition commitments to facilitate shared parenting and relationship support (Family Justice Review 2011), enriching the evidence base for such interventions is crucial and there is a need for data on fathers’ perspectives.
The central objective of this project is to utilise and extend my doctoral research on fathering after divorce or separation, in order to deepen the evidence base and develop practice guidance for social workers, providers of mediation or contact facilitation services and other voluntary sector organisations.
The specific research objectives for the project are:
- To disseminate and evaluate the doctoral research through academic journals and conferences, presenting not only the substantive findings, but also methodological insights and broader theoretical arguments produced by the research.
- To conduct a literature review and evaluation of interventions aimed at supporting men as fathers after divorce or separation.
- To work with local and national organisations, practitioners and user groups, as part of this review process, to gather information and insight about services and good practice. Such groups will include: One Plus One, Relate, National Association of Child Contact Centres, CAFCASS, Norfolk Family Mediation Service, Mancroft Advisory Project in Norwich, Norfolk and Norwich Families House.
- To produce a report based on the review and consultation process, which synthesises and evaluates the current evidence base, identifies key research findings, issues and elements of existing good or innovative practice.
- To organise an event aimed at practitioners in third sector and statutory organisations, academics and policy makers, to launch the report, identify key issues and promote discussion.
Doctoral Research 2010: ‘Working At It’: context, relationality and moral reasoning in narratives of fathering beyond couplehood
Background:
Over the past decade academic and political attention concerning the roles, involvement and social position of fathers has steadily increased (Featherstone 2009). Key researchers such as Lamb (2004) and Lewis & Lamb (2007) continue to argue that our understanding of men’s experiences as fathers remains limited and more research is needed to chart the processes by which men perceive and negotiate their identities and activities as fathers, particularly after divorce or separation. A key starting point for this project were three key ideas present in recent research: divorce or separation as a transition in, or continuation of, family relationships; divorce or separation as a catalyst for re-thinking parenting relationships; and gender as a central influencing factor on parental identity and practice (Doucet 2006, Ribbens McCarthy et al 2003, Smart & Neale 1999). The research was a sociological, qualitative study of fathering after divorce or separation; focusing on fathers’ own accounts of the process of sustaining father-child and also co-parental relationships, over time and across households.
Design:
The study involved in depth interviews with 23 previously resident fathers with at least one biological child where the relationship with the mother had ended and who had been divorced or separated for at least one year. The volunteer sample of fathers, lived in a comparatively rural area of East Anglia, was predominantly of White British ethnicity and all presented as heterosexual at the time of interview. The sample varied in terms of age, employment, type of contact arrangements and reported quality of co-parental relationship with mothers. Fathers were recruited via three main routes: local employers, family support services, including those aimed specifically at fathers, and personal social and professional networks. A thematic and ‘iterative’ analysis of all the interviews was made, using a framework based on principles from feminist ethics of care and the ‘Listening guide’ (Brown & Gilligan 1992, Gilligan et al 2006, Doucet & Mauthner 2008).
Findings:
The study supports earlier research suggesting that new contexts of fathering can bring ‘transformative’ experiences of care. At the same time, however, it also demonstrates the persistent ‘pull’ of a gendered model of parenting, which can normalise different and unequal levels of caring responsibility without disrupting a sense of the equal moral status of fathers and mothers. Taking a feminist perspective, the research presents post-couple fathering as a complex moral and relational process shaped deeply, though not straightforwardly, by gendered patterns of caring for children. The analysis showed that fathers perceive fathering beyond couplehood to occur in connection with others, and that it is particularly interconnected with mothers. It also revealed that the experience of post-couple fathering can produce an intensified focus on the quality of relationships and a heightened perception of the ongoing processes of moral and relational work involved. Further to this, three broader theoretical implications were raised: that a concept of fairness is in play during the relational and moral work of co-parenting; that a gendered moral space exists in which such work takes place, and that gendered patterns of care continue to act as a powerful framework in the process of renegotiating parental roles.
References:
Brown, L.M & Gilligan, C (1992) Meeting At the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girl’s Development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Doucet, A (2006) Do Men Mother? Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Doucet, A & Mauthner, N.S (2008) ‘What can be known and how? Narrated subjects and the Listening Guide’, Qualitative Research, Vol. 8 (3) pp399-409
Featherstone, B (2009) Contemporary Fathering, Theory, Policy and Practice, Bristol: The Policy Press
Gilligan, C, Spencer, R, Weinberg, M.K & Bertsch, (2003) On the Listening Guide, A Voice-Centred Relational Method in: T Hesse-Biber S.N & Leavy P (Eds.) (2006) Emergent Method in Social Research, London, New Delhi: Sage
Lamb, M.E (2004) The Role of the Father in Child Development, 4th Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lewis, C & Lamb, M.E (2007) Understanding Fatherhood, A Review of Recent Research. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Ribbens McCarthy, J, Edwards, R & Gillies, V (2003) Making Families, Moral Tales of Parenting & Step Parenting, Durham: Sociologypress
Smart, C & Neale, B (1999) Family Fragments, Cambridge: Polity Press.
