The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone – but, for some, existing social inequalities were exacerbated, and this created a vital need for research. This includes young fathers and the professionals who support them.

This book synthesises the challenges of researching during COVID-19 to improve future policy and practice.

You can view the book open access!

Anna Tarrant’s revealing research explores 

Drawing on pioneering multigenerational research, Fathering and Poverty considers the dynamics of men’s caring responsibilities in low-income families’ lives. Illuminating aspects of care within economic hardship that often go unseen, it deepens our understanding of masculinities and family life and the policies and practices that support or undermine men’s participation.

Available for purchase here!

This book explores the complex, evolving relationships between men, masculinities, and social welfare in contemporary context.

The collection constitutes an up-to-date account of the gendered and social implications of policy and practice change for men, and their inherent contradictions and complexities, tracing both stability and change over the past 25 years.

Available for purchase here.

Watch the 2023 book launch and hear from some of our expert authors.

Around 1 in 10 children born in the UK are fathered by men under the age of 25. These men are often from socially disadvantaged areas and frequently overlooked in both research and practice settings. Using findings from a major Economic and Social Research Council study, supplemented with additional data, the authors focus on the transitions of the young men into early parenthood and their unfolding lives thereafter.

As negative popular and media discourse around young fathers begins to shift, policy makers, practitioners, researchers and students will find future policy and practice directions designed to nurture the potential of these young men and their children.

You can purchase a copy of the book on the Policy Press website.

Around 1 in 10 children born in the UK are fathered by men under the age of 25. These men are often from socially disadvantaged areas and frequently overlooked in both research and practice settings. Using findings from a major Economic and Social Research Council study, supplemented with additional data, the authors focus on the transitions of the young men into early parenthood and their unfolding lives thereafter.

As negative popular and media discourse around young fathers begins to shift, policy makers, practitioners, researchers and students will find future policy and practice directions designed to nurture the potential of these young men and their children.

This chapter explores the diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young fathers and the services that engage them. The qualitative longitudinal design of the study supported exploration of the complexities and dynamics of young fatherhood and their support needs at a time of major economic, social, and policy shifts during the pandemic. Also considered are the ways support services adapted their offers to sustain care for young men.

You can read the chapter open access.

This chapter presents analyses from a qualitative longitudinal study called ‘Following Young Fathers Further’ (FYFF, grant ref: MR/ S031723/ 1) to explore how young fathers in the UK narrate their experiences and understanding of fathering, fatherhood and co-parenting in the context of recent cultural and generational shifts towards engaged fatherhood. Aged 25 and under when they conceive a first pregnancy or become a parent for the first time, these young men’s experiences of fatherhood are often assumed to be problematic and therefore subject to stigma. The prevailing and problematic view that they are absent, feckless, irresponsible and, indeed, uncaring (Tarrant, 2021) sustains assumptions that young fathers lack commitment to their children, their partners and/ or co- parents, and are more likely to uphold traditional gendered commitments and values that stall progress towards gender equality among parents, as well as parenting equity (see Neale, 2016; Neale and Tarrant, 2024).

Seeking to interrogate and counter the persistence of such pervasive views through an analysis of evidence generated from a qualitative longitudinal study of young fathers, this chapter presents the argument that commitments towards ‘caring masculinities’ (Eliott, 2016) are in evidence among this diverse cohort of otherwise marginalised young fathers.

This article considers how the unanticipated use of remote qualitative methods during the pandemic impacted processes of research connection and connectivity in qualitative (longitudinal) research. First, we consider questions of connection when seeking to (re)establish and retain connections with project stakeholders and marginalised participants through the pivot to remote methods. Second, we reflect on how processes of maintaining participation and interaction were impacted by practical and technological issues associated with the digitally mediated forms of connectivity available.

Available open access!

Learn about the Diverse Dads study where we co-created films led by young dads as peer researchers who sought to explore how to better support minoritised young dads.

Available open access!

This article considers how zine making might be understood as a participatory and DIY approach to research through a focus on zine making workshops with young fathers. Drawing upon Fletcher's conceptualisation of ‘zine ethos’, zines’ DIY ethic, their democratic and participatory ideal and their transformative potential will each be considered reflexively, highlighting some of the ways these might be enacted through zine making in the context of research but also potentially constrained. This article extends existing empirical work concerning zines in the context of research and offers some fresh reflections on their value as a participatory and DIY approach to research.

Based on analyses of multi-perspective data generated from a small participatory and exploratory pilot study called Diverse Dads, this article considers how service engagement with minoritised fathers might be addressed in contexts of family and youth support. Semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus groups, complemented by a small survey, were conducted by beneficiaries and employees of a specialist charity supporting young fathers, with regional practitioners, service managers and minoritised fathers. These explored how and why services, which traditionally serve White, working-class communities, might be ‘hard(er) to access’ for minoritised fathers and how this might be addressed. In a context of considerable constraint for services, this article identifies how more accessible, inclusive support pathways and environments might be fostered. Key processes explored include how services can increase their accessibility, visibility, and appeal; become more proactive with outreach to fathers in diverse communities; and sustain father-inclusive support for all fathers.

Interdisciplinary social sciences literature on the value and significance of engaged fatherhood and father-inclusive approaches to practice for enhanced family outcomes have begun to reach a consensus. Yet there has been less attention to how research knowledge about fatherhood, including that which is co-produced with and for fathers, can be more effectively translated and embedded in practice and policy contexts. This article elaborates on a cumulative, empirically driven process that has established new relational ecologies between young fathers, multi-agency professionals and researchers. It illustrates how these ecologies, supported by longitudinal and co-creative research combined, are driving societal transformations through knowledge exchange and the instigation of new father-inclusive practice interventions that address the marginalisation of young fathers. The methodologies, including the co-creation of the Young Dads Collective and its impacts on young fathers and multi-agency professionals, are evaluated, confirming them as powerful and productive mechanisms for embedding father-inclusive practices within existing support and policy systems.

You can access the article via the journal webpage or to request a copy.

This article presents analyses from an international empirical study of young fatherhood in Sweden and the UK. Young fathers in both countries express an encouraging commitment to contemporary cultural imperatives for engaged fatherhood. However, differences in welfare and parental leave systems have a clear influence on the extent to which the young men in the respective countries can fulfil their parental commitments.

This article explores the impacts of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown policies on young fathers and their families in the UK and Sweden.

This briefing paper explores the dynamic mental health pathways of young fathers in their transition to fatherhood. We argue that they navigate a well-being spectrum over time as they adapt to their new identities and responsibilities where young fatherhood can be source of joy and pride. However, the struggles associated with young parenthood may tip some young men into periods of mental ill-health.

Two open access reports were developed from this Leeds Social Science Institute funded project, which was led by Dr Anna Tarrant between April 2016 and April 2017. The first is an evidence review of existing research about practice support for young fathers. The second reports on the Responding to Young Dads in a Different Way project and its key findings.

Early analyses of our findings from Wave One of interviews from the study. We explore the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on young fathers and the professionals who supported them.

Briefing Paper One: Negotiating ‘earning’ and ‘caring’ through the COVID-19 crisis: change and continuities in the parenting and employment trajectories of young fathers

Briefing Paper Two: From social isolation to local support: Relational change and continuities for young fathers in the context of the COVID-19 crisis

Briefing Paper Three: Supporting at a distance: the challenges and opportunities of supporting young fathers through the COVID-19 pandemic

Policy Brief 1
Key principles of father-inclusive practice

Policy Brief 2
Models of good practice for work with young fathers: co-creating knowledge about inclusive and intersectional approaches in the ‘Diverse Dads’ project

Policy Brief 3
Models of good practice for work with young fathers: the Grimsby Dads Collective case study

Our evidence on young parents was cited several times in the final report, where young parents were acknowledged.

Based on a productive collaboration with the Prison and Care Trust, this report presents findings from a qualitative study exploring the lived experiences and support needs of young fathers, aged 25 and under, who are in prison. The broad aim of the study was to understand how some of the most marginalised young fathers experience parenting while separated from their children, including the extent to which they receive and experience support while in the prison system. Based on data generated from in-depth interviews with 12 young fathers in prison and with 3 professionals providing support, the study helped to identify some of the more distinctive issues the highly marginalised and vulnerable young men experience in the UK, as a basis for informing more inclusive support for them.

The Following Young Fathers Further team conducted an evaluation of the North East Young Dads and Lads' new digital offer for young fathers called DigiDAD.

DigiDAD is a unique, pioneering e-learning parenting platform made by and for young fathers. First created during the COVID-19 pandemic, DigiDAD features evidence-informed content designed to support the informational requirements of young fathers.

The Diverse Dads team launched two open access reports based on the outcomes of the research as the ‘Diverse Dads Collaborative. These include key research findings and recommendations for good practice, as informed by the young fathers and professionals who participated in the study.

This report presents findings from a consultation provided by the University of Lincoln to the Middlesbrough City Council Participation team, reporting on the first year of establishing their offers and creating parent/carer panels for their local Family Hubs.

This eight-part report series reports on our findings and the innovations from the Following Young Fathers Further study between January 2020 and December 2023. These have been launched at the final conference, which took place in Lincoln on Thursday 7th December 2023.

We intend to develop further outputs from the study, supported by an additional three years of funding that will extend our work again to January 2027. So watch this space!

The pandemic has prompted many social scientists to rethink their research methods and adapt to researching in ways that accommodate social distancing rules. Telephone interviews offer a remote route to fieldwork but their value for researchers extends beyond the pandemic. This toolkit considers the role of telephone interviewing in qualitative research and the advantages and challenges of this method and attendant practical and ethical questions. We provide practical reflections around how to address the challenges associated with telephone interviews and draw on examples from current research.

The Think Dad! Toolkit, co-created with young fathers and developed with professionals and services in mind who want to improve how they work with young fathers.