Family Troubles?: Exploring Changes and Challenges in the Family Lives of Children and Young People

FAMILY TROUBLES?......Page 2
Contents......Page 4
Notes on contributors......Page 7
Foreword......Page 14
Preface......Page 16
Introduction......Page 18
Children, families and relationality......Page 20
Changes, challenges and troubles......Page 24
Troubling normalities and normalising troubles......Page 28
Expectations, power and contestations......Page 31
Introducing the book as a whole......Page 34
Introduction to Part One......Page 40
2. Cultural context, families and troubles......Page 44
3. Representing family troubles through the 20th century......Page 52
Contexts and sources......Page 53
The Kid (1921): working through loss and abandonment......Page 54
The Kidnappers (1953): working through loss and bereavement......Page 56
Boys from the Blackstuff (1982): working through loss and deprivation......Page 57
Conclusion......Page 59
What constitutes good science?......Page 62
Questions needing scientific input......Page 63
Quantitative and qualitative research......Page 65
Overall conclusions on the role of science......Page 71
5. Family troubles, methods trouble: qualitative research and the methodological divide......Page 76
The logic of qualitative inquiry......Page 77
Qualitative contributions to the study of family trouble......Page 80
The methodological divide......Page 81
Introduction to Part Two......Page 88
Introduction......Page 92
Children and young people’s experience of parental disability: the ‘young carer’ approach......Page 93
Disabled parents’ perspectives......Page 95
Conclusion......Page 98
Introduction......Page 102
Method and participants......Page 103
The micro-politics of children’s problems......Page 104
Mothers......Page 105
Fathers......Page 106
Non-professional actors......Page 107
Schoolteachers and administrators......Page 108
Medical professionals......Page 110
Conclusion......Page 111
Infant feeding: a troubled policy terrain?......Page 114
Methods and analysis......Page 115
Breast is best? A morally sanctioned maternal identity......Page 116
Breastfeeding as troubling: a deficit maternal identity?......Page 117
Formula-feeding: troubling the normal?......Page 119
Discussion and concluding remarks......Page 120
‘Medicalisation’ of non-conforming behaviour......Page 124
Research design/methodology......Page 125
Early concerns with children’s behaviour......Page 126
Public disapproval of children’s behaviour......Page 127
Seeking external support for children’s behaviour......Page 128
Limitations of medical diagnosis......Page 131
Reflections: personal trouble or public issue?......Page 132
Introduction......Page 136
Kinship care: ‘normal’ and ‘natural’......Page 137
Co-resident siblings, placed children and relationships: revealing dynamics......Page 138
Conclusion......Page 144
Introduction to Part Three......Page 148
Introduction......Page 152
Age and ‘stage’......Page 154
Death and being more or less troubled......Page 155
Keeping or losing your post-separation dad......Page 157
Losses for children in asylum-seeking families......Page 159
Concluding discussion......Page 162
Introduction......Page 168
“When I was just a little girl”......Page 169
“But that was just a slap”......Page 171
Concluding remarks......Page 176
13. Thinking about sociological work on personal and family life in the light of research on young people’s experience of parental substance misuse......Page 180
Empirical background......Page 181
The significance of the absence and loss of expected parenting practices......Page 182
Discussion......Page 186
Introduction......Page 190
Ordinary aggression and ordinary femininity......Page 192
A psychoanalytic view of aggression......Page 193
Identity theft......Page 194
Sisters, secrets and exclusion......Page 196
Conclusion......Page 198
15. Children and family transitions: contact and togetherness......Page 202
Researching children’s constructions of family and close relationships......Page 203
Family contact: sites and circumstances of children’s negotiations......Page 204
Family togetherness: maintaining contact and connectedness......Page 206
Conclusion......Page 208
Introduction to Part Four......Page 212
16. ‘Troubling’ or ‘ordinary’? Children’s views on migration and intergenerational ethnic identities......Page 216
Dilek: translating cultural difference......Page 218
Sevda: becoming a Londoner: a way to claim Kurdishness......Page 220
Conclusion......Page 223
Children and international parental migration......Page 226
Methods......Page 228
Parents’ migration: a normal and painful separation......Page 229
When parents’ migration becomes troubling......Page 232
Conclusion......Page 235
Introduction......Page 240
Findings......Page 241
Conclusions......Page 246
Introduction......Page 250
Theoretical perspectives......Page 251
Young people’s disposition to care......Page 252
Changing familial relations and ‘emotion work’......Page 254
Conclusion......Page 257
Background......Page 262
Method/approach......Page 265
Profile of FM......Page 266
Prevalence of FM......Page 267
Summary......Page 270
Introduction to Part Five......Page 274
The studies......Page 280
Parenting support in the context of child welfare......Page 281
Approaches to parental support......Page 285
Conclusions......Page 290
Introduction: learning from practice, linking to theory......Page 296
Relational resilience and family coping......Page 298
A systemic approach to formulation: adaptation, coping and power......Page 299
Attachment as representational......Page 301
An example from practice: couples work, trauma and narratives of healing......Page 302
Conclusion......Page 305
The policy context......Page 308
The parenting programme and local evaluation......Page 309
‘Normal’ teenage troubles......Page 311
Troublesome young people......Page 313
Troubled young people......Page 317
Conclusion......Page 318
From family problems towards contested family practices......Page 322
Deeply challenging conflict situations: supervised contacts......Page 324
Moral reasoning: navigation in exceptional situations......Page 327
Concluding remarks......Page 329
25. Working with fathers: risk or resource?......Page 332
Background......Page 333
Engaging fathers in the context of change and complexity......Page 334
Protecting children: fathers as invisible or as risks?......Page 337
Conclusion......Page 340
Introduction......Page 344
The meanings and contexts of troubles......Page 346
Existential and moral issues of family troubles......Page 349
Cultural resources for responding to troubles......Page 353
Values and diversity in family troubles......Page 355
In conclusion?......Page 362
Index......Page 372