Geraldine Brady

Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction

In the last decades we have seen a growing interest in research into childrens own experiences and understandings of health and illness. This development, we would argue, is much stimulated by the sociology of childhood which has drawn our attention to how children as a social group are placed and perceived within the structure of society, and within inter-generational relations, as well as how children are social agents and co-constructors of their social world. Drawing on this tradition, we here address some cross-cutting themes that we think are important to further the study of child health: situating children within health policy, drawing attention to practices around childrens health and well-being and a focus on children as health actors. The paper contributes to a critical analysis of child health policy and notions of child health and normality, pointing to theoretical and empirical research potential for the sociology of childrens health and illness.

Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: a universal challenge?

The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of childrens services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out-of-home care and child protection interventions. The work scales up a pilot study in the West Midlands to an all-England sample, representative of English regions and different levels of deprivation at a local authority (LA) level. The analysis evidences a strong relationship between deprivation and intervention rates and large inequalities between ethnic categories. There is further evidence of the inverse intervention law (Bywaters et al., 2015): For any given level of neighbourhood deprivation, higher rates of child welfare interventions are found in LAs that are less deprived overall. These patterns are taking place in the context of cuts in spending on English childrens services between 2010–2011 and 2014–2015 that have been greatest in more deprived LAs. Implications for policy and practice to reduce such inequalities are suggested.

Young Mothers' Experiences of Power, Control and Violence within Intimate and Familial Relationships.

In 2009 the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children published “Partner Exploitation and Violence in Teenage Intimate Relationships”. This publication reports on the first major study in the United Kingdom to systematically document the incidence rates and dynamics of intimate partner violence in the lives of young people. It also highlights the UK research communities’ lack of attention to the issue of young people and partner violence; much of what is known about young peoples experiences of violence within their intimate relationships has been informed by research undertaken in the USA. In this article we contribute to the growing body of research in the United Kingdom and present findings from a qualitative study that explored pregnant teenagers and young mothers’ experience of power, control and domestic violence in their familial and intimate relationships. Our study highlights the complexities and contradictions relating to the notion of family support, with young women respondents sometimes identifying this “support” as controlling. Our findings also show how young mothers, like older adult women, are subject to a range of violent behaviours in their intimate relationships. We conclude that any attempt to minimise the “risks” this group face needs to recognise how familial and intimate relationships can negatively impact on the health and well-being of pregnant teenagers, of young mothers and that of their child/children.

Young women's experience of termination and miscarriage: A qualitative study

In Britain, teenage pregnancy is seen as both a cause and a consequence of social exclusion. The emphasis on ‘prevention’ of teenage pregnancy and a limited conception of ‘support’ within the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (Social Exclusion Unit, ) positions parenthood for young people as a negative choice; this dominant discourse is likely to influence young peoples reproductive decisions and experiences. With this in mind, this article focuses on a key finding from a multidisciplinary empirical research study, conducted in a city in the West Midlands of England, which considered and explored young peoples experience of support before and following termination and miscarriage. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with professionals and practitioners (n = 15), young mothers (n = 4) and one young father. Although termination and miscarriage are generally perceived as distinct and different issues, the data suggest that the issues become more blurred where younger women are concerned. The experiences of young, ‘inappropriately pregnant teenagers’ often remain unacknowledged and devalued. This analysis highlights the social and political context in which young women experience termination and miscarriage, and suggests that termination and miscarriage should be acknowledged as significant medical, social and emotional events in the lives of young people.

Children, health and well-being: policy debates and lived experiences

This book brings together new and leading scholars, who demonstrate the importance of research with children and from a child perspective, allowing for a fuller understanding of the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s lives. •Demonstrates the importance of research with children and research from a child perspective, in order to fully understand the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s lives •Encourages critical reflection on contemporary health policy and its relationships to culturally specific ways of knowing and understanding children’s health •Brings together new and leading scholars in the field of children’s health and illness •Moves the highly important issue of children’s health into the mainstream sociology of health and illness

Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions

The relationship between childrens material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed-methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor families do not harm their children, it is stigmatizing to discuss a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. The data reveal that poverty has become invisible in practice, in part justified by avoiding stigma but also because of a lack of up-to-date research knowledge and investment by some social workers in an “underclass” discourse. We argue, in light of the evidence that poverty is a contributory factor in the risk of harm, that it is vital that social work engages with the evidence and in critical reflection about intervening in the context of poverty. We identify the need for fresh approaches to the harms children and families face in order to support practices that engage confidently with the consequences of poverty and deprivation.

Working with the Community: Research and Action

In 1990 Anthony Giddens argued: The practical impact of social sciences is both profound and inescapable. Modern societies together with the organisations that compose and straddle them, are like learning machines, imbibing information in order to regularise their mastery of themselves … only society reflexively capable of modifying their institutions in the face of accelerated social change will be able to confront the future with any confidence. Sociology is the prime medium of such reflexivity (Giddens 1990: 21).

‘All in all it is just a judgement call’: issues surrounding sexual consent in young people’s heterosexual encounters

ABSTRACT In the UK, there has been growing concern about young people’s understanding of sexual consent, with the views of young people themselves often lost in academic and educational policy debates. However, the focus on high rates of sexual violence has meant a lack of attention on the everyday negotiation of consensual heterosexual activity, leading to assumptions being made regarding young people’s lack of understanding of sexual consent. This paper emerges from a wider study of over 500 young people which sought to uncover their understanding of the issues. Drawing on data from workshops and the open text responses to an on-line survey the findings presented in this paper show that the majority of heterosexual young people understood the complexity of sexual consent as an embodied process, which can be difficult to define, talk about or practice uniformly. This complex understanding, in which sexual consent is a continuum rather than a dichotomy, has implications for sexual education initiatives. We argue that it is only by providing a closer understanding of how – within consensual sexual activities – young people understand and enact sexual consent through a range of embodied communication strategies that education surrounding sexual assault will become meaningful.