Books

Books by list

Tarrant, A., Ladlow, L. and Way, L. (2021) Men and Welfare, London: Routledge.

Garthwaite, K., Patrick, R., Power, M., Tarrant, A. and Warnock, R. (2021) COVID-19 COLLABORATIONS: Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic, Bristol: Policy Press.

Tarrant, A. (2021) Fathering and Poverty: Uncovering men's participation in low-income family life, Bristol: Policy Press.

Book Chapters

Tarrant, A., Way, L. and Ladlow, L. (2021) 'The Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Young Fathers and the Services that Support them', in: Garthwaite, K., Patrick, R., Power, M., Tarrant, A. and Warnock, R. (eds.) COVID-19 COLLABORATIONS: Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic, Bristol: Policy Press.

Featured book

COVID-19 Collaborations

Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic

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!

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Featured book

Fathering and Poverty

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!

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Featured book

Men and Welfare

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.

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Featured book

The Dynamics of Young Fatherhood

Understanding the Parenting Journeys and Support Needs of Young Fathers

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.

“One of the most important books on adolescent and young adult fathers ever published. Moving interviews document how young fatherhood is shaped by personal, familial, institutional and societal influences, illuminating factors that facilitate or impede their efforts to be engaged, caring parents and the implications for medical and social services and public policy.” Mark S. Kiselica, Penn State Harrisburg

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Featured book chapter

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young fathers and the services that support them

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.

Toolkit front cover

From our partners and young dads

[daughter]'s almost two-year-old. She came up the house and she actually really liked it. Preferably my house is the best place for her to, for the contact to be, if I’m honest, 'cause we just buy toys for her all the time. We’ve got a lovely garden that she can play in, lovely, big, and we’ve got a sandpit in there. We’ve been buying loads of things for her to play with to keep her occupied.

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Nathan, 21
I was 17 when I had my child

[Speaking about support of young fathers] We’ve done a lot of kind of advocation and representing them, a lot of the time there’s involvement with statutory services. They don’t have the care of the young person, the care’s provided by the state or the mother, so we’ve attended lots of meetings with the young person to offer additional support and facilitated contact where necessary and offered just general emotional wellbeing, support, improving robustness and resilience, encouraging them to have as amicable relationship as possible.

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Housing Charity

And I suppose it goes back to what we were saying before about behaviours, maybe the education side of stuff and the fact that men aren’t involved in those early conversations, you know, whether it is, I know they’re invited to come along to bumps to babies but I don’t know whether we go into the detail around some of that brain development side of stuff and things like that. Maybe that is the thing that really would change things. You know, if you were given all of that information about what happens to a child as they grow, in a scientific way, as easy to understand as possible, could be the thing that impacted on behaviour in the home.

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Children's Charity

If your child’s with the mother, like your relationship with her depends on your relationship with the child, innit. That’s what I realised a lot, like you can try and be bitter, you can try and be this, be that, but it’s just gonna push you further away from your child, innit.

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Jackson, 21

I wanna fight for more stuff for dads. Like I do wanna have that extra support for new dads or even existing dads that we don’t get now 'cause we’re still important too although obviously the mum does need the majority a’ the care because obviously of the after care and the birth. But like the dads take it extremely hard as well. And obviously with having no support I think it increases the rise of mental health.

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Simon, 31
I became a father for the first time at 20. I am now a dad of 3.

I think both a mother and father combined, it’s communicating and both being on the same page of what’s best for your child or children, and for both, it’s just being there 100% for them and not, like, putting yourself first, it’s, you know, putting the child’s interests first...

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Jock, 33
I was 23 when I had my child

We need to be including, we need to not [just] be focusing on mum and child […] That’s a great focus but dad … dad’s not invisible, dad needs to be in the picture as well because there’s research that shows you the effect it has on children and families as a whole when dad isn’t in the picture, so services need to be changing the way in which they work so it’s more inclusive.

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Children and Families Support Organisation

Cause I think a lot of the time, some of young people who end up having children have been through the care system or support systems and they can feel quite judged or labelled by organisations and it’s breaking the cycle and breaking them out of that to feel empowered to be able to take stuff back, that’s the real interest to me. So, it’s about getting support right, as in being there and giving advice and guidance and all them things that we can do, but also making sure that we are doing with people as opposed to people.

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Children's Charity

One of the most successful projects we ever did was an informal dads’ group, and it used to be on Saturdays […] they did what they wanted, they used to do things like breakfast, and they would have breakfast together and talk about dad stuff and where they were taking their kids. And that group was always really well attended because there was never an agenda. They were never judged. They were just there together.

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Children and Families Support Organisation

...the whole stay at home dad thing is not something to be ashamed of, you know, if you’re a dad and you wanna take your daughter out for the day, or you wanna take your kid out for the day on your own, well why is that frowned upon, why can’t you take your child out for the day

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Toby, 26
I was 24 when I had my first child.

Oh…patience…compassion…tolerance, a whole boatload a’ that!  Honestly, I like a whole lot of life.  Sacrifice…compromise, yeah I think, yeah I think they, they would be the, the big, the five, I feel, I think that was five, they would be the main. 

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Ben, 31
I was 20 when I had my child

We’re currently in touch with social services for two [dads] because they don’t understand why they can’t see their children because they haven’t been informed by social services, their partner. So there’s a massive communication breakdown with those young men, so that’s the main focus of what we’re dealing with at the minute.

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Young Fathers' Support Organisation

it’s still…the…sense of judgement I get from other people when they find out that I have a child.And they say, ‘oh how old is she’.I say, ‘oh she’s ten’. And they say, ‘oh how old are you?’. Like you don’t need to know that....I know exactly where that thought process is going, you know. It’s like, ‘oh you look really young and you’ve had a kid’. It’s like, ‘yeah I know, I was there!’

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Ben, 31
I was 20 when I had my child

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