Family studies

This volume provides an international perspective on parental leave policies in different countries, goes beyond this to examine a range of issues in depth, and aims to stimulate thinking about possible futures and how policy might underpin them.

The central interest of this innovative book is the role and significance of family in a context of poverty and low-income. Based on a micro-level study carried out in 2011 and 2012 with 51 families in Northern Ireland, it offers new empirical evidence and a theorisation of the relationship between family life and poverty.

Women are encouraged to believe that they can occupy top jobs in society by the example of other women thriving in their careers. This book shows that having a mother as a role model does not predict daughters progressing in their own careers. It offers a timely and original perspective on the debate about gender equality in leadership positions.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive perspective on health and sickness among African Americans. It shows how living in a highly racialized society affects health through multiple social contexts, including neighborhoods, personal and family relationships, and the medical system.

Led by women’s life history accounts, this is an engaging and accessible account of how constructions of femininity fundamentally affect women's mental wellbeing through the life course.

This book examines who is likely to have a baby as a teenager, the consequences of early motherhood and how teenage pregnancy is dealt with in the media. The author argues that society's negative attitude to young mothers marginalises an already excluded group and that efforts should be focused on support.

This book examines how pathologising ideas of failing, chaotic and dysfunctional families create a powerful consensus that Britain is in the grip of a ‘parent crisis’ and are used to justify increasingly punitive state policies.

Harry Hendrick shows how broader social changes, including neoliberalism, feminism, the collapse of the social-democratic ideal, and the 'new behaviourism', have led to the rise of the anxious and narcissistic parent, In this provocative history of parenting.

The nuanced interconnections of poverty and educational attainment across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are explored in this unique analysis. Experts investigate how different educational structures and policies affect teachers’ engagement with marginalised groups and consider how inequalities might be reduced.

This book uses a wide range of international case studies from the Global South to examine the stark repercussions of colonial conquest on children’s lives and childhood policy today. Liebel shows the work that we must do to decolonize childhoods globally and ensure that children’s rights are better promoted and protected.

This book explores diversity and complexity in fathering through psychoanalysis, sociology and psychology and analyses contemporary developments in social policies and welfare practices. Using a feminist perspective, it highlights the opportunities and dangers in contemporary developments for those wishing to advance gender equity.