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This thesis reports the candidate's efforts to investigate the process of change experienced or perceived by partner-violent men, and partners of partner-violent men, after being involved in a programme of intervention. It examines theoretical positions on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and behaviour change, and then describes a systematic literature review which brings together similar previous studies. The thesis includes extensive reviews of previous studies in this area, grouped under the headings: survivor perspectives, perpetrator perspectives, children's perspectives and practitioner perspectives. Building on the findings from these reviews a qualitative study of partner-violence perpetrators, on the Island of Ireland, was designed and completed with the following objectives: o To explore and examine the process by which change comes about, o To inform IPV perpetrator programme development, o To inform the development of a more general practice framework, for work with partner-violent men. The study comprised of one-time interviews, averaging 74 minutes, with 18 survivors of IPV, and 20 partner-violent men. Study participants were drawn from four TPV perpetrator programmes, and four survivor SUppOlt agencies. The separate cohorts of survivors and perpetrators had been involved in the same fPV perpetrator programmes: perpetrators as programme participants, survivors as paltners of programme participants. The study sample included four couple dyads. The study drew on elements of grounded theory, specifically, theoretical sampling, iterative data collection and analysis, and the pursuit of data saturation. Efforts were made to enhance study rigour by including an inter-coder reliability check, and expert validation of interim findings. Based on findings from the literature reviews, and subsequent study, this thesis suggests more productive ways to conceptualise perpetrators based on their motivation, and highlights potential barriers and facilitators of the change process to inform more comprehensive assessment of perpetrators. The process of change is presented in a practice-orientated format, describing a range of valid treatment targets based on study findings, and corresponding mechanism by which these can be pursued. Interruption techniques and enhancements to communication skills would appear to be more achievable goals within current treatment formats, while more in-depth changes in character appear to be out of reach for many perpetrators. The thesis highlights the heterogeneity within this service user grouping, the need to measure and systematically develop a variety of treatment options for partner-violent men, and underlines the safety issues involved.

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The aim of this research was to carry out an in-depth exploration of the role of grandparents in Greece, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. Many Greek grandparents provide regular childcare and other kinds of family help, but very limited research has been carried out on this important topic. Firstly, quantitative data was collected from 190 grandparents around Greece regarding types of help given in the care of grandchildren, how often, and reasons for helping. Secondly, a small qualitative study was conducted with English grandparents living in Athens. Lastly, in-depth interviews were carried out with 22 Greek grandparents using a Grounded Theory framework. The quantitative data showed that over a third (38%) of grandparents provided daily childcare for a grandchild. Around 50% also babysat, provided household help and picked up/dropped off a grandchild at least once a week. Furthermore, 50% provided emotional support or advice on a daily basis and 26% gave financial support at least once a week. The vast majority (93%) reported "I enjoy it" as one reason for providing assistance. Over a third (38%) said they provided assistance to help the parental generation financially. Grandmothers were significantly more involved in childcare (p=0.05) and household help (p=0.001) than grandfathers. The qualitative data showed that grandparents enjoyed providing family help when it provided them with a useful and valued role. Grandparents provided most help when they felt needed, such as for financial reasons. Sometimes grandparents felt pressured to be more involved than they would have liked. However, grandparents with financial resources experienced greater choice; they financed alternative childcare arrangements when necessary. Provision of help and grandparent-grandchild relationships were influenced by the grandparent's relationship with the grandchildren's mother. The findings of this research are discussed in the context of recent social change in Greece.

Introduction: Honour-based violence (HBV). is a long-standing global phenomenon. Cultural expectations surrounding gender-roles are thought to contribute to its occurrence. This study focused on the South Asian community living in the UK. A review of relevant literature identified a need for research incorporating the views of South Asian women about their experiences of HBV to increase understanding of the phenomenon and address the elevated mental health concerns among such populations in response to this cultural and familial abuse. Existing research remains at a descriptive level and fails to explore the way in which survivors make sense of legal and social sanctioning of violence. At present there appears to be a gap in exploring survivor experiences of HBV in context rather than in isolation, which could help to tailor public services to protect and support these women. As such, the current study aimed to explore South Asian women's experiences of the system within which they suffered HBV. Method: A qualitative research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five female survivors of South Asian origin of what they classified as honour-based violence. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to interpret the data. Results: Analysis yielded three themes which were 1) "I felt caged"; 2) "Get an arranged marriage, and that's it."; 3) "I just wanted to literally kill myself ... " The themes represented control, marriage, and psychological impact respectively. Discussion: This study both supported and challenged previous research in the area. It highlighted complex power-relations and more subtle forms of abuse than previously explored in HBV research and gave an insight to perpetrator perspectives through the lens of the survivor. Findings allowed the consideration of interventions, systemic and otherwise, which could be applied when working with both survivors and perpetrators of HBV in South Asian communities in Britain, as well as ideas for further research.

As the expectation for married women to become mothers took on a new importance in nineteenth-century America, the relationship between mother and child was constantly exalted not only in the abundance of prescriptive literature, but also by the medical profession. The discourses of true womanhood and motherhood expressed by physicians and social commentators dictated much of the culturally condoned behaviour and everyday life of middleclass women. This thesis asks how involuntarily childless women embodied their roles in society as the ideal of true womanhood became so strongly characterised by motherhood. Through an interdisciplinary methodology that combines the analysis of archival sources with readings of fictional texts, memoirs and biographies, embedded within histories of a variety of social phenomena – nineteenth-century gynaecology, invalidism, mourning, adoption, and divorce – this thesis provides a socio-cultural analysis of gender and intimacy in late nineteenth-century America. It also examines the various means by which childless women filled their lives, carving out alternative means of existence in a socially prescribed environment of parenthood. The involuntarily childless women considered in this thesis found ways to tenant their lives in the absence of longed-for children. From theatrical performance to adoption, education to art, and from the strengthening of marital relations to their demise, this thesis explores the actions these women took in their marriages to negotiate their identities as childless individuals in a culture of motherhood.

Contemporary Chinese families are experiencing an increasingly rapid pace of change because of economic growth and the consequences of the One Child policy. These changes are leading to changing expectations concerning gender roles and relationships in families, including those of fathers and daughters. In addition, the long history of Confucianism in Chinese society gives men's roles in families their own specific meanings. The thesis analyses the family lives of girls and their fathers at key points of historical change and in the life course of young people and fathers living in Shanghai. Its contribution to knowledge rests on exploring the applicability of western theories about changing family practices and relationships in a Chinese context. The study examines daughters' and fathers' perspectives of father-daughter relationships among two cohorts of girls aged 13/14 and aged 16/1 7. It seeks to understand how girls and fathers construct their identities as teenagers and as fathers; their family practices; and how they negotiate parental authority and adolescent independence. A multi-method research design was employed: four focus groups conducted in schools, a questionnaire survey with girls ~=767) and their fathers ~=599), and eight pairs of semi structured interviews carried out separately with daughters and their fathers. It was found that most girls were generally happy with their relationships with their mothers and fathers. Both fathers and their daughters valued their fathers' financial and emotional support. Although fathers 'cared about' their daughters, they did not perceive themselves as the parent who should 'take care of their daughter's daily lives. Fathers were also found to spend less time with their daughters, especially those in the older cohort, compared with mothers. Overall, fathers' involvement was mainly focused on girls' education. However, fathers also exercised power over areas of their daughters' social lives, such as going out and making friends, internet use and romantic relationships.

This thesis reveals the complexities in older men’s experience of involuntary childlessness. Research literature on both involuntary childlessness and ageing has highlighted the paucity of material on men’s experience. The aim of this study was to explore and understand the impact of childlessness on the lives of older, self-defined, involuntarily childless men. This qualitative study employed a pluralistic framework formed by life course, biographical, and gerontological approaches to explore the lives of 14 men, aged between 49 and 82 years. A broad thematic analysis was applied to the material, and the findings demonstrated the intersections between childlessness and ageing over the life course. Reproductive intentions were affected by many factors including the timing of exiting education, relationship formation and dissolution, and choice of partner. The men’s attitude to fatherhood changed with age and centred on the theme of the ‘social clock’ that revealed the synergy between an individual and societal morès surrounding parenthood. The loss of the assumed father role and relationship ebbed and flowed throughout the men’s lives in a form of complex bereavement. Awareness of feeling both a sense of ‘outsiderness’ and a fear of being viewed as a paedophile were widely reported. Quality of life was linked with current health, and ageing was strongly associated with loss of physical or mental functionality. This thesis supports the case for a biographical method of research drawing on a pluralistic framework. It challenges research that reports men are not affected by the social, emotional and relational aspects of involuntary childlessness. In addition, it adds to the debate between the concepts of ‘emergent’ and ‘hegemonic’ masculinities. Recommendations are made in the conclusion regarding the use of the findings for future research and policy.

Aside from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis comprises four core chapters: The first chapter investigates the presence of endogenous peer effects in the adoption of formal property rights. Using data from a unique land titling experiment held in an unplanned settlement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I show a strong, positive impact of neighbour adoption on the household’s choice to purchase a land title. I also show that this relationship holds in a separate, identical experiment held a year later in a nearby community, as well as in administrative data for approximately 45,000 land parcels in the same city. I also discuss possible channels, including the possibility of complementarities in the reduction in expropriation risk. The second chapter examines the relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and the demand for formal land tenure. Using a unique census of two highly fractionalised settle- ments in Dar es Salaam, I show that households located near coethnics are significantly less likely to purchase a limited form of land tenure recently offered by the government. I attempt to address one of the chief concerns, endogenous sorting of households, by con- ditioning on a households choice of neighbors upon arrival in the neighborhood. These results suggest that close-knit ethnic groups may be less likely to accept state-provided goods if they can generate reasonable substitutes. The third chapter is a short chapter which presents results from a recent policy experi- ment in Tanzania where formal land titles were provided to informal settlers at randomised prices. Land owners were also randomly assigned conditional discounts, which could only be applied if a woman was designated as owner or co-owner of the land in question. Results show that conditionality has no adverse effects on demand for land titles, yet drastically increases the probability a woman is included. We discuss the implications of these results for the expected bargaining power impacts of the intervention. The final chapter investigates birth order effects on both anthropometric and edu- cation outcomes in a longitudinal survey of children from the Philippines. Birth order effects are present early in life for both outcomes, but attenuate as children approach adulthood. There is also evidence for nonlinear birth order effects, with both firstborn and lastborn children holding an advantage over middleborn children. These results are at odds with prevalent theories of birth order which predict lasting and monotonic differences in outcomes across children.

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