Over the last twenty years, mindfulness and sel f-compassion have been found to cultivate wellbeing. The potential benefits of mindful ne ss and self-compassion have been explored in relation to interpersonal relationships. Despite the growing body of research to support the application of mindfulness and self-compassion in the development of interpersonal relationships, these two constructs have only recently been researched in relation to attachment theory. One population who experience high rates of attachment-related difficulties are adoptive families which can increase adoptive parents' levels of stress. Over the last few years, mindfulness and self-compassion have been theoretical and empirically associated with the parenting role, although no research has explored these in relation to adoptive parenting and adoptive parenting stress. The review paper systematically evaluates the research conducted on mindfulness and attachment. The review identifies a consistently reported finding of a significant relationship between mindfulness and adult attachment security. The review also identifies the limited number of studies which have investigated mindfulness-based interventions and attachments. The methodological limitations of the studies are highlighted. The paper concludes that these studies provide clear evidence for exploring the relationship between mindfulness and attachment further and provides recommendations for research to extend this empirical base. The empirical paper investigates the relationship between mindfulness, self-compassion and adoptive parenting stress. Adoptive parents completed a web-based survey which measured levels of mindfulness, self-compassion and parenting stress alongside factors associated with adoptive parenting stress, including attachment-related difficulties. The results identified a significant relationship between mindfulness, self-compassion and adoptive parenting stress. A complex model of adoptive parenting stress is reported which highlights the significant role of attachment-related difficulties, mindfulness and parental mental health. The paper recommends the development of multifaceted approaches to support adoptive parents and that mindfulness is an avenue which requires further research in relation to adoptive parenting stress.

This study explores the experiences of Hong Kong Chinese parents after joining a school-based parenting programme that aimed to reduce conflict with their adolescent children. Participants were recruited from Northern District Hong Kong. Sixty-five parents participated in seven experimental groups while twenty six parents agreed to join the waiting list comparison group. Qualitative data indicated that parents were able to benefit from the programme by improving their communication skills and improved relationships with their adolescent children. In addition, parents were also able to benefit from learning new parenting skills and gain more understanding of their adolescents after joining the programme. They also benefited from the role-play and the supportive environment of tile group as well as facilitators' sharing of their social work experience in working with other parents by giving examples. Quantitative data indicated that there were statistically significant reductions in conflicts between participants and their adolescents children, lower parenting stress and improvement in the behaviour of the adolescents. Nevertheless, RM-ANOVA result indicated there were similar pattern of reductions in scores in both experimental groups and comparison group. The significant reduction in Scores could not be attributed to the effect of the programme. Finally, this study showed that the Hong Kong Chinese parents in this study hold strong Chinese parenting beliefs like spending lots of time involving themselves in their adolescent's academic work, being reluctant to 'give autonomy to their adolescents; but at the same time showed acceptance of new parenting skills to improve their relationship with their adolescents. This study indicated there were no negative comments from parents who participated in the programme. Nevertheless. further research might focus on the need for some modification of the programme by having more sessions and more culturally sensitive elements within the programme which make further adaptations to Hong Kong Chinese culture.

This thesis explores the practices that in working parents' experience constitute 'family' and 'work' and the boundaries they manage between the two. Not many studies focus on the experiential dimension of the interface between work and studies focus on the experiential dimension of the interface between work and family. This research provides empirical and theoretical elements to explore how the emotional focus of families' daily life is experienced in connection (or in disconnection) with their work life. The analysis of how working parents negotiate times and spaces for work and home facilitates an understanding of the symbolic attachments people invest in these domains of daily life.

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The participants' detailed accounts demonstrate how age and timing decisions can have a significant impact on the lived experience of fatherhood. The apparent continuation of a standardised trajectory for parenthood and the challenges of deviating from this have particular implications for individualisation and life course theories. The thesis provides a detailed exploration of the way in which men negotiate the timing of fatherhood, thus making a significant contribution to the literature on men's fertility decision-making.

Many transitions happen during an individual's adult life, which includes a woman becoming a mother. When a woman adopts her new role as a mother and she endorses the values and behavior that is attached to it, there is a significant change in her new identity, which is assisted by consumption. When her new maternal role is added to her more established non-maternal roles, she will have to find the time to fulfil all of the responsibilities associated with her abundant rotes, which has time implications. This thesis will show how women's experiences of identity, the acquisition of their new maternal role and their management of time are particularly important in understanding their consumption practices and behaviour at this life-changing stage. The methodology consisted of qualitative research, which was exploratory in nature to understand the changes in consumption practices that women encountered as they transitioned through pregnancy into motherhood. Ten mothers in the UK participated in the phenomenological interviews to address the research question: "What is expectant and new mothers' lived experience of consumption ?" This thesis found that women encountered different changes as they moved into the stage with a child after their baby was born. Certain products and services were found to help her create and maintain their maternal identity. Consumption was also found to be very significant when women transitioned into their maternal role. Additionally, numerous examples were identified to illustrate how time affected what expectant mothers and new mothers were able to do.

Parenting plays a vital role in determining children's future life opportunities and irrespective of the skills and resources parents bring to the task all parents can find parenting challenging on occasions. This study explored the views of parents who attended a Webster Stratton Incredible Years Parenting Programme for parents of pre-school children at a local Children's Centre. Families living in known socially deprived areas of a local outer London borough were targeted. The group parenting programme was delivered over a period of ten weeks focusing on positive behaviour management strategies using praise and rewards with an emphasis on developing play and communication skills. A home visit to support the development of play skills was offered to some families. A qualitative design methodology was used to elicit parents' views about their reasons for attending the programme and any changes they perceived in their own and their children's behaviour as a result. Thirteen parents were interviewed in their homes approximately six months after the completion of the programme. The data from the interviews was analysed using thematic analysis. Six key themes and a number of sub-themes were identified. Parents cited a number of practical, emotional and social reasons for attending the programme. Parents reported substantial changes in their behaviour and a greater awareness of the link between these and their children's behaviour. They reported a vi greater sense of self-efficacy and valued being part of a group. For these parents participating, a group parenting programme was viewed as a positive experience. A number of parents thought the programme needed to be extended to incorporate support after the completion of the programme. The research also highlighted parental views of how their own upbringing and childhood experiences had impacted on them as parents.

This qualitative research explores working-class (educated) lesbian parents' identity management strategies within home and school contexts. Following an evaluation of epistemological debates and social science approaches to theorizing 'self, I highlight the utility of a feminist social constructionist approach to research, and the centrality of language and discourse in the constitution of lesbian parents' subjectivities. This work is informed by poststructuralist, feminist and psychological theories of identity and subjectivity and I take a 'relational approach' to explore ways in which historically and culturally specific ideologies and discourses of sexuality, family and parenting shape lesbian parents' discursive practices and subjectivities. Seven working-class (educated) lesbian parents from the north-east of England took part in interviews about their lesbian parent families and their interactions with their children, friends, family and school staff to explore how lesbian parents talk about their lesbian parent identity and disclosure/concealment of their sexuality. Specifically, a discursive analytic approach was utilized to explore lesbian parents' accounts for disclosure/concealment of their sexual identity and of their lesbian parenting/families, within home-school contexts. From this investigation I identified a key interpretative repertoire: 'sexuality as a form of knowledge' that the women used to construct homosexuality as normal, dangerous, private and progressive. A key finding from this investigation is the discursive strategy of 'positioning others' within constructions of sexuality. Interactive positioning functioned to rationalize accounts for disclosure or concealment of the women's sexuality at different discursive moments and contexts. I problematize existing essentialist models of 'coming out' and highlight how disclosure/concealment of sexual identity can be theorized as an 'accountable' activity which acknowledges the synthesis of culture and subjectivity at the point of discourse. This work also acknowledges ways in which class subjectivity can shape lesbian parents' discursive practices in their negotiation of 'difference'.

How the characteristics of their families affect children’s well-being and development has long being of interest to researchers. Consideration of the demographic characteristics of the family has in the past predominately focused on the partnership of the parents, this thesis looks beyond this to create a broader measure of structural family complexity. Family complexity consists of both the parental partnership history of the parents in the family and the degree of relatedness amongst siblings in the family. This thesis looks at parental partnership history and the child’s sibling group structure individually before combining both these aspects to examine the role of family complexity for children’s well being and development outcomes. In doing so, this thesis aims to offer an insight into what aspects of children’s family structure matters for children’s well-being and development and therefore how best to promote their outcomes. The thesis uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study, using problematic externalising and internalising behaviour and age adjusted poor reading ability as outcomes at the age of seven. Three alternative ways of measuring parental partnership, trajectory, transitions, and status are examined individually and then compared in order to outline the implications of these different specifications. The association between children’s complex sibling groups and their outcomes is investigated, with an association between complex sibling groups, i.e. those with half siblings, and poorer outcomes for children. Finally, family complexity is examined using logistic regression, both with and without interaction effects, and propensity score matching. The results of this analysis suggest that the composition of the child’s sibling group is more informative of their likelihood to have poor outcomes than their parent’s partnership. Poorer outcomes are associated with younger half siblings and stepparents but not with stepparents only for externalising behaviour. Children who have older half siblings, regardless of their biological parent’s partnership status, are at increased risk of poorer reading outcomes for age.

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