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Qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) has been described as an emerging and innovative methodology particularly adept at exploring the complex multifaceted nature of young people's lives. Adopting a qualitative longitudinal approach, this thesis explores young women's experiences of teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Highlighting the use and value of this methodology demonstrates the complexity of teenage pregnancy and motherhood, especially with regard to developments through time and how an individual narrative can unfold. By taking a holistic biographical approach this thesis also considers the role of 'critical moments' through time in defining and impacting upon young mother's transitions, identities and life chances. The value of focusing upon processes rather than simply outcomes can also help inform more receptive policy approaches. For instance, being able to grasp the significance of events and ascertain the causes and processes through time help ensure that policy initiatives correspond to the needs of service users. As the thesis will highlight, QLR should be viewed as a distinctive methodological approach that can provide unique and valuable insights into the processes attached to complex social phenomena and give weight to the lived experiences of young mothers. What makes this thesis an original contribution to the literature is how it views teenage pregnancy and motherhood as fluid and dynamic, moving away from the static snap shots that often depict young mothers as struggling, or even 'failing' (at one moment in time), to a more nuanced account that reflects their journeys into motherhood and changes through time.

The aim of this thesis is to portray detailed accounts of how pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers in a school-based service define their situation in the context of the policies and services that frame their lives. The research is based in Malta, a small Catholic island that has undergone rapid socio-demographic changes in the past two decades that have shaped the context of teenage pregnancy. Through this study, I focus on developing an understanding of pregnant teenagers' and teenage mothers' perceptions on their sexual, reproductive and mothering choices and experiences, their views and experiences of education, employment and welfare and the processes by which 'oppression' and ' agency' are manifested in their lives. The theoretical underpinnings of this thesis draw from feminist maternal theory. An exploration of writings by prominent motherhood scholars has highlighted both the way women are oppressed as mothers, and the way motherhood can serve as a site of resistance. Furthermore, it has drawn attention to the importance of context in shaping the meaning and experiences of motherhood. The conceptual framework of this study relates to these theories through exploring both the ways in which young mothers' experiences are shaped by their gender and social location as well as the way they exercise power and agency through making rational and moral choices within their social circumstances. The methodology is based on a feminist critical ethnography, philosophically positioned in social constructivism. The fieldwork was undertaken over a sixteen month period in an alternative educational programme that offers both a pregnancy programme and a mother and baby club for new mothers. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews, I gathered data from 24 participants, ranging in age from 12 to 20 years, who attended either or both of these programmes. The emergent themes are centred on the way young mothers concurrently accepted, negotiated and challenged dominant ideas about motherhood. Through describing participants' pathways to motherhood and the way they practiced mothering, I demonstrate their awareness of the way they transgressed the boundaries of normative ideologies, and the way they defended their motherhood identity, as they simultaneously challenged negative stereotypes while attempting to assimilate through their mothering practices. I further outline the diverse relationship trajectories experienced by young mothers and how power struggles characterised most of the relationships with the men in their lives, whether as intimate partners or as their children's fathers. Within dynamics that were constantly shifting and evolving, the processes of oppression and agency interweaved as participants negotiated tensions in different aspects of their relationships. I also look at the education and employment experiences of these young mothers, their expectations and aspirations in this arena as well as their views on welfare. Placing the young women's representations at the centre, this thesis further illustrates the heterogeneity of teenage mothers' experiences and emphasises the fact that a 'one size fits all' policy approach is not always helpful in terms of responding effectively to teenage mothers' needs.

Situated at the crossroads of family studies and migration research, this thesis discusses the experiences of Polish migrant mothers raising their children in Germany and the United Kingdom from a gender-centred feminist perspective. The literature review chapters of this work show the scholarly works relevant to a discussion on the migrant lives of the study’s respondents as migrants, being both Poles and mothers. On the one hand, it highlights scholarly research on the processes of mobility, particularly in relation to transnationalism, migration of mothers and children, as well as the specific conditions faced by contemporary migrants from Poland to Western Europe. On the other hand, it reflects on modern families and parenting, offering in particular a feminist critique of mothering. The thesis then supplies details on the data collection and includes a discussion of the researcher’s reflexivity in the field. The empirical evidence was obtained through a qualitative, small-scale field study – a feminist inquiry using an in-depth interviewing technique. By showcasing the findings, the thesis demonstrates a range of choices that Polish mothers abroad make when it comes to raising children. The study delineates the following ideal-type models: Mother-Pole connected to the Polish heritage, Intensive Motherhood adopted as a mainstream model of Western Europe, the peripheral instances of Feminist Mothering, and, finally, the New Migrant Mothering. The latter is an original, key contribution of this thesis, illustrated by women’s stories of the transnational integrative practice of mothering that aims at hybridization of Polish and Western influences. While addressing the earlier knowledge gap, namely the absence of the voices of Polish mothers as agents of mobility, the thesis ascertains a need for acknowledging diversity in parenting practices within the contemporary intra-European transnational families.

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This research examines theories of power, the body and the self by studying theoretically and empirically the transition to motherhood. Drawing on both textual analyses and semi-structured interviews with thirty middle-class women shortly before and shortly after they become mothers for the first time, it is argued that pregnancy and maternity leave are liminal periods during which identity is re-negotiated. The interview data, although not claimed to be a representative study, are used to comment on theories of the self in late modernity. It is suggested that the women's sense of self is refracted, rather than fragmented, through the transition; and that they are excused from elements in their old narrative sense of self for the period of pregnancy, although continuity in the narrative is likely to be reasserted upon entering motherhood. The importance of bodily change to self-identity is investigated through the example of pregnancy and birth. Three key dimensions of the women's shifting gender identity are identified as being sexuality, shape and space. Comparisons between the women's discourses of motherhood and employment are used to reveal not only tensions but important commonalities. Professional identity is shown to be a concern, and the means by which it is ensured in this new context are explored. Resources available to the women in managing their transition are identified. These include a range of discourses to which they have access, various experts who are used to help mediate the period of uncertainty and the women's own practices of the self Comparison between the textual and interview material is used to posit that the women have a degree of agency in this process. Finally, different ways of conceptualising this agency - inter- spatiality, counterpoint and inscription - are proposed to replace/ enhance the established language of resistance.

Increasing numbers of women are defying societal expectations and choosing not to have children. At the same time, their choices remain shrouded in disapproval and silence. Despite significant cultural changes and the influences of the feminist movement, the idea that womanhood equates with motherhood endures. The aims of this study were to critically understand why women choose not to have children and to consider the consequences of their choices on their lives. Twenty-two women aged between 40 and 75, from across England, Scotland, and Wales participated in this constructivist grounded theory study. All women were educated to degree level or higher and came from a range of social class backgrounds. Drawing from interviews with participants, this study presents three key findings to inform a sociological understanding of this topic. First, the findings reveal that participants’ choices not to have children are best understood as part of a complex interplay between restraining and liberating experiences in their lives. Social class also had a significant influence on their life experiences and subsequently on their choices. Their choices not to have children were formed within a specific social context and from the complex interplay of their personal and social experiences within an unequal world. Second, participants feel they are perceived as women of ‘lesser value’. This positioning is expressed through negative language, stereotyping, and reinforced in families, communities, and workplaces. This finding reveals the dominant societal gendered expectations that womanhood and motherhood are synonymous. It exposes a culture of silence, motherarchal ideas, and the societal practices that sustain it. Third, participants do not regret their choices. This finding challenges the myth that women who make this choice will experience regret and that motherhood and family is the only haven for fulfilment. This finding submits that a choice for non-motherhood is a choice for a different life that offers multiple possibilities. Taken together, the findings support previous and current research. They also raise important issues and questions for further study. More research and work is needed to ensure that women’s choices for non-motherhood are understood, respected, and supported. Moreover, it will be necessary to understand and challenge the dominant pronatalist ideas that denigrate alternative choices.

This thesis examines the nature and role of motherhood as an institution in the later Roman Empire in the west. Using a series of interlinked discourses it builds a composite image of the social ideals and expectations of mothers during a time when Christians were re-examining the cultural assumptions that underpinned family and gender relationships. Using 'medical' writings to examine the origin of assumptions about the female body, it then considers how this information was reinterpreted by patristic writers to suit their new image of the ideal body, and particularly to explain the Virgin Birth.;The image of the Virgin Mary and the development of interest in her as Virgin Mother is considered within the parameters of the ascetic debate. The patristic writers developed a discourse that denigrated maternity in favour of virginity and thus displaced mothers from their traditional place of high status in Roman society. The relationship between discourse and reality is a central underlying theme of this thesis and is discussed in close detail in a chapter that examines the effect of this ascetic discourse on mothers using well known case studies. Finally, to balance the patristic and medical writings, the law codes of the period are examined for their effect on mothers both in terms of status and inheritance.;The growing acknowledgement of the mother-child bond is recognised and mothers acquire certain legal rights they had not previously held, particularly with regard to the disposition of their own property and in the guardianship of their children. So, while the patristic discourse may undermine the status of a mother, the law makers are according her more privileges than ever before. These diverse sources produce a set of images that reflect the various thinking of the late antique world on one of the most fundamental of institutions.

This study explores how men experience the construction of the masculine self as influenced by the father-son relationship. It employs a mixed methodology using Hollway and Jefferson’s Free Association Narrative Interview model, Farough’s Photo-Ethnographic Interviewing technique and a data analysis informed by Foucauldian concepts, to explore the father-son dynamics of twenty male participants and their subsequent effect on the adoption of masculine subject positions and beliefs. The mixed method design accesses the intrapersonal, interpersonal and wider social fields, in which the gendered self is built, performed and negotiated. The results find that the father-son relationship is a key factor in shaping the masculine self and set out a masculinity spectrum of male positions adopted (eg. thug, dominator position; laddish bravado position; traditional provider emotionally detached; good provider emotionally holding; effeminate male weakling position). The spectrum can apply equally to a man’s style of “doing maleness” and to a man’s style of fathering. Men are not tied exclusively to one spectrum position. Most will express aspects of different positions depending on context, company and age. Most men tend to move in a rightward direction (ie. from more traditional rigid or hegemonic male styles towards more emotionally open styles) on the spectrum as they grow older. However, men (and their fathers) will tend to have a dominant style of masculinity and the gaps between their relative spectrum positions (or masculinity subject positions) are unpacked and analysed in terms of what such gaps may mean for their relationship and ways of doing maleness. Implications for working with men in counselling psychology practice are considered, as are suggestions for future research work in this field.

This study explored new fathers‟ understanding and experience of fatherhood, their own well-being and whether, or not, there is a role for counselling psychologists to work with new fathers in their transition to fatherhood. A qualitative research methodology was employed: counselling psychologists were asked to complete a partially structured questionnaire to explore their perceptions of men‟s experiences of fatherhood; fathers‟ well-being and mental health needs; and the psychologists‟ thoughts about what role, if any, counselling psychology might have in assisting the transition to fatherhood. Questionnaires were analysed using a content analysis. Fathers, in the first five years of fatherhood, were interviewed to explore their experiences of fatherhood, and their understanding of their own well-being. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four master themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews, with 11 subthemes identified. The four master themes were preparation; roles, responsibilities, perspectives and priorities; joy and reward versus difficulties and concerns; support. These were consistent across the participant‟s accounts, although experiences varied between individuals. Fifteen themes were identified in the analysis of questionnaire responses from counselling psychologists. Research findings support previous research in showing that the transition to fatherhood is a time of intense psychological adjustment and suggest that counselling psychologists do have a role to play in working with new fathers in their transition to fatherhood. The researcher suggests that counselling psychologists have a role to play in both therapeutic work and in the broader provision of psychological knowledge, education and support, either directly to individuals or groups, or indirectly through the provision of information, working with or training other professionals and through research and the dissemination of findings.