Raising a child is not easy for any parent, however for those whose child also has a disability, the process is even more complex. The papers presented here explore the experiences of parents who have a child with a disability. From understanding parents’ experiences in more details, it is hoped that support can be tailored to serve the needs of parents better and improve the outcomes for children. Chapter one details a meta-synthesis, reviewing qualitative articles which address the experience of parents’ with a child with congenital heart disease. Twelve overarching themes are presented, capturing parents’ responses, the parent-child attachment and parental resilience. Recommendations are made for how to support parents and areas of development for healthcare professionals are identified. Chapter two details a qualitative study examining the experiences of eight fathers of children with autism. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is used to provide an in-depth account of their lived experiences and three superordinate themes are presented. The results identify resilience and challenges fathers experience, both within themselves and within their relationships. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed. Chapter three provides a reflective account of the research process. It addresses the issue of reflexivity, considering how the researcher’s position may have influenced the research and how the process of undertaking the research influenced the researcher.

Despite great advances in the acceptability of diverse family forms, strong social norms that parents are typically nondisabled opposite-sex couples still prevail. Parenthood rates are low among those who deviate from this social norm, including disabled people, gay men and lesbians. These individuals are referred to collectively as non-normative groups. Parenthood rates are also low among those who cannot take the normative route to parenthood and require medically assisted reproduction, such as cancer survivors. These individuals were also classified as non-normative groups. Little is known about the reproductive decisions of these populations. The five studies presented in this thesis aimed to explore the causes and consequences of the lack of diversity in the parenting population. Current parenthood rates in the UK at age 42 were assessed using a large representative dataset. Non-normative groups were at least twice as likely to be childless as the rest of the sample. Being childless was also found to have a negative impact on life satisfaction at age 42 regardless of whether participants belonged to a non-normative group. Current discourse on equality and diversity should tackle the question of whether steps should be taken to reduce the inequality in parenthood opportunities. A systematic review and a study focusing on disabled people highlighted several barriers to parenthood that affect most non-normative groups. These include negative societal attitudes, poor perceived parenting skills and financial problems. One potential reason for the low parenthood rates among cancer survivors was explored further, that physicians may be less likely to discuss options to safeguard fertility with patients who are gay or single. However, the intentions of medical students were found to be unaffected by patient characteristics, although traditional family values were associated with self-reported bias.

L’expérience de la maternité des femmes étiquetées « handicapées mentales » est un droit mais son application ne va pas de soi, le « handicap mental » impliquant des difficultés à traiter des problèmes, cognitifs et affectifs de la vie quotidienne, et relationnels. Situation liminaire, cette expérience de la maternité est pensée, encadrée, socialisée par des institutions gardiennes de la normalité. Cette thèse montre que ces femmes sont tenues à assumer seules la responsabilité de leur maternité, selon un modèle de « bonne mère » qui n’inclut guère le père. Être une « bonne mère » est une gratification dans un contexte où la situation de handicap reste une cause d’exclusion sociale. Dans l’incertitude sur leurs compétences maternelles, les mères vivent dans un état de tension permanente et la crainte qu’on leur retire la garde de leurs enfants. Leurs expériences sociales les mettent constamment aux prises avec des risques de renforcement des stéréotypes. La négociation leur est quasiment impossible.La première partie de ce travail doctoral rend compte d’un parcours de recherche et de la construction progressive de l’objet. Dans la seconde partie, l’état de l’art permet de comprendre que l’incompétence maternelle, supposée tenir au handicap, renvoie à la difficulté à être mère « tout court ». La troisième partie présente les résultats sous forme de portraits sociologiques. Puis sont présentés les moments-clés de leurs parcours de maternité, sous le contrôle des professionnels du champ social et médical. / The experience of motherhood is a right but, for women labelled « mentally handicapped », its implementation is not obvious at all, as « mental handicap » implies difficulties to deal with cognitive and affective problems of everyday life as well as relational problems. As a liminal situation, this experience of motherhood is thought, controlled and socialized by normality-keeping institutions. This research shows that these women are expected to deal alone with their motherhood’s responsibility, according to a « good mother » pattern that hardly includes the father. To be a « good mother » is a reward in a context where the handicap situation remains a cause of social exclusion. But, as they doubt of their maternal competences, the mothers live in a state of permanent stress and fear to lose their children’s custody. Their social experiences constantly confront them with the risk of reinforcing stereotypes. Negotiation is almost impossible. The first part of this doctoral work gives an account of the research and object’s progressive construction. In the second part, the state-of-the-art review shows that the maternal incompetence, supposedly caused by the handicap, refers as a matter of fact to the difficulty to be a mother in general. The third part presents the results in the form of sociological portraits. Finally, are presented the key-moments of these women’s motherhood under the control of medico-social field’s professionals.

The academic field of young parenthood has seen a significant increase in interest, both academic and political, in recent years. This increased interest is related to the view that young parents are “outside” normative discourses. Nevertheless, the experiences of young fatherhood have been minimally addressed in the academic field in comparison to the vast research carried out on young motherhood. This thesis investigates from a socio-historical perspective, the lives and experiences of young fathers, aged 16-25, living on the Isle of Sheppey over the past sixty years. The focus of this thesis was to examine how social change may have impacted upon the lives of young fathers throughout the past sixty years within one rural geographic location. This area of interest was chosen based on the current limitations of the field, which predominantly discusses young fatherhood from a contemporary point of view and from the perspective of young fathers living in urban areas. The first phase of this study collected documents on local social affairs on the island over the past sixty years, predominantly in local newspapers and local academic studies. This allowed for the lives of the participants to be understood in the context of a general picture of the life on the island. In the second phase, life story interviews provided detailed accounts from the viewpoint of the young fathers. For these interviews, 21 participants (aged 20-74 at the time of interview) were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Three cohorts were formed from the 21 participants based on similar ages and experiences. Inclusion criteria were that the young fathers were aged 25 or under when they had or were having their first child and had lived on the island for at least ten years. The study was underpinned by structuration theory (Giddens, 1984); this theoretical approach was selected in order to aid understanding of the relationship between social change and young fatherhood in one geographic location. Sociological concepts were also employed as to act as mid-range theories in order to interpret the data. The findings from this study suggest that social structures have increasingly affected the lives and life choices of the young fathers involved over the past sixty years. Changing political discourses, particularly since the 1980’s, have had a fundamental impact upon the economy, which has impacted upon the transitions that young men make, particularly from education to employment. The timing of this transition has also changed the age at which it is considered appropriate to begin family life, and this has affected the definition of young fatherhood in recent years. Recent political discourses have suggested that it is the individual behaviours of these young people who become parents, which is in need of changing, rather than institutional models (SEU, 1999). However, evidence from this study has shown that there have been fewer changes in the behaviour, attitudes and perceptions of fatherhood from the perspectives of the young fathers themselves over the past sixty years. Young fathers in this study still acknowledged traditional paternal responsibilities, particularly being the main breadwinner, but may have been unable to enact them. This study also provides an original contribution to the field of young fatherhood, addressing the situation of under-researched rural working class young fathers. It also provides an evidenced account, which goes some way to balancing the moral panic created around the discourse of young fathers as choosing to be a burden on society and not caring about their responsibilities.

In the last 40 years there has been a surge of academic research into grandparenthood as a result of increased longevity and changing family structures. However, limited research has been identified that explores the experiences of young grandparenthood in England, despite academic researchers’ assertions of deviant young grandparenthood made in the 1980s. Maternal grandmothers have been reported to be the most involved grandparent in the lives of their grandchildren. Further, there is likelihood that the transition to young maternal grandmotherhood is a consequence of young motherhood (of mother and/or daughter). Young motherhood literatures report that mothers of young mothers (maternal grandmothers) can be a primary source of support for their daughters, yet this body of research rarely focuses on the maternal grandmother. With the current cultural norm of grandparenting childcare in the UK and the UK Government’s objectives of increasing women in work, improving maternal health, child health and economic self-sufficiency for young mothers, it is important to understand how young maternal grandmothers are, or are not, contributing to Government targets whilst balancing their own working and family lives. This study makes initial steps in addressing these neglected areas of research by exploring the lived experiences of 10 young maternal grandmothers (aged 35 to 42 years at first transition) living in England. Data was collected using face-to-face semi-structured interviews, prompt objects and photo elicitation in order to answer the research question, ‘what are the lived experiences of young maternal grandmotherhood?’ Guided by British sociologists’ conceptualisations of family life and relationships and the use of Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), data were analysed at an idiographic level before moving on to explore convergences and divergences across person cases, resulting in the emergence of shared patterns of meaning and experience. Analysis of the transitional stage to grandmotherhood identified two essential experiences: Experiencing acceptance (or lack of acceptance) of her daughter’s pregnancy and experiencing acceptance (or lack of acceptance) of her grandmotherhood. Analysis of being a young maternal grandmother identified three essential experiences: Experiencing grandmothering through time, distance, places, spaces and inanimate objects; experiencing grandmotherhood in the social world (the influence of others and on others); owning and romancing the grandchild, experiences of connectedness and disconnectedness. The study concludes with a discussion of the current findings in relation to existing literatures and new understandings. Consideration is applied to the research design and the perceived strengths and limitations. The wider implications of this research are presented with specific focus on the potential to develop a conceptual framework for use in intervention measures for mothers (young maternal grandmothers) and/or daughters (young mothers) and recommendations for possible future directions in this research area.

Taking as a starting point the assumption that justice is the first virtue of the family, my main aim in this dissertation is to offer an account of what justice requires of parents. Grappling with this issue, however, sheds some light on related questions that are wider in scope: How should we think about justice in general? What is the distinctive value of the family? What would a society of just families look like? In answering these questions, the following thesis is advanced: Demands of justice are best understood contextually. They arise from the characteristics of the specific relationship in the context within which they are meant to apply. An account of justice in the family should thus appeal to the parent–child relationship itself. This is an intimate fiduciary relationship that normally constitutes the primary site of upbringing. Yet what makes it distinctively valuable is its element of identity, i.e., a sense of interconnectedness and continuity generated through the transmission of beliefs, practices and more idiosyncratic attributes from parent to child. Corresponding to this understanding of the parent–child relationship, justice requires parents to provide their children with the conditions to achieve a set of functionings up to the level that allows them to lead a decent life in terms of the parents’ social and cultural context. As this account of justice in the family is not strictly political, it gives rise to a complex interplay along the axis of citizens–parents–children, displaying formulae of both integration and separation of family and state. A society of perfectly just families might not be perfectly just as a whole. Yet it may be interpreted as particularly liberal; characterized by multiplication and separation of authorities, reflecting rather than resolving the tensions between the individual and society and between different individuals and groups within society.

This study is based on joint and separate in-depth interviews with twenty (female) same sex couples who planned and had their children together in the context of their relationship. These families are one example of the increasing possibilities to live in non-traditional relationships and family forms, in contemporary Western societies. While lesbian and gay parents have a long history, there is little precedence for same sex couples setting up families 'from scratch' i.e. choosing to have children in the context of their relationship. These possibilities can be placed in the context of wider transformations of intimacy. There is widespread agreement that individualism in personal relationships has substantially increased, although opinions differ about the extent to which this individualism is essentially selfish. Lesbian parents, for example, have been portrayed as selfish individuals (Phillips, 1998) or alternatively as 'prime everyday experimenters' (Giddens, 1992), although the reality may be more nuanced than either of these polarities suggests. Overall, recent sociological research into both heterosexual and 'non-heterosexual' family lives suggests that transformations of intimacy are characterised by negotiated commitments and moral reasoning. However, to date, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which these themes may be modified by the presence of dependent children, particularly given the socially constructed nature of children's needs. Respondents in my study are involved in both innovative family practices and the care of dependent children. As such, they can offer new insights to the above debates. They present a radical departure from dominant conventions of heterosexual gendered family norms and the biological imperatives of reproduction. However, while working out new ways of doing family, these practices are located within deeply conventional moralities of motherhood, which leave little space within which to offer up new stories of doing family.

This cross-cultural study investigates the interpersonal perception of parents and young people in Lebanon and Britain. The aims were (1) to compare the students' degree of accuracy in perceiving their parents' opinion with the actual opinions of the parents. Similarly, the parents' accuracy in perceiving their children's opinion is compared with the actual opinions of young people, (2) to assess the students' level of security and find its relationship to accurate prediction, (3) to compare the two generations, the two sexes, and the two cultural groups quantitatively and qualitatively in their attitudes to the various areas of opinion. Using two questionnaires, three different scores were obtained for each student: a security score, an accurate prediction score and an agreement score. The personal security of the student was measured by Ainsworths' Security-Insecurity test. The prediction and agreement scores were obtained using an opinion statement questionnaire administered to both parents and students. By varying the instructions for both groups and by the scoring procedure it was possible to go beyond a mere accuracy score. The findings were as follows: 1. Security and accurate prediction are highly correlated for the Lebanese women students but non-significant for the other three groups (especially after partialling out agreement). Results were explained within the contexts of the Middle Eastern culture and Riesman's theory of 'inner directed society'. 2. Agreement and accurate prediction are highly related only for the Lebanese men and British men students. Various explanations were discussed of which one was found within the theory of cognitive dissonance. 3. Accurate predictions of both parents and children correlate significantly, suggesting the reciprocal nature of accurate perception. A. Agreement and accurate prediction are highly related. The possible effects of 'Real' and 'Assumed' similarity are pointed out. 5. Broadly, the qualitative and quantitative comparison of both generations, sexes and cultures are, with a few exceptions, generally in accordance with expectations. These findings were discussed within the social structure of each culture.

This research explores working mothers’ decisions on combining paid work with looking after children and the implications these have for their pensions, and whether they have changed over time. Two cohorts of mothers are interviewed. The first cohort are working mothers aged between 30-40 years with the aim to explore their decisions’ to combine paid work with looking after children and their current situation of financial planning for retirement. The second cohort are mothers who are in receipt of state and/or non-state pensions and are aged between 60-70 years with the aim to explore how they combined paid work with looking after children and how they had planned financially for their retirement. Empirically, this research compares an earlier cohort of mothers who started to receive state and/or non-state pensions with working mothers whose retirement is expected to be around 2050. This research analyses pension provision for women in the United Kingdom through a critical review of Conservative and Labour Governments’ policies between 1979 and 2010 in addressing gender inequalities in pension provision for women. The period 1979 to 2010 covers the beginnings of the gradual and long term shift from state to non-state pension provision by 2050. Welfare state/regimes and sociological theories are used in this research study in order to explore working mothers’ decisions on paid work with looking after children and the implications these have for their pensions, given the policy shift from state to non-state pension provision. Working mothers’ experiences in combining paid work with looking after children show that mothers can hold different gendered moral rationalities and shift between the ideal types of social policy over time. This is shaped by whether they have a choice to decide how to combine paid work with looking after children. This in turn shapes working mothers’ orientations towards paid work and opportunities to contribute towards state and occupational pensions. Combining paid work with looking after children by members of both cohorts varied and was not a straightforward to fit one type of the ideal types of social policy, and the gendered moral rationalities held are subject to change in the lives of working mothers over time.

This research views the problem of delayed motherhood as a complexity of time: firstly, within the life trajectory of the child/adolescent/young woman/mid-life adult, and secondly, in relation to inherited factors that came before her entry into this life, threatening to continue after it. The thesis argues, from an advocacy perspective, for a period of mid-life that we could call a Pregnant Pause, which, as the research demonstrates, points to an early rupture in nurturing and relating. The research follows 8 women who have become pregnant in mid life. Using interviews, dream diaries and the Word Association Test, the thesis identifies those factors within personal, cultural and collective complexes influencing onset of late procreative desire. These are discussed in relation to causation and teleological continua. The empirical work yielded data rich in presentations of difficulties with the maternal parent, while the paternal parent remained marginalized. In parallel, the presence of a male sibling was found to have a significant effect on how women unconsciously organized their lives into two parts, “first Adam, then Eve”, insofar as identities around work and the maternal were concerned. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the interconnection between the individuating woman and the culture in which she is born, arguing that delayed motherhood is both an act of rebellion and redemption. Identification of a Pregnant Pause within these life trajectories clarifies three phases of delayed motherhood: before a baby, desperate for a baby, and after the baby. The implications of this research are discussed in parallel as dissociation from trauma, facing into earlier trauma with renewed determination, and transformations inspired by the Trickster archetype. The implications of this research range from, how not to raise a daughter, through to raising awareness on how the mother-daughter relationship impacts delayed motherhood and thus society, ultimately to address the need to re-imagine a national health service that values the personal and social impact on women who have lived their lives in two parts. This research aims to serve women who have no other means of redeeming their lost years except to find support for a reproductive identity through the NHS.