This study addresses the following research question: what are the implications of African- Caribbean and White working class men's experiences within social connections (within families, friendships, communities and workplaces), for fathering and health experiences? The purposes of this study were to undertake a primary piece of intensive qualitative research, and also to analyse, critically, the study's findings, in order to identify implications for theory, policy, practice and research. This investigation was critical, interpretative and exploratory, informed by the principles of phenomenology and ethnography. Six African-Caribbean and seven White working class men were recruited, using purposive sampling, for two semi-structured individual interviews. This enabled the exploration of the interactive effects and processes of structure and agency, in relation to social class, gender, and ethnicity. The study did not find major differences between the experiences of these two groups of men, although the assets and constraints related to African-Caribbean men's experiences of ethnicity and racism within social connections were evident. Study findings, for both groups of men, indicated that social connectedness within families, communities and workplaces was highly valued, but social connections, material and structural factors also influenced the health of the men interviewed. Furthermore, findings indicated that men's experiences of social connectedness have limitations. Specifically, men's limited insights into the links between social connectedness and health, men's perceived limitations with their communication skills, their solitary methods of dealing with perceived vulnerability, but also the uncertainty associated with their identities as men were significant findings. Indeed, men's experiences of both solitary discourses and practices and social connectedness, regarding fathering and health, were associated with discourses about masculinities. Implications for existing theory, for example Connell's (1995) work regarding masculinities, and Putnam's (1995) work regarding `social capital', are identified. In addition, implications for research, policy and practice are examined, with specific reference to the opportunities for mental health promotion with working class men who are fathers.

This study investigates the long-neglected cultural engagement of the court of Anne of Denmark, consort of James VI and I, revising her historiographical representation in the light of current gender theory. Focusing upon the masque performances of the English Jacobean court, I examine the genre's anomalous staging of Renaissance female performance and its contribution to the emergence of a more general female performance. Through detailed analysis of masque performances, I assess contemporary courtly attitudes towards female masquing and the performative representation of the courtly woman. This study is firmly interdisciplinary in its approach to female cultural production, investigating the texts of performance, embroidery, dance, patronage and commissioning, and religious and political engagement. This thesis breaks new ground in the detailed examination of the aesthetics of masque performance as tools of social and political engagement. This study decentres the anglocentricism prevalent in recent cultural criticism of the Jacobean court. My first: chapter traces Anne's life and performance in both the Danish and Scottish Renaissance courts, assessing the impact of these alternative models upon her cultural engagement. Chapters two and three continue the analysis of performance. The former discusses the danced performance of aristocratic identity and the way in which this facilitates female masque performance; the latter relates the performance of the female body in the major English Jacobean masques to performance space, costume and scenery. Tracing the line of female performance through the second decade of the seventeenth century, I analyse Robert White's Cupid's Banishment, the final masque of Anne's career. This reading encapsulates my discussion of female cultural agency through the autonomy of the Queen's court. Recycling memories of earlier performances, Cupid's Banishment stages disparate texts of female expressivity in a masque which contains perhaps the unique Jacobean staging of the female masquing voice.

A growing number of lesbian women are choosing to have children within the context of an openly lesbian lifestyle. This dissertation research represents a departure from much previous work in this area, with a shift in focus from children of lesbian and gay parents in the UK or North America, to an exploration of the perspectives and experiences of lesbian parents themselves within two particular European contexts. Interviews were carried out with 68 lesbian women in Sweden and Ireland. The role of social and institutional contexts in shaping these women's parenting possibilities, choices and experiences were explored. An important finding of the study concerns cross-national differences in discourses of fatherhood and parenting. Swedish women were far more likely to choose an involved donor than Irish women. The differing possibilities and strategies available to lesbian women illustrate wider assumptions about gender and 'the family'. An examination of the significance of the genetic 'tie' found that heteronormative constructions of biology were both displaced and retained in families with co-parents. The lack of legal recognition of co-parents amounted to a difference in social validation as a parent that was negotiated in diverse ways. The study also explored the concept of gender flexibility among lesbian parents. Participants in this research demonstrated a relative absence of dichotomous gender roles, resulting in a division of labour largely characterised by equality between partners. The reinscription of discourses of gender and kinship by lesbian parents highlights the centrality of symbols such as biology, at the same time that lesbian parents may reconstruct such discourses, creating points of rupture in heteronormative relations. Finally, the study reveals the heteronormative assumptions of the Swedish and Irish welfare states, which lead to these families' efforts to resist socially exclusionary practices in contexts where they are perceived as outside the norm.

This thesis is a case study of the relationship between gender and sexuality at the empirical sites of asexuality and sexual abstinence. Whilst this relationship has been theorised in a number of ways, there has been limited empirical research on how this relationship ‘works’ in practice, with extant studies focusing largely on transgender. I suggest that asexuality and abstinence represent an interesting site to explore this relationship since they represent, for want of a better term, a lack, absence, or negative sexuality (in that there is a lack of sexual attraction to others, or there is an abstention from sexual activity). The study is also warranted due to the insufficient sociological research on abstinence, as well as the limitations of the literature and research in the nascent interdisciplinary field of asexuality studies. Through conducting qualitative research (using interviews and notebooks) with 33 participants who identified as asexual or abstinent, I found that gender and sexuality were experienced as entangled in the lives of participants. With reference to the socio-structural context of hetero-patriarchy, I trace how ideas about sexual desire, sexual activity and sexual agency are (still) gendered, and how this impacts on both the construction of abstinence and asexuality as concepts, as well as in the experiences participants had as asexual people or as people who were practising abstinence. I also explore how sexuality was central to participants’ understandings of gender, and how this affected their gender identities, gendered appearances, and experiences of gendered embodiment. Ultimately, this thesis argues for the importance in theorising and researching gender and sexuality together, and in particular, for the importance of ‘gendering’ sexualities research.

This thesis comprises three inter-related studies that have in common a focus on the nature of the behaviours of non-handicapped (NH) six and seven year olds in interactions with peers with severe learning difficulties (SLD). Research into children’s cross-age dyadic interactions is discussed and NH-SLD interaction is examined as a particular type of cross-(developmental) age Interaction. This work provides the background to Study 1 in which each of ten NH children was paired with a child with SLD during fortnightly integration sessions over one school year. NH-SLD interaction increased over the first two terms and decreased slightly after this, a pattern which can be explained in terms of features which promote or diminish child-child interaction. Study 2 focussed on changes in young NH children’s attitudes towards children with SLD over a year of fortnightly NH-SLD Integration sessions. These attitudes are considered in relation to work examining the development of attitudes towards other social groups. In particular, Katz' (19S2) model of the development of racial attitudes is applied to attitudes towards children with SLD. Year-end interviews indicated that knowledge about SLD encompassed four different physical explanations of SLD: sensory-motor difficulties, sickness, young age or "bad brains". Although the NH children became more realistic about probable futures of children with SLD, the NH children remained, in general, confused about the nature of SLD. It is concluded that Katz' (19B2) model provides a useful base for examining the development of attitudes towards children with SLD. Concepts held about the listener will Influence the nature of speech addressed to that listener and verbal NH-SLD interaction was the focus of the third study reported here. This study is set in the context of research on how young children address younger children, including tutees. Study 3 involved nine NH-SLD pairs of children whose verbal interactions were monitored over a school year of structured integration sessions. Study 3 found that, as in Study 1, NH children dominated NH-SLD interaction. This was evident in NH children's frequent use of requests and closed questions as well as in features such as speaking for SLD children. These characteristics were more frequent in the NH children's talk to SLD partners than in the NH children's talk to younger mainstream children. The issue of NH children's sensitivity, linguistically, to SLD partners is explored. It is suggested that while the types of reformulation of utterances by NH children to SLD partners were appropriate for SLD listeners, NH children often failed to recognise the need to reformulate utterances. This leads back to questions about young NH children's understanding of the nature of SLD.

This thesis seeks to provide a deeper understanding of public attitudes to inheritance in contemporary Scottish society, with particular regard to perceptions of parental obligation in an era of increased family diversity. The cornerstone of the thesis is an empirical study conducted in 2014 against the backdrop of the Scottish Law Commission’s (SLC) 2009 succession law reform proposals that would seriously curtail children’s inheritance rights. The thesis begins by contextualising the empirical study. It explains the current law of succession as it relates to provision for adult partners and children and examines the SLC’s proposed reforms. It argues that the SLC’s proposals to further bolster the spouse’s position at the expense of the deceased’s children are not supported by public opinion. Through analysis of a range of other empirical studies it demonstrates that public opinion supports continued recognition of children in succession law, particularly in reconstituted families. The second part of the thesis explains how the empirical study was planned and executed before detailing the methodological approach used to analyse the data. Having established the methodological framework, the thesis then discusses the key research findings, focusing primarily on the parent-child relationship. Firstly, it explores the obligations parents are considered to owe their children, addressing how these obligations can be reconciled with conceptions of testamentary freedom. Secondly, it examines whether parental duty is viewed differently when the deceased’s surviving spouse is not his children’s other parent and, thirdly, it asks what duty, if any, the deceased owes his stepchildren. While the parent-child relationship is the main focus of this thesis, the SLC also proposed reforms to the inheritance entitlements of half-siblings and these proposals are examined in the context of broader discussion on reconstituted families. The thesis concludes by arguing that, while the SLC rightly identifies social change as a ground for law reform, its proposed reforms fail to adequately reflect social norms in the context of the parent-child relationship. This is because the proposed reforms do not correspond to the societal changes identified: whereas the SLC acknowledges the rise in the number of reconstituted families, the reforms do not adequately consider how these families can be better served by succession law. Instead, confronted with increased family diversity, the SLC opts for simplicity, privileging the spouse ahead of all others regardless of the effect this will have on children in reconstituted families.

Many children, especially those with developmental disabilities, may present with problem behaviour which requires some form of intervention (e.g., Egger & Angold, 2006; Magee & Roy, 2008). Behavioural interventions are one of the most widely used and most empirically supported interventions for alleviating children’s problem behaviour. Nevertheless, research has highlighted that treatment acceptability should also be considered an important criterion that may play a role in the success of behavioural interventions (e.g., Calvert & Johnston, 1990; Carter, 2007; Kazdin, 1980). Studies have identified numerous factors that may influence parental acceptability of behavioural interventions for their child’s problem behaviour. In particular, parental attributions have received increasing attention as one of these possible factors (e.g., Mah & Johnston, 2008). However, very little empirical research has explicitly examined the potential relationship between parental attributions and treatment acceptability, and the findings were often limited by methodological issues. The present study extends the existing literature by exploring the relationship between parental attributions and treatment acceptability of behavioural interventions for problem behaviour in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Mothers of children with ASD aged 3 to 9 years (N = 139) completed survey measures that assessed demographics, parental attributions, treatment acceptability of parent-focused and child-focused behavioural interventions, severity of their child’s disruptive behaviour, and severity of their child’s ASD symptoms. The results showed that parental attributions of parent-referent stability, but not the other attributional dimensions, negatively predicted treatment acceptability of a parent-focused behavioural intervention, even when severity of disruptive behaviour was statistically controlled. Conversely, no associations were found between any attributional dimension and treatment acceptability of a child-focused behavioural intervention. Preliminary analyses also revealed that mothers’ ratings of the severity of their child’s disruptive behaviour were significantly negatively correlated to the acceptability of both parent-focused and child-focused behavioural interventions. The results have potential implications for professionals to identify and challenge distorted attributions of parent-referent stability in order to promote parental acceptance of a parent-focused behavioural intervention for problem behaviour in children with ASD.

Despite a wealth of research in the U.K. on the stock of lone parents, in recent years there has been a lack of research on the dynamics of lone parenthood, particularly leaving lone parenthood. In an attempt to fill this gap, this thesis provides a detailed study of repartnering patterns of lone mothers in the U.K. This study uses the first 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), a nationally representative survey conducted annually which interviews every adult member of a sample of around 5,000 households amounting to around 10,000 individual interviews. This data is particularly advantageous for this study due to its prospective longitudinal nature, allowing lone mothers to be captured at the point of entry into lone motherhood and their repartnering patterns to be analysed over subsequent waves. In addition the data enabled the construction of marital and cohabitation histories for lone mothers in order to control for any effect of prior union history on the probability of repartnering. Employing discrete time event history analysis techniques, the first part of this research examines repartnering among two distinct groups of lone mothers; those entering through the breakdown of a cohabiting or marital union and those entering through the birth of a child whilst single and never-married. Of particular interest is the effect of these different routes of entry into lone motherhood on the timing and determinants of repartnering and the types of new unions formed. The second part of the study seeks to identify if repartnering is associated with improved well-being for lone mothers. Using a series of pooled logistic regression models this thesis explores the association of repartnering with transitions in three domains: economic, demographic and health. Amongst those entering lone motherhood through the breakdown of a previous partnership the most important determinant of repartnering is found to be age at entry into lone motherhood. However, the economic situation of a lone mother, in particular whether or not she was receiving Income Support, has a much stronger influence on repartnering among single never married lone mothers than age. The duration of lone motherhood is found to be similar for both types of lone mother, -estimated at around five years, however controlling for a number of demographic and socio-economic factors suggests the probability of repartnering is lower for those entering through the breakdown of a cohabitation compared with those entering through the dissolution of a marriage. There appears to be a preference for cohabitation over marriage with nearly three quarters of those who repartnered moving into a cohabiting union. However, the higher chance of moving into a marriage for those who were previously married appears to result from a high proportion reconciling with a former partner. Examining the relationship between repartnering and other transitions occurring in three domains reveals that repartnering is likely to occur against a backdrop of other changes. Repartnering is strongly associated with an improvement in financial situation, residential mobility and an increase in the number of resident dependent children. Although no direct link is found between repartnering and improved mental health outcomes, the strong association between improved financial well-being and an improvement in mental health indicates repartnering may be indirectly related to better mental health. However, the finding of a direct association between poorer mental health and repartnering warrants further investigation

Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) present with social and communication deficits, and patterns of restricted and repetitive behaviours (APA, 2000). These difficulties have significant impacts for families, including increased levels of stress and mental health problems when compared to parents raising children with other developmental or intellectual conditions (e.g. Singer, 2006). Research has sought to understand this impact and to identify the factors that place parents at risk for poor adjustment outcomes so that interventions can be effectively tailored to facilitate improved outcomes for families. This thesis reviews the adjustment literature and considers how it fits within a widely used model of adjustment, the Double ABCX model (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983). It then goes on to consider the importance of the parent-child relationship for adjustment via the construct of Expressed Emotion (EE), and explores how this literature adds to our understanding of the adjustment process in families of children with ASC. Next, the role of EE in the adjustment process of families of children with ASC is investigated. A mediation model is proposed that incorporates a measure of EE within the Double ABCX model. The validity of this model is tested in a sample of primary caregivers who have children with ASC. Whilst the results of the study indicate that EE does not have a mediating role in the adjustment of these families, the study has a number of limitations and suggestions for future research that are discussed in detail.

High parental expressed emotion (EE) is often associated with ADHD in childhood. However, the direction of causation in the relationship is not well understood: is it the behaviour of the child with ADHD (i.e., child effects) or shared characteristics of the parent or family more generally that are independent of a specific child (i.e., family effects) that predict parental EE? Furthermore, does parental EE predict child problems over time? In this thesis, child and family effects on maternal EE and child problems and the specific child and family characteristics that explain these effects were examined using cross-sectional and longitudinal multilevel models of sibling pair data in families of children with ADHD sampled from a longitudinal study. The results revealed a complex picture with both child and family effects implicated in predicting both maternal EE and child behaviour. Studies 1 and 2 (which cross-sectionally used Time 1 [T1; n = 72 families] and Time 2 [T2] data [n = 48 families] respectively) and the longitudinal analysis of Study 3 (n = 45 families) demonstrated that, except for warmth, child effects were stronger in predicting maternal EE. Child effects seemed to be driven by oppositional/conduct problems (OPP/CP) and emotional problems, rather than ADHD per se. Mothers’ depressive symptoms and overall family levels of child OPP/CP largely predicted family effects on maternal EE. Study 4 (n = 45 families), the second longitudinal analysis, found similar T1 child and family effects on T2 child problems. Increase in negative maternal EE from T1 to T2 significantly predicted T2 child OPP/CP. T1 family effects on T2 child problems were predominantly predicted by T1 maternal ADHD symptoms and average family (i.e., sibling pair) levels of EE. The results suggested a potential causal role of both child (especially OPP/CP) and family effects (especially average family levels of child OPP/CP) in predicting maternal EE. In addition, high EE may be a risk factor for child OPP/CP over time and maternal ADHD for both behavioural and emotional child problems. This may have important clinical implications for interventions with families of children with ADHD.