Fathers, social interventions and children's well-being
Lead Research Organisation:
Cardiff University
Department Name: Sch of Social Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Scourfield J
(2015)
Religious adaptation of a parenting programme: process evaluation of the F amily L inks I slamic V alues course for M uslim fathers
in Child: Care, Health and Development
Scourfield J
(2014)
A Systemic Approach to Improving the Engagement of Fathers in Child Safeguarding
in Child Abuse Review
Scourfield J
(2014)
Improving work with fathers to prevent child maltreatment: fathers should be engaged as allies in child abuse and neglect prevention.
in Child abuse & neglect
Scourfield J
(2016)
Working with fathers of at-risk children: Insights from a qualitative process evaluation of an intensive group-based intervention
in Children and Youth Services Review
Scourfield J
(2014)
Working with fathers to improve children's well-being: Results of a survey exploring service provision and intervention approach in the UK
in Children and Youth Services Review
Scourfield J
(2016)
The association between characteristics of fathering in infancy and depressive symptoms in adolescence: A UK birth cohort study.
in Child abuse & neglect
Scourfield, J.
(2014)
A process evaluation of the Family Links Islamic Values course for Muslim fathers
Scourfield, J.
(2015)
International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Scourfield, J.
(2014)
Independent process evaluation of Mellow Dads
Scourfield, J. And Lewinson, E
(2016)
Safeguarding Black Children: Good Practice in Child Protection
| Description | A survey was conducted with family practitioners across the UK to find out what kinds of approaches were being used in work with fathers. As found previously, the numbers of fathers attending services were relatively small. As for the approaches being used, overt gender politics played only a small part, i.e. there was little evidence that practitioners were primarily motivated either by feminism or by a belief in promoting men's rights. Instead it was mainstream approaches to parenting support that were most popular, including cognitive and behavioural techniques. These have a general evidence base to support their use in helping parents, but there is a lack of specific programmes for fathers that have been subject to robust evaluation. Two qualitative studies shed some light on the process of fathers' groups and how they work in practice. One was a study of Mellow Dads, an intensive group programme for the fathers of children at risk. This highlighted the additional challenges faced by practitioners in working with fathers as non-traditional clients of family services and the extra time and additional skills required to maintain their participation in the programme. The other was a study of the Family Links Islamic Values course, which is an adaptation of an existing parenting programme for Muslim parents. This showed the potential for creative approaches to parenting support that take seriously parents' cultural backgrounds, including religious faith. A third study considered which characteristics of fathers when children are in infancy are associated with later mental health problems in these children. A cohort study was used that followed the same children over time - the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The data showed that fathers' extreme frustration with child care when children were aged 21 months was associated with risk of depression when these children were aged sixteen. Breaking this down further, this association was only found in children from non-manual social class households. This association was over and above other risk factors, such as mothers' negative experience of child care, maternal depression and family-related adverse events in the teenage years. The findings suggest that in order to prevent later mental health problems in children, interventions should be developed for fathers who experience extreme frustration with child care and a focus on social deprivation may not help prevent the negative effect of fathers' frustration with toddlers on teenage depression. The final aspect of the fellowship to highlight is the investment in Jonathan Scourfield as a quantitative researcher. The fellowship included considerable training for Jonathan in quantitative research methods - e.g. an MSc in Epidemiology and several short courses. This has led to further funding from elsewhere, such as a study looking at social work contact in four major UK cohort and panel studies that is funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The ESRC mid-career fellowship has enhanced the skills of this individual researcher, allowing him to take his research in a different direction and work with others to improve the quantitative evidence base of UK social work research. |
| Exploitation Route | The ALSPAC study has implications for intervention development and targeting, as noted above. The practitioner survey has highlighted the current state of play across the UK in the provision of services for fathers. These findings are of use to those planning and commissioning services, alongside the fellowship's bringing together of the existing evidence base on work with fathers, through publications and an end-of-award conference. The investment in Jonathan Scourfield's quantitative research skills and knowledge will be of more general use to social work research in the UK, through his involvement in studies alongside colleagues and his supervision of quantitative PhDs. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Healthcare |
| URL | http://workingwithfathers.weebly.com/ |
| Description | There are two aspects of impact to highlight: firstly, the impact on UK social work research of the methodological training in the fellowship and secondly the impact of the substantive research on work with fathers. 1. BUILDING CAPACITY IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH A central aim of the fellowship was to improve Jonathan Scourfield's (JS) ability to conduct quantitative social work research, an area of acute need. The social work research field in the UK is a lot smaller than in the comparable fields of health care and education. The quantitative capacity within this field is especially sparse. The aim has been met for JS, who completed an MSc in Epidemiology and undertook a range of short courses on quantitative methods. The result has been that JS has moved his funded research (beyond the fellowship itself) in a more quantitative direction, working within research teams, contributing some important quantitative evidence to the social work field. There has been an explicit capacity-building dimension, via the Research Development Initiative. (a) JS is leading a Nuffield-funded project to explore the potential of UK cohort and panel studies for research on social work. The project is using four UK cohort or panel studies. To date (August 2015) it has resulted in four papers in peer-reviewed journals, with more hopefully to come. This is the first attempt to use these studies for this purpose. The project has been presented at three social work conferences and an inter-disciplinary child maltreatment conference. (b) JS was part of a team led by Donald Forrester from the University of Bedfordshire which obtained funding from the ESRC quantitative methods initiative for a project to increase the teaching of quantitative methods on social work programmes. The project will result in a textbook (in progress) and the teaching materials, which are freely available online, were introduced in a plenary presentation to the main UK conference of social work educators. (c) JS has been a co-investigator on two randomised controlled trials in social care. These trials - led by public health researchers - would have gone ahead anyway without JS but his involvement means he has sufficient experience to be PI on social care RCTs in future. There is a serious dearth of RCTs in the social work field and for a British academic to gain experience of running trials is a valuable contribution to the research workforce. EVIDENCE ON WORK WITH FATHERS The findings from the substantive research on work with fathers have been presented to practitioner and academic audiences as follows: - Joint Social Work Education conference, the premier UK conference for social work lecturers - Fatherhood Institute event in Cardiff University to launch their initiative on fathers and child protection - Royal College of Physicians one-day conference on fathers - Launch of the Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) in Cardiff - Visit of Norwegian academics to Cardiff - Swansea University event for nurses and social workers on work with fathers - Project website http://workingwithfathers.weebly.com/ - Practitioner conference on working with fathers in Manchester The two 'launch' events for the fellowship research were the CASCADE launch and the practitioner conference in Manchester. These were attended by around 80 and 60 people respectively. The former event was attended by some researchers and practitioners, but mostly senior policy and managerial staff from social work agencies, charities and the Welsh Government. The event was attended by the Minister for Health and Social Services. The latter event, the practitioner conference in Manchester, was organised by JS and attended very largely by practitioners working directly with fathers. The agenda was 'research for practice' and there were seven presenters from universities and child welfare agencies across the UK. There is no clear evidence yet that the research findings have had a concrete impact on policy or practice but there has been a serious attempt to engage with the field of practice. Since some of the fellowship studies were relatively small-scale, they will have more impact if future larger-scale robust studies are funded which build on the fellowship projects. OTHER IMPACTS Another aim of the fellowship was to explore the intersection of public health and social care. Collaboration with public health colleagues led to JS's involvement as co-investigator in the second funding phase (£2,935,000) of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) and the Population Health Research Centre for Wales (£2,000,000). Reflections on the distinction between social work, public health and other disciplines were included in Social Work: A Very Short Introduction (Sally Holland and Jonathan Scourfield, Oxford University Press, 2015). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Children, young people and families using social work services in four UK cohort studies: patterns, outcomes and change |
| Amount | £132,798 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | CPF/41218 |
| Organisation | Nuffield Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 03/2015 |
| Description | Increasing the Capacity for Quantitative Teaching in Social Work Undergraduate Courses |
| Amount | £79,390 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/J011754/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2011 |
| End | 12/2014 |
| Description | Keynote speech at BASPCAN conference on fathers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked discussion I have since been contacted by participants for further information |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Keynote speech at Making Research Count practitioner conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference organised by Making Research Count on relationship-based practice with boys and men. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Keynote speech at launch of CASCADE research centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A talk which prompted discussion. The audience seemed very engaged by the topic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Presentation at seminar on work with fathers at Swansea University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Health professionals |
| Results and Impact | The talk sparked discussion Discussion of nursing practice and possible future research collaborations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |