Young motherhood and consumption : an exploration of the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in Bristol

This thesis explores the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in the city of Bristol. A staged and incremental research design was followed, which incorporated aspects of participant observation, activity based focus groups and a photo elicitation exercise. The study focuses on how a group of young mothers managing on limited incomes engaged with expansive markets for maternity and the new baby, and the meaning and emotion they attached to "baby stuff". The research describes how for the young women in this study buying for babies was a priority and part of their everyday caring work, involving the careful management of budgets and the skilful negotiation of consumer markets as well as the negation of mothers' own consumer projects ..and youth identities. While perhaps a financial necessity, it is suggested that the focus on meeting the 'needs' of babies over those of mothers enables these young women to locate themselves as 'good mothers', who put their children first. The thesis also explores how for the participants in the research material goods, and in particular the adornment and presentation of infants, played a crucial role in displaying maternal competence in the face of a sense of public visibility and condemnation. Appearance was everything and commodities provided protection for both mothers and children from the negative associations of poverty and an inability to consume. Further to this, the research examines the practices of giving gifts to babies and the making of maternal memory as significant aspects of the materiality of maternity for these young women. It is suggested that giving gifts to babies represents an important form of contemporary gift giving, which enables the expression and constitution of relationships between babies and their social networks. The collection and collation of "baby stuff" provides a means of creating childhood memories and histories which can be recalled through these objects. In this part of the investigation the practice of giving "mum" jewellery and getting the names of babies tattooed on mothers' bodies emerge as two furthers sites where these young women make the maternal visible . The study highlights the significance and myriad roles that consumer culture plays in the lives of young mothers, providing a rich account of the experiences and struggles of young mothers through an original lens. This work fills a gap in the literature on motherhood and consumption and makes a relevant contribution to a number of additional areas of scholarship including youth and consumption; low-income consumption; and indeed young motherhood, engaging also with contemporary debates over commercialisation and commodity consumption in late modernity and discourses about 'disordered' working class consumer practice

Young motherhood and consumption : an exploration of the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in Bristol

This thesis explores the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in the city of Bristol. A staged and incremental research design was followed, which incorporated aspects of participant observation, activity based focus groups and a photo elicitation exercise. The study focuses on how a group of young mothers managing on limited incomes engaged with expansive markets for maternity and the new baby, and the meaning and emotion they attached to "baby stuff". The research describes how for the young women in this study buying for babies was a priority and part of their everyday caring work, involving the careful management of budgets and the skilful negotiation of consumer markets as well as the negation of mothers' own consumer projects ..and youth identities. While perhaps a financial necessity, it is suggested that the focus on meeting the 'needs' of babies over those of mothers enables these young women to locate themselves as 'good mothers', who put their children first. The thesis also explores how for the participants in the research material goods, and in particular the adornment and presentation of infants, played a crucial role in displaying maternal competence in the face of a sense of public visibility and condemnation. Appearance was everything and commodities provided protection for both mothers and children from the negative associations of poverty and an inability to consume. Further to this, the research examines the practices of giving gifts to babies and the making of maternal memory as significant aspects of the materiality of maternity for these young women. It is suggested that giving gifts to babies represents an important form of contemporary gift giving, which enables the expression and constitution of relationships between babies and their social networks. The collection and collation of "baby stuff" provides a means of creating childhood memories and histories which can be recalled through these objects. In this part of the investigation the practice of giving "mum" jewellery and getting the names of babies tattooed on mothers' bodies emerge as two furthers sites where these young women make the maternal visible . The study highlights the significance and myriad roles that consumer culture plays in the lives of young mothers, providing a rich account of the experiences and struggles of young mothers through an original lens. This work fills a gap in the literature on motherhood and consumption and makes a relevant contribution to a number of additional areas of scholarship including youth and consumption; low-income consumption; and indeed young motherhood, engaging also with contemporary debates over commercialisation and commodity consumption in late modernity and discourses about 'disordered' working class consumer practice

Milton Keynes Family-Nurse Partnership: Wave 2A '<i>Collaborative Working with Children's Centres'; a service evaluation</i>

This document reports a qualitative study of experiences with and attitudes towards the Family Nurse Partnership pilot programme in Milton Keynes, focusing on the ways in which the programme has been operating in conjunction with other services for parents with young children, especially young mothers, and the role of the programme in developing client autonomy. The study was carried out in 2010. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with the members of the Family Nurse team, with clients, with local Sure Start Children’s Centre Coordinators and with practitioners in other services associated with the work of the Centres and the FNP team. In all, 37 people were interviewed, including the 7 FNP team members, 15 clients, 5 Children’s Centre coordinators and 10 practitioners in associated services.Opinions about the conduct and efficacy of the FNP pilot scheme were consistently very favourable, with the members of the team, and the scheme materials and practices being held in high regard, both by clients and other services involved. The strengths-based approach was especially valued. Some further development possibilities were identified, concerning the relatively low level of communication that was being achieved between the FNP and other services, and about the perceived inaccessibility to other practitioners of the specific programme-based activities used with FNP clients. These were widely seen as being of potentially great benefit to practitioners outside the scheme.The necessity of understanding the complexity and depth of the needs of young parents also emerged as a core theme, linked with the need to tailor ways of working and offering services so as to avoid stigmatization and hence putting up barriers to client participation. Some concerns were expressed that the fact of being a teenage mother does not in itself always carry a high need association, especially where adequate family and community support is in place, and that needs may also be great in less-young parents where such support is lacking or other risk factors are present.Clients were especially appreciative of the value to them of the close, sustained and supportive relationships that had been established with their Family Nurses. Availability, both practically and emotionally, also emerged as a key factor in client satisfaction and in the maintenance of clients in the programme.Recommendations are made for development opportunities based on the findings of this study

Assessment of survey items on social norms relating to sexual behaviour and dating and relationship violence among young adolescents in England: cognitive interviews within two pilot studies

Background Increasingly, interventions that address adolescent sexual and reproductive health and dating and relationship violence (DRV) incorporate social norms approaches to shift perceptions of which behaviours—eg, using condoms or hitting a partner—are typical and acceptable in a reference group of important others. However, evaluations of such programmes rarely measure changes in norms, and there is little consensus on how to do so, particularly for adolescents. We aimed to test survey items measuring attitudes and social norms within two studies piloting interventions to shift norms concerning sexual behaviour, gender-related issues, and DRV. Methods We asked three secondary schools in Greater London, UK, to select boys and girls aged 12–15 years (appendix). We explored understandability and answerability via semi-structured cognitive interviews with 21 participants (15 girls, six boys) using a combination of the think-aloud method (in which participants describe their thought processes while responding to survey items) and verbal probes. We conducted thematic analysis, developing cross-cutting themes relating to understandability and answerability of the items tested. Participants provided written informed consent. Ethics approval was obtained from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Findings Although participants found it easier to answer attitude items about their own views than social norms items about the views of others, our data suggest that respondents could understand both types of survey items and could distinguish between their own views and the views of others in their responses. For norms items, answerability improved when participants could draw on concrete experiences of social norms being publicly displayed—eg, through conversations with friends about their views, or social rewards for boys with many sex partners. Interpretation Although interventions increasingly aim to shift social norms, a lack of validated survey measures limits researchers' ability to assess normative change among adolescents and test its theorised role in behaviour change. Our data suggest that it is possible to develop measures of norms about sexual behaviour, gender, and DRV that are understandable and answerable by young adolescents in England, but careful consideration is needed to establish the value of including measures of norms that are not publicly manifest among this age group. These findings can inform the development of such measures for future research

Fast-food, everyday life and health: A qualitative study of 'chicken shops' in East London.

The higher prevalence of fast food outlets in deprived areas has been associated with the production and maintenance of geographical inequalities in diet. In the UK one type of fast food outlet - the 'chicken shop' - has been the focus of intense public health and media interest. Despite ongoing concerns and initiatives around regulating these establishments, the 'chicken shop' is both a commercially successful and ubiquitous feature of disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. However, little is known about how they are perceived by local residents. We report data from a qualitative study of neighbourhood perceptions in a low SES urban setting. Narrative family interviews, go-along interviews and school video focus group workshops with 66 residents of East London were conducted over two waves. The topic of chicken shops was a prolific theme and a narrative analysis of these accounts revealed that local perceptions of chicken shops are complex and contradictory. Chicken shops were depicted as both potentially damaging for the health of local residents and, at the same time, as valued community spaces. This contradiction was discursively addressed in narrative via a series of rhetorical rebuttals that negated their potential to damage health on the grounds of concepts such as trust, choice, balance, food hygiene and compensatory physical activity. In some instances, chicken shops were described as 'healthy' and patronising them constructed as part of a healthy lifestyle. Chicken shops are embedded in the social fabric of neighbourhoods. Successful strategies to improve diet therefore requires context-sensitive environmental interventions

Parental attitudes to school- and home-based relationships, sex and health education: evidence from a cross-sectional study in England and Wales

Subsequent to the introduction of compulsory relationships and health education in primary schools and relationships and sex education and health education (RSHE) in secondary schools in England from 2020, this paper examines the attitudes of parents towards school- and home-based RSHE. Using data from a survey of parents (n = 849) of children at 37 independent schools in England and Wales, we analysed parental attitudes towards school-parent communication about RSHE, the teaching of RSHE in school, and their own communication with their children about relationships and sex at home, exploring perceived barriers and use of resources. We found significant parental support for school-based RSHE, alongside some concerns, as well as uncertainty and embarrassment as barriers to parent-child communication about relationships and sex at home, indicating the need for schools to strengthen school-parent partnership in this area, and to encourage parents to talk to their children at home in tandem with what is being taught in school

Competing for space in an already crowded market: a mixed methods study of why an online community of practice (CoP) for alcohol harm reduction failed to generate interest amongst the group of public health professionals at which it was aimed.

BACKGROUND: Improving mechanisms for knowledge translation (KT) and connecting decision-makers to each other and the information and evidence they consider relevant to their work remains a priority for public health. Virtual communities of practices (CoPs) potentially offer an affordable and flexible means of encouraging connection and sharing of evidence, information and learning among the public health community in ways that transgress traditional geographical, professional, institutional and time boundaries. The suitability of online CoPs in public health, however, has rarely been tested. This paper explores the reasons why particular online CoP for alcohol harm reduction hosted by the UK Health Forum failed to generate sufficient interest from the group of public health professionals at which it was aimed. METHODS: The study utilises online web-metrics demonstrating a lack of online activity on the CoP. One hundred and twenty seven responses to an online questionnaire were used to explore whether the lack of activity could be explained by the target audience's existing information and evidence practices and needs. Qualitative interviews with 10 members describe in more detail the factors that shape and inhibit use of the virtual CoP by those at which it was targeted. RESULTS: Quantitative and qualitative data confirm that the target audience had an interest in the kind of information and evidence the CoP was set up to share and generate discussion about, but also that participants considered themselves to already have relatively good access to the information and evidence they needed to inform their work. Qualitative data revealed that the main barriers to using the CoP were a proliferation of information sources meaning that participants preferred to utilise trusted sources that were already established within their daily routines and a lack of time to engage with new online tools that required any significant commitment. CONCLUSIONS: Specialist online CoPs are competing for space in an already crowded market. A target audience that regards itself as busy and over-supplied is unlikely to commit to a new service without the assurance that the service will provide unique and valuable well-summarised information, which would reduce the need to spend time accessing competing resources

Testing and refining middle-range theory in evaluations of public-health interventions: evidence from recent systematic reviews and trials.

Evaluations of public-health interventions might potentially be used to test and refine middle-range theory (ie, theory about the mechanisms, which generate outcomes that is analytically generalisable enough to span a range of contexts, interventions or outcomes, but specific enough to be salient in a given application). This approach has been suggested as one means of developing more informed assessments of how different interventions work and whether mechanisms might transfer across contexts. However, we have noticed that studies included in some of our recent systematic reviews are not oriented towards helping test middle-range theory because interventions draw on multiple middle-range theories (so that it is difficult to draw any conclusions about each middle-range theory based on their results) and these middle-range theories are insufficiently clear (with vague constructs) or parsimonious (with too many constructs) to be readily testable. Some studies might in future better contribute to testing and refining middle-range theory via focusing on interventions informed by one middle-range theory and focused on one mechanism at a time. Such 'proof-of-principle' studies should draw on middle-range theory that is sufficiently clear and parsimonious to allow such testing. These evaluations might facilitate more rigorous testing of middle-range theory and hence refinement of scientific knowledge. They might inform broader assessments of how mechanisms transfer across contexts aiding the development of future public-health interventions. Such studies would be a complement not an alternative to pragmatic studies of scalable complex interventions, often informed by more than one middle-range theory

Assessing Survey Items on Social Norms Relating to Dating and Relationship Violence and to Gender: Cognitive Interviews with Young People in England.

Widespread among adolescents in England, dating and relationship violence (DRV) is associated with subsequent injuries and serious mental health problems. While DRV prevention interventions often aim to shift harmful social norms, no established measures exist to assess relevant norms and their role in mediating DRV outcomes. We conducted cognitive interviews exploring the understandability and answerability of candidate measures of social norms relating to DRV and gender roles, informing measure refinement. In all, 11 participants aged 13 to 15 from one school in England participated. Cognitive interviews tested two items assessing descriptive norms (beliefs about what behaviors are typical), three assessing injunctive norms (beliefs about what is socially acceptable), and (for comparison) one assessing personal attitudes. Findings were summarized by drawing on interview notes. Summaries and interview notes were subjected to thematic analysis. For some participants, injunctive norms items required further explanation to clarify that items asked about others' views, not their own. Lack of certainty about, and perceived heterogeneity of, behaviors and views among a broad reference group detracted from answerability. Participants were better able to answer items for which they could draw on concrete experiences of observing or discussing relevant behaviors or social sanctions. Data suggest that a narrowed reference group could improve answerability for items assessing salient norms. Findings informed refinements to social norms measures. It is possible to develop social norms measures that are understandable and answerable for adolescents in England. Measures should assess norms that are salient and publicly manifest among a cohesive and influential reference group