Inter-professional Approaches to Young Fathers

With one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe, young fatherhood, as a site of economic and personal adversity, has become a focus of concern in Britain during the late 1990’s. However, despite this policy interest there is surprisingly little British empirical evidence to review.

One of the aims of the book is to draw together contemporary research evidence, social theory and policy which may effect how practitioners, students and academics conceptualise and work with young fathers. Consequently, each chapter illustrates the points it makes using discrete evidence from that particular field. Moreover, in order to make this process more ‘user friendly’ each chapter provides a summary of this literature and evidence. Finally, in order to make the book come alive it draws on case studies, which are drawn, variously, from two studies conducted by the editor.

Contents include:
• Contextualising the evidence: Young fathers, family and professional support
• The legislative and policy context of young fathers and their children
• ‘I’ve got to release it’: sexual health and young men
• A father is born: the role of the midwife in involving young fathers in the birth and
early parenting of their children
• Safeguarding young fathers and their children
• The role of fathers in their children’s lives
• Recklessness, rescue and responsibility

Keywords: young fathers, teenage parents, teenage pregnancy