Research methods

Research with children and parents

Reframing Young Parenthood (RYD) combines intergenerational interviews, photovoice and creative and participatory methods. These approaches provide different ways for children and parents to represent their experiences and explore what matters to them.

The research brings family members’ accounts into conversation, attending to their relationships while making space for different perspectives.

Intergenerational interviews

Children and parents take part in family interviews. Conversations explore everyday life, relationships, support, wellbeing, experiences of poverty and stigma, and aspirations for the future.

Families are interviewed twice over 12 months. Returning to families allows the research to explore how experiences and relationships change, alongside the circumstances that remain part of everyday life.

Photovoice

In the second interview, families will be asked to share photographs that they have taken together. Photographs become starting points for follow-up conversations about family life, relationships, poverty and stigma.

This method is called Photovoice and involves participants taking photographs and discussing the experiences and meanings represented in them. It combines visual storytelling with critical discussion and opportunities to communicate with people who can influence change (Wang and Burris, 1997).

Creative and participatory approaches

Children and parents are encouraged to express their experiences through drawing, building, playing , writing poetry or other activities they choose. These offer different ways to take part and share what matters to them, following their interests and preferred ways of expressing themselves.

Creative activities sit alongside conversations and photography, allowing children and parents to move between talking, playing and making. What they create, and the meanings they attach to it, form part of how we understand their experiences.

The approach draws on participatory visual research with children, with attention to how their perspectives are expressed and represented (Lomax, 2018).

Co-creating exhibitions

Children and parents work together in workshops to develop photographs, artwork, poetry and other creative contributions into community-based and digital exhibitions. Families contribute to decisions about what to include, the stories they want to tell and what they would like others to understand about their lives.

The exhibitions explore the constraints of poverty and stigma while also showcasing the care, joy, playfulness and connection of everyday family life. They create opportunities for families to challenge negative narratives around young parenthood and share ideas for change with communities, practitioners and policymakers.

Participation and representation

Children and parents are involved in ongoing conversations about taking part and how their contributions are used. Parents’ informed consent and children’s understanding and willingness to participate are revisited throughout the research.

Decisions about sharing photographs, words and creative materials are made with families, including what they wish to make public through the exhibitions. Attention is given to children’s own preferences and perspectives alongside those of their parents.

References

Lomax, H. (2018). Participatory visual methods for understanding children’s lives in marginalized neighborhoods. SAGE Research Methods Cases. University of Huddersfield repository]

Wang, C. and Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387 University of Michigan repository