Father Involvement in Early Years in Luton
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Father Involvement in Early Years and its links with Child Outcomes in Families Living in Disadvantaged Luton
IRAS ID
231890
Contact name
Louisa Donald
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Institute for Health Research, University of Bedfordshire
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
Father involvement is important for child outcomes and the better fathers are understood, the better families can be supported. Within Luton’s most deprived areas child development is evidently worse (Atkins & Brunton-Reed 2014, Public Health England, 2016). The study is in collaboration with the Luton Flying Start initiative and makes the link between fathers, and how we know they are important and influential for child outcomes, and disadvantaged circumstances, and how we know that father involvement and child development can be influenced by social and economic factors. Little UK based research exists around the subject of fathers from disadvantaged circumstances and child outcomes.
The two objectives for this study are; 1) To explore the views and experiences of parents relating to father involvement and child development in families living in disadvantaged Luton and 2) To explore links between father demographics and characteristics, levels of father involvement, and child outcomes, within disadvantaged Luton. An interview study of around 20-25 parents, aged 16 and onwards living in Biscot, South, Dallow, Northwell, Farley, High Town, Leagrave and Lewsey will be carried out, those with no residency will also be included. Each interview will take approximately an hour and participants will receive a voucher upon completion. The interviews will be carried out at a site convenient for the participant. Additionally, a questionnaire will be distributed to 500 or under of the same demographic. Each questionnaire will take between 15-20 minutes to complete and will be completed within children’s centres, community centres, their private residence or online. No interviews or questionnaires will be completed without first obtaining informed consent.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0358
Date of REC Opinion
10 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion