Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Timescapes project was the first major qualitative longitudinal study to be funded in the UK, and explored how personal and family relationships develop and change over time. The project researchers focused on relationships with significant others: parents, grandparents, siblings, children, partners, friends and lovers. They investigated how these relationships affected people's well-being and life chances, and considered the implications for the long term resourcing of families. Timescapes ran for five years from February 2007, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Further information can be found on the Timescapes website.
Men as Fathers: The Men as Fathers (MAF) project is a qualitative longitudinal and social psychological investigation into transition and change in the lives of men as first-time fathers. It is part of the Timescapes study. The research sought to explore ways in which men interpret and account for their experiences of becoming a first-time father and any transformations this brings to bear on their identities, relationships and lives over time. To shed light on critical turning points in men's life histories and on the meaning and significance of biographical change, a carefully crafted qualitative longitudinal dataset involving 46 participants was generated and analysed. The research questions addressed in the study included topics such as: how men interpret the changes in their relationships, identities and lives as they enter parenthood; how they understand and negotiate masculinities, fatherhood and risk across biographical time; and the effectiveness of the strategy of using cultural images to historically contextualise biographical data. It also dealt with the utility of research design, combining intensive and extensive tracking of individuals across different life stages. Details of the Men as Fathers project can be found on the Men as Fathers project webpage and the Timescapes Masculinities, Identities and Risk: Transition in the Lives of Men as Fathers webpage. The project draws on, and extends, an ESRC-funded project on 'Masculinities, Identities and the Transition to Fatherhood' conducted at the University of East Anglia in 1999-2000. The main aims of the earlier project were a) to conduct a detailed qualitative investigation into the transition to fatherhood and b) to explore the meaning of the men's accounts and experiences of becoming a father, taking into account the diverse social and cultural contexts of their lives and by attuning, also, to their subjective concerns, phenomenologies or sense-making. Under Timescapes the study was extended in a number of ways, including secondary analysis, interviews with an additional sample, and the use of innovative methodological techniques. A substantive and methodologically innovative meta- and re-analysis of existing longitudinal data collected in East Anglia before and after the birth of the men's first child was conducted to provide a more focused understanding of temporalities in the experiences of fathers over a time of intensive change in their lives. A fourth round of interviews with participants from the same sample provided a unique opportunity for a long-term follow up of the men as fathers almost a decade later. The sample was also widened to include a more diverse cohort of first-time fathers from South Wales, providing the means for comparative investigations across a geographically, socially and culturally diverse sample. For further information, please see the User Guide. Further information about the earlier project can be found on the Masculinities Identities and the Transition to Fatherhood ESRC award webpage.
Main Topics:
Main topics covered in the interviews included: fatherhood, masculinity, pregnancy, transitions, divorce.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
