Following Young Fathers Further

Funded by the prestigious UK Research & Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship scheme (2020-24), Following Young Fathers Further (FYFF) is one of the most extended qualitative longitudinal and participatory studies to explore young fatherhood globally. Based in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Lincoln, the study provides depth insights into the lived experiences, support needs and social participation of young fathers, defined as those who enter parenthood for the first time when aged under 25.

The study builds on an archived baseline dataset called Following Young Fathers (FYF), which first established how and why young men become fathers at an early age, how young fatherhood is constituted and practiced in varied socio-economic and familial contexts, and what impact policy interventions or other kinds of support have on these processes.

Building on this study's foundations, Following Young Fathers Further has engaged with a longitudinally extended and geographically expanded cohort of young fathers both in the UK and in Sweden to capture and explore the dynamics of young fatherhood in different regional and national contexts. New and refined methods of co-creation have also been advanced, both to facilitate and capture the instigation of new father-inclusive social interventions with and for young fathers and professionals and to demonstrate the collective capacity for promoting multi-scalar processes of transformation and change.