This event is part of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health Seminar Series.

The mental health of fathers during the transition into parenthood has become a priority for public health in recent years. Becoming a father, especially for the first time, is a major life transition and one that carries new responsibilities, shifts in circumstances and identities, and new emotional and material pressures. For young fathers, aged 25 and under, whose transitions may be unanticipated, stigmatised and/or occur before other normative lifecourse transitions such as securing employment or housing, the responsibilities of becoming a father for the first time often loom larger. The negotiation of their identities, both as adolescents becoming adults and as new fathers, can also take a toll on their mental health and well-being.

In this talk, Anna Tarrant will present on evidence generated from a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship study called Following Young Fathers Further. This study has captured qualitative longitudinal evidence about the parenting journeys and support needs of a cohort of young fathers as they transition into and through parenthood. Key findings highlight the protective or predictive factors that impact on their mental health. The talk concludes with attention to the co-creation of resources with and for young fathers that help to promote knowledge and understanding of the peri-natal mental health pathways of young fathers.

How to join this event

This event will be held online on Zoom.

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About the speaker

Anna Tarrant is Professor of Sociology and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Her research expertise broadly focuses on men’s care responsibilities, welfare and support needs, in low-income families and contexts and across the lifecourse. She is author and co-author of several books exploring marginalised fatherhoods including: 'Fathering and Poverty: Uncovering Men's Family Participation in Low income families' (Policy Press, 2021), 'Men, Family and Poverty' with Prof Kahryn Hughes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and 'The Dynamics of Young Fatherhood' with Emerita Professor Bren Neale (Policy press, 2024).

In recent years, she has also led and/or co-edited several edited collections, including 'Men and Welfare' with Linzi Ladlow and Laura Way (Routledge, 2022), 'Covid-19 Collaborations' with Garthwaite et al. (2021, Policy Press) and 'Qualitative Secondary Analysis' with Kahryn Hughes (Sage, 2020).

She is currently the Director of the UKRI funded Future Leaders Fellowship study, 'Following Young Fathers Further' (FYFF). This qualitative longitudinal and comparative study extends existing evidence concerning the parenting trajectories and support needs of young fathers (aged 25 and under). Using novel methods of co-creation the study involves the implementation and capture of a novel community-based intervention called the Young Dads Collective that promotes father-inclusive and gender-equal parenting through partnership working with young fathers and national family and youth support organisations. Establishing a new collaboration between UK charities (including NSPCC, Coram Family Childcare and YMCA Humber) and international academic partners in Sweden, FYFF represents a significant investment in research, and policy and practice development for young parents.