'Have you got a partner as well?' : engaging fathers and other carers in parenting services : a study using conversation analysis

• Main Author: Symonds, Jon
• Published: University of Bristol 2015
• Subjects: 306.874
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.686417

There is now extensive evidence that fathers make a difference to children's lives. When they are positively involved, children have fewer behaviour problems, better mental health and more successful relationships later in life. When fathers are not involved in children's lives, or perpetrate abuse to their children, they cause harm to children's development and wellbeing. Although child welfare services are required to engage fathers, research continues to show that practitioners focus on mothers and avoid, ignore or neglect fathers. This study is concerned with the engagement of fathers in the particular context of parenting services. By collecting 31 recordings of the first telephone calls made by service practitioners to the referred parent, it examines the ways that fathers are talked about in relation to their involvement in t he service. The study uses the principles of Conversation Analysis to make very detailed transcriptions of the recordings that facilitate a fine grained analysis of the conversations as they proceed turn by turn. By examining how the participants display to each other their understandings of the situation, a trajectory can be traced of how the topic of fathers is introduced, their involvement negotiated and then brought to a close within the context of their unfolding interaction. The study found that speakers only succeeded in recruiting fathers to the next stage of the service when the practitioner had taken specific interactional steps to facilitate it. The sequences necessary for the father to be recruited are considered in detail and mapped to an overall sequence of tasks followed in the calls. Implications for further research and practice in the field of engaging fathers are also considered, including a map of practice that will be of use to practitioners and which can be developed by further research in the field