Communities, Young People and Family Lives

People Projects Publications

The Communities, Young People and Family Lives Research Unit is led by Professor Kathryn Almack. It is a multi-disciplinary team of researchers with research interests broadly addressing aspects of family lives, health and well-being across the life-course.

For further information, contact Professor Rebecca O'Connell.

Unit staff

Staff	Job title
Professor Kathryn Almack	Professor of Family Lives and Care
Professor Wendy Wills	Professor of Food and Public Health
Professor Brian Littlechild	Professor of Social work and Research Lead for Social Work
Dr Angela Dickinson	Senior Research Fellow
Dr Claire Thompson	Reader in Food Inequalities and Health
Dr Jennifer Lynch	Reader in Social Care Technology and Knowledge Mobilisation
Dr Alison Tingle	Research Fellow
Dr Laura Hamilton	Research Fellow
Professor Mark Whiting	Visiting Professor of Community Children's Nursing
Terry Hall	Communications Research Assistant
Professor Rebecca O'Connell	Professor of Food, Families and Society

Our activities fall into the following areas:

Food, Eating and Inequalities
- Social, cultural and economic determinants of food and eating
- Food and drink practices among secondary school aged children and their families
- Food security and malnutrition in later life
- Food poverty and foodbanks
- Atypical feeding and eating behaviours in infants and children with genetic and neurological conditions
- The contribution of meals on wheels to older people's food security and public health
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) lives across the life course
- Lesbian parenting
- Older LGBT people, ageing and end of life care
Death, dying and bereavement
- Understanding and improving end of life care for frail elderly people
- The needs of LGBT people in the delivery of palliative and end of life care
- How families experience and make sense of a significant death in their lives
- Young people’s experiences of death, dying and bereavement
- Care home staff dealing with grief when residents die
Social care, welfare and inequalities
- Young people’s experience of free school meal eligibility
- The everyday lives of marginalised and vulnerable groups
- Lived experience of welfare reform
- Increasing research capacity in social care

Additional research

Professor Kathryn Almack is also the research lead in the School for Children's Nursing and Midwifery. She works with:

Dr Lisa Whiting (Professional lead for Children’s Nursing)
Dr Julia Petty
Dr Rosemary Godbold
Dr Catherine Hamilton (Professional lead for Midwifery)
Dr Laura Abbott

Together, their activities fall under the following areas:

Evaluating the use of simulation dolls to assess parenting capacity
Providing care and support for parents of premature babies at home
Children’s palliative care nursing workforce which is responsive to patient need.
Neonatal Nurses Engagement with Research
Digital storytelling and the parent experience in neonatal care
Pregnancy and separation of women from new-born babies in prison
Midwifery Practices during the Second Stage of Labour
Induction of labour: how do women get information and make decisions
Asylum seekers and trafficked women’s experiences of pregnancy and birth.
High Risk pregnant women’s experiences of High Dependency Care
The impact of 12-hour shift patterns on the maternity workforce

We also have several members of staff undertaking doctoral studies in some of the above research areas.