My background is in moral and political philosophy. Broadly my research interests are: the moral and political status of children, particularly adolescents; the family; autonomy and decision making; consent; and, the intersection between philosophy and public policy.

I have a keen interest in adolescence as a distinctive part of development. In this area my PhD thesis focused on autonomy development and socialization, and how young people acquire the rights and responsibilities of adulthood. In particular, I examined the role of others in fostering agency in children and young people.

During my PhD studies I held a studentship with the EC-funded I.Family study. This study had two main objectives: (1) To understand the interplay between barriers against and drivers towards healthy food choice; (2) Develop and disseminate strategies to induce changes that promote healthy dietary behaviour in European consumers especially adolescents and their parents. As part of my work for the study, I considered current policy and intervention strategies that aim to support adolescent decision making.

I have published on adolescent medical consent. I am interested in decision making. In particular, how and why decision making is shared with others, the balance of autonomy against best interests, and what it means to share decision making when there is epistemic imbalance. 

My current research looks at the epistemic difficulties in the adolescent parent-child relationship and the difficulties these pose for parents who have to make decisions about when to give their children the right to choose for themselves, or step-back from their children's lives (willingly or otherwise). In particular, I focus on the emergence of privacy rights and the restriction of parental knowledge and access to their children's lives.

Email: f.tucker3@lancaster.ac.uk

Room C45

Lancaster Medical School

Health Innovation One

Sir John Fisher Drive

Lancaster University

Bailrigg

Lancaster

LA1 4YW

I.Family Study: http://www.ifamilystudy.eu