Rights statement: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JSP The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Social Policy, 35 (1), pp 21-37 2006, © 2006 Cambridge University Press.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Qualitative research and the evidence base of policy
T2 - insights from studies of teenage mothers in the UK
AU - Graham, Hilary
AU - McDermott, Elizabeth
N1 - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JSP The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Social Policy, 35 (1), pp 21-37 2006, © 2006 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2006/1
Y1 - 2006/1
N2 - Qualitative research is ambiguously placed as a source of evidence for policy. It provides a way of accessing the experiences and perspectives of those targeted by welfare interventions, yet it is routinely excluded from the evidence reviews undertaken to inform these interventions. The article explores what qualitative research - mapped and synthesised through a systematic review - can contribute to evidence and policy. Taking teenage motherhood as a case study, it juxtaposes the conclusions of quantitative reviews with themes emerging from a systematic review of qualitative studies of teenage mothers' lives. It highlights how teenage motherhood, identified in quantitative reviews and in policy interventions as a route to social exclusion, emerges in these studies as an act of social inclusion. It highlights, too, how social disapproval as well as material hardship weigh on teenage mothers, and the potential role that policies could play in supporting the identities and resilient practices mothers develop in the face of material and social disadvantage.
AB - Qualitative research is ambiguously placed as a source of evidence for policy. It provides a way of accessing the experiences and perspectives of those targeted by welfare interventions, yet it is routinely excluded from the evidence reviews undertaken to inform these interventions. The article explores what qualitative research - mapped and synthesised through a systematic review - can contribute to evidence and policy. Taking teenage motherhood as a case study, it juxtaposes the conclusions of quantitative reviews with themes emerging from a systematic review of qualitative studies of teenage mothers' lives. It highlights how teenage motherhood, identified in quantitative reviews and in policy interventions as a route to social exclusion, emerges in these studies as an act of social inclusion. It highlights, too, how social disapproval as well as material hardship weigh on teenage mothers, and the potential role that policies could play in supporting the identities and resilient practices mothers develop in the face of material and social disadvantage.
KW - YOUNG MOTHERS
KW - CHILDBEARING
KW - LIMITATIONS
KW - PREGNANCY
KW - IDENTITY
KW - AGE
U2 - 10.1017/S0047279405009360
DO - 10.1017/S0047279405009360
M3 - Journal article
VL - 35
SP - 21
EP - 37
JO - Journal of Social Policy
JF - Journal of Social Policy
SN - 0047-2794
IS - 1
ER -