Research
Explore our research themes and partnerships.
Children’s wellbeing: services and practices
Early childhood education and care
Studies of the characteristics and conditions of the early childhood workforce, their competences and experiences of early childhood settings, children and their perspectives, and parents.
Social pedagogy
Social pedagogy applies broadly educational solutions to social problems being often translated as 'education in its broadest sense'.
Children, young people and families: Care, education, health and wellbeing
Children and young people who are in need, in care, receiving family support services or leaving care are particularly vulnerable to poor outcomes, but also rich in talents and possibilities.
Gender, families and work
Gender, labour and diverse families
We research personal and policy challenges of balancing paid work and family life from the perspectives of women, men, children, and employers.
Intimacies, relationships and identities
We engage in research about experiences of love and intimacy within diverse family and relationship forms.
Families, food and environment
We conduct multidisciplinary research on children and families' food and environmental practices.
Migration, mobility and diversity
Inequality, intersectionality and intergenerational relations
Our research and teaching in this area address the causes and consequences of material disadvantage and social exclusion for children, young people, families, and intergenerational relations.
Migration, mobility and diversity
We engage in research about migration, mobility, urban diversity and multicultures.
COVID-19 research
TCRU staff are providing an evidence base on COVID experience, impact and recovery for families and the services that support them particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Families in Tower Hamlets: impacts of COVID-19
This research aims to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on families in Tower Hamlets. It will explore the social, economic and health impacts on family life with young children.
Families and Community Transitions under Covid
Funded by the British Academy, this research project aims to gain a better understanding of the complexity of daily life for families with children during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information: FACT Covid: Families and Community Transitions under Covid.
COVID-19 impact on children's well-being
This research uses a community sample of children aged 7-11 years, and their families, to explore children’s wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis. For more information: Coping and wellbeing in families during the COVID-19 crisis.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on services from pregnancy through age five years for families who are high risk or have complex social needs
Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme, this project explores the COVID-19 impact on services from pregnancy through age five years for families who are high risk or have complex social needs.
Professor Jenny Woodman from TCRU is a Co-Investigator at the NIHR Children and Families Policy Research Unit and Co-Investigator on this project.
See also:
Impact of our research
Our work influences theoretical debates and public policies on:
- early childhood
- children’s health
- care and education services
- children’s agency
- young people’s identities
- intersectionality, reproduction
- motherhood and fatherhood
- gender equality and fluidity
- family diversity
- poverty including food poverty
- parental leave
- place-based inequalities
- children’s language brokering
- transnational families and practices
- social pedagogy
- work-family reconciliation
- migration experiences.
Research methods
Our research adopts quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods designs including, secondary analysis of large-scale data sets and comparative cross-country policy analysis.
Particular methods cover:
- child and youth-centered interviewing
- citizen science
- narrative approaches
- arts-based social research
- visual methods
- ethnography
- co-construction of research with marginalised communities.
Partnerships
Our staff have partnerships, knowledge exchange networks and close working relationship with a range of local, national and international partners including:
- Foundling Museum
- Child Poverty Action Group
- Donor Conception Network
- London Migration Research Group
- Fostering Network
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- Gender Equalities Office
- Stonewall
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- UNICEF.
Research features
UCL-led unit providing evidence to shape policy to improve child and family health
The Children and Families Policy Research Unit provides high-quality evidence to guide wide-ranging policy decisions that have implications for the health and wellbeing of children and their families.
17 Jun 2024
‘Stuck’ schools: the detrimental consequences of failing Ofsted inspections
Why do some schools continuously fail to improve after Ofsted inspections, and what will unstick them from their under-performance predicament?
29 Jun 2023
Families and Food in Hard Times: European comparative research
The unequal distribution of entitlement and access to food is increasingly a feature of wealthy western societies, arising in the context of global crises and governmental policy.
01 Jun 2021