Single parents on long-term low incomes – the challenges of parenthood and children’s everyday lives

About the project

The aim of this study is to investigate how long-term financial vulnerability affects the everyday lives and sense of hope for the future of children and parents in single-parent households.

The study is based on the following research questions:

• What challenges do parents face in their everyday lives due to limited financial resources? What strategies do they use to cope with these challenges?
• How do parents perceive their children to be affected by the family’s financial situation?
• How do children in single-parent households with long-term low incomes experience their daily lives in relation to school, leisure activities and social interaction?
• How do children and parents in these households view their future situation?

Sheds light on welfare systems and children’s everyday lives

The findings will be analysed and discussed in relation to welfare policy systems and reforms to gain a deeper understanding of how structural and individual factors interact in the everyday lives of parents and children. Through an exploratory qualitative approach involving both children and parents, several of the themes announced by Majblomman will be addressed. The study adopts a ‘bottom-up perspective’, in which lived experiences are seen as central to gaining a deeper understanding of how changes in national and local welfare policies affect, enable and constrain the everyday lives and agency of children and parents.

Through this approach, issues relating to the welfare system, as well as children’s participation and optimism about the future, will be highlighted. The theoretical framework of the study is rooted in the sociology of childhood, whilst also drawing inspiration from feminist welfare research and critical poverty studies, in which experience-based knowledge is regarded as central. From this perspective, poverty is viewed as a lack of basic security that is not solely a matter of financial resources. It is also a phenomenon shaped by unequal power relations and through interpersonal relationships. Both children and parents are understood as independent actors who act within a given context and in relation to other people and structural conditions.

Two sub-studies

The study comprises two separate but interrelated sub-studies. The first sub-study is an interview study with parents, focusing on their experiences of living on a long-term low income and how this shapes their everyday lives, parenting and outlook on the future. The second sub-study is a qualitative study involving children (aged 7–15) using photo-elicitation as a method. The focus of this study is on the children’s everyday lives – leisure activities, social relationships, school and dreams for the future.