Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group Crowd-sourced in May 2020
When thinking about data sources for researching the geographies of children, youth and families you can ask: what kinds of materials – documents, numbers, or audio/-visual material – might offer traces of my topic or focus?
Though there are many kinds of materials you could use, in this blogpost we point out a few that we use as geographers of children, youth and families and point out some readings about methods that might be helpful.
Secondary data sources
Government Sources A wide range of data sources and documents are available from government departments(links give UK government examples), for example Childcare and parenting and Education and learning but also on all aspects of life that have impacts on children, youth and families. Similarly, there are many kinds of documents available from local governments.
Charities/NGOs Organisations with a global remit, as well as charities/NGOs working at various scales have many kinds of documents and materials you could consider. See a few examples here. Parts will focus on implications of wider issues for children, youth and families and well as there being charities/NGOs which have children, youth or families as their main focus.
UK Data Service and other dataset repositories National archives are searchable in a variety of ways.
For example, the UK Data Service, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, holds around 6,000 datasets collected in the UK (around 5,000 of which are quantitative data), including major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data. Individuals must register on the site to browse the collection. Some datasets are available to registered users, others can only be accessed by contacting the original researchers.
The site https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/ can be reviewed by theme, such as ageing, economics, food and food security, poverty and social exclusion and more:https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/themes.aspx. Again, these may focus directly or indirectly on children, youth and families. You can also browse by type of data such as: quantitative and qualitative data collections.
The UKDS website also includes extensive advice and training resources on secondary data analysis.
A webinar designed for students undertaking dissertation research using secondary data analysis by the UK Data Service is available on the UKDs YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e199mdO2uP4
Datasets collected in other European countries, and in the USA, can be found on Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives and Harvard Dataverse.
IPUMs provides census and survey data from the US but also around the world. The integration and documentation makes it possible to study change, conduct comparative research, merge information across data types, and analyse individuals within family and community contexts.
Longitudinal data There are various sources of longitudinal data, that is data gathered about individuals or groups, such as families, over a long period of time.
For example:
Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study:www.understandingsociety.co.uk which include youth and young adult data. Census and Administrative Data Longitudinal Studies Hub: www.calls.ac.uk Centre for Longitudinal Studies: www.cls.ucl.ac.uk Closer: www.closer.ac.uk Inventing Adulthoods: A qualitative longitudinal dataset on young people growing up in England and Northern Ireland: http://www.restore.ac.uk/inventingadulthoods/
Children, youth and families-focussed methods texts and resources focused on the use of secondary data
Research using Youth and Young Adult Data in Understanding Society. Webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66TKL5sbzg&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=52&t=0s
Introduction to data on ageing. Webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5N12075QNM&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=94
Sarah Mills (2012) Young ghosts: ethical and methodological issues of historical research in children’s geographies, Children’s Geographies, 10:3, 357-363, DOI:10.1080/14733285.2012.693838
Watters, E. C., Cumming, S., & Caragata, L. (2018, May). The Lone Mother Resilience Project: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 19, No. 2). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.2863
Lyon, D., & Crow, G. (2012). The challenges and opportunities of re-studying community on Sheppey: young people’s imagined futures. The Sociological Review, 60(3), 498-517.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02096.x
Lyon, D., Morgan Brett, B., & Crow, G. (2012). Working with material from the Sheppey archive. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(4), 301-309.doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.688314
The following are about online methods with participants (which may not be permitted in some universities in the context of coronavirus):
Madge, C., & O’Connor, H. (2002). On‐line with e‐mums: Exploring the internet as a medium for research. Area, 34(1), 92-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4762.0006
Using Skype in qualitative interviews with young people. Podcast:https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=30&title=Using
Research resources
A guide to involving young people in social research, focusing on supporting children and young people (rather than gatekeepers) to decide whether they want to take part in a project and how they would like to be treated. Created by Peter Hopkins and young people from a school in Glasgow: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/youngpeople/youngpeoplesviews/
Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) – the learned society and professional body for geography and geographers
Children’s Geographies – international peer-reviewed journal that provides an international forum to discuss issues that impact upon the geographical worlds of children and young people under the age of 25 and of their families.
RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum – connecting postgraduates in geography
Higher Education Academy – Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences – supports a large network of learning and teaching practitioners involved in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences throughout the UK.