Researching Young Men and Family Formation: Two Stories

Young men are underrepresented in Australian research on family formation, especially young men who are nonmarital fathers, and are not university educated. In this pilot project, an interdisciplinary research team (demography, sociology, and gender studies) based in Australia set out to design an a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Men and masculinities 2021-10, Vol.24 (4), p.611-629
Main Authors: Rasmussen, Mary Lou, Carroll, Katherine, Evans, Ann, Gray, Edith, Price, Kerry, Todd, Rohan, Copland, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Demography
Families & family life
Gender studies
Heteronormativity
Interdisciplinary aspects
Masculinity
Men
Pilot projects
Research design
Young men
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Summary:Young men are underrepresented in Australian research on family formation, especially young men who are nonmarital fathers, and are not university educated. In this pilot project, an interdisciplinary research team (demography, sociology, and gender studies) based in Australia set out to design an approach that would engage this particular group of young men on the topic of family formation. We decided to employ a nontraditional research method (which we call scripts) in order to engage young men indirectly on this sensitive issue. This article does not report on what we found; rather, our focus is on gender dynamics involving the research team’s imaginings of masculinity in the research process. We highlight and interrogate the gendered and heteronormative assumptions we made in the research design, anticipating that our experience can inform future research on masculinity and family formation.
ISSN:1097-184X
1552-6828
DOI:10.1177/1097184X19895298