Children, Youth and Families

The Children, Youth and Families (CYF) Interdisciplinary Pathway covers research with children, young people and families, offering bespoke training and specialist PhD supervision both within and across the four universities. The excellence of research in relevant disciplines such as Sociology, but also in Childhood Studies and Youth Studies, across the four partner universities means that this NINE DTP pathway offers rich, rigorous and high-quality training and supervision.

Postgraduate students are integral to the rich and heterogeneous research cultures of the units involved in the pathway, they are encouraged to co-convene and organise events and participate in external research networking activities. The research capacity available across the pathway and within the individual units offers an excellent research infrastructure, access to research and community partnerships and innovative support for doctoral students. A strength shared across the units is a commitment to international and interdisciplinary collaborations, participatory and rights-based approaches; strengths that will be enhanced by the collaborations fostered by the pathway.

All students are located within research areas of excellence in relation to published outputs, local, national and international research collaboration, and international reputation.

At Newcastle University, these include the Children and Youth Research Group in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology (GPS), an interdisciplinary group of researchers working across human geography, social anthropology, sociology, political science. Further, as a PhD researcher of children, youth and families, you can also join Newcastle University’s Centre for Children and Youth, which is a hub of interdisciplinary research (including education, HCI, history, humanities, arts and social sciences).

At Durham University, our work on children, youth and families is orientated around academic expertise in social work, child protection and safeguarding. Durham is home to the Global Centre on Contextual Safeguarding. Through the Centre for Social Justice & Community Action we support postgraduate students to develop participatory research with children, young people and families, and deliver training on participatory research across the NINE DTP.

Queens University Belfast hosts the three substantive programmes relevant to the CYF pathway: improving outcomes for children; family violence; and disability, and mental health and wellbeing.

At Teesside University, relevant centres of excellent include the Institute for Collective Place Leadership and the Centre for Health and Social Evaluation.