Rebecca O’connell
Biographic Data
| ID | 153585 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca O’connell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca |
| FAMILY NAME | O’connell |
| SIGNATURE | O’CONNELL R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1515-2659 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 119 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Young Adults’ Lifetime Traumas and Wellbeing
The current study assessed relations between young adults’ lifetime trauma exposure, strength of attachment to companion animals, mindfulness (objective experiential awareness), and two indicators of wellbeing (i.e., physical and mental health). Participants were 423 undergraduates (77.5% female; 91.7% White; M age = 22.23, SD = 6.87) who completed online surveys to assess previous exposure to traumatic events, attachment to companion animals, mi…
Experiences of food poverty among undocumented parents with children in three European countries
A growing literature addresses undocumented migrants in different countries, with governmental exclusion from welfare and health services a common theme. However, little is known comparatively about the difference social context makes to the resources available to these migrants in different circumstances or how they manage and experience material deprivation and social exclusion. Adopting a realist approach, this paper draws on a comparative stu…
Thinking about the Future
This paper examines the orientations to the future of young people living in low-income families in the U.K. and Portugal following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the contexts in which they are socially reproduced. It is based on data from comparative research on families and food poverty, funded by the European Research Council. The study focused on parents and young people aged 11–16 living in low-income families in three European countri…
School meals as a resource for low-income families in three European countries
In the context of successive global crises and rising household food insecurity in wealthy European countries there is renewed attention to the role of school meals as a welfare intervention. However, little is known about the extent to which school meals are a resource for low-income families living in different contexts. Drawing on a mixed methods study of food in low-income families in three European countries, this paper adopts a realist onto…
Delivering PrEP to Young Women in a Low-Income Setting in South Africa
Daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key tool in addressing high HIV incidence among young women, and breaking the cycle of transmission. From 2017 to 2020, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) offered PrEP, in conjunction with contraception and risk-reduction counselling, to women aged 18-25, in a government-run clinic in Khayelitsha, a low income high HIV prevalence area in South Africa. Drawing on clinical, quantitative, and qualitative i…
Children's and Young People's Food Practices in Contexts of Poverty and Inequality
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and National Children's Bureau
Eating with Friends, Family or Not at All
The paper draws on findings from a study called ‘Families and Food in Hard Times’, which is examining food poverty among children and families in three European countries. In the UK , qualitative interviews were carried out with 45 11–15 year olds and their parents or carers. Young people's narratives reveal food poverty as a multi‐dimensional experience, including hunger, poor quality food and social exclusion. Analysis suggests a limited degree…
How do children and their families experience food poverty according to UK newspaper media 2006–15
This paper contributes to scholarship concerned with media representations of poverty by exploring newspaper coverage of food poverty as experienced by UK children and families. Our content analysis of six contrasting print newspapers from 2006–15 finds that reporting of children's and families’ food poverty begins in 2011, peaks in 2014 and is dominated by articles about foodbanks. Narrative analysis identifies differences as well as similaritie…
Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach
Not enough is known in the UK about how economic phenomena and policy changes have impacted families’ ability to feed themselves. This article employs a novel way of identifying the types of UK families at risk of food poverty over time. Applying a relative deprivation approach, it asks what counts in the UK as a socially acceptable diet that meets needs for health and social participation and how much this costs. Comparing this to actual food ex…
Changing trends in young people’s food behaviour and wellbeing in England in relation to family affluence between 2005 and 2014
Research shows that healthy eating improves outcomes for children and that inequalities in diet are socially determined. However, little is known about how associations between household income and the diet intake of children and young people change over time. Descriptive analysis was carried out using the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey data for England for the years 2005, 2009 and 2014 to examine how breakfast, fruit, vegetable …
TestMeEast
Late diagnosis occurs in almost half of those diagnosed in the UK (HIV Prevention England, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2014, from HIV Prevention England: http://www.hivpreventionengland.org.uk/Campaigns-Current/National-HIV-Testing-Week ). Testing occurs mainly in sexual health and antenatal clinics despite recommendations to test more broadly [Ellis, S., & Curtis, H. (2012). HIV diagnoses and missed opportunities. Results of the British HIV associa…
Using Narrative Sources from the Mass Observation Archive to Study Everyday Food and Families in Hard Times
By using examples from food and domestic life in England during 1950, this paper examines the use of narrative archival sources as a methodological alternative to researching everyday food practices by traditional research methods, such as interviewing. Through the analysis of three diaries written for the Mass Observation Archive, and the everyday food practices expressed in these diaries, we consider the benefits and challenges of using narrati…
Recreational drug use, polydrug use, and sexual behaviour in HIV-diagnosed men who have sex with men in the UK
BACKGROUND: Recreational drug use in men who have sex with men (MSM) is of concern because it might be linked to the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Evidence about drug use in HIV-diagnosed MSM in the UK is limited by representativeness of the study populations. We describe patterns of drug use and associations with sexual behaviours in HIV-diagnosed MSM in the UK. METHODS: We used data from the cross-sectional ASTR…
Care, gender and employment
Over the last 30 years, the authors have collaborated with Julia Brannen on five major research studies: the Day Care Project in the 1980s; the study of Four Generation Families at the turn of the millennium; the Care Careers Project in the mid 2000s; and, most recently, Fathers across Three Generations and the Food Practices and Employed Families with Younger Children studies. This article offers an overview of the studies, situating them in the…
Children's food, power and control
This article focuses on children's food in families and the power relations in which it is embedded. Drawing on paired interviews with parents and younger children in a qualitative sample ( N = 47), and taking a case approach, the article analyses ways in which power and control are negotiated in parent-child relationships in relation to food. Types and extent of control over children's eating are described, and the importance of resources and pa…
The temporality of food practices
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study of 48 families with young children (aged 1.5–10 years), which investigated the influence of employment on children’s diets, this article focuses on the place of childhood memories and intergenerational relations in the transmission of family food practices. The article highlights the temporal nature of family food practices. First, it examines the intergenerational transmission of food practices in r…
Families, meals and synchronicity
Based on a sample of British dual earner families with young children drawn from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the paper examines their food practices, in particular the conditions under which families are able to eat together or not during the working week. The concept of synchronicity is drawn upon to shed light on whether meals and meal times are coordinated in family life and the facilitators and constraints upon coordination. The p…
The use of visual methods with children in a mixed methods study of family food practices
In their capacity to evoke the sensory, non-rational and material aspects of life, visual research methods offer potential for the study of food and eating. The flexible and interactive nature of some visual approaches also means that such methods may be particularly appropriate for research with children. Drawing on an ongoing study of food and eating in employed families, this paper explores the usefulness of using visual methods, including dra…
Designing a nutritional scoring system for assessing diet quality for children aged 10 years and under in the UK
In the UK there is no Diet Quality Index (DQI) that enables estimates of diet quality to be made for children of different age groups. This paper discusses the methodological complexities of designing an appropriate DQI for children aged 10 years and under, using dietary data in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) in relation to UK dietary guidelines. Two stages of the process of developing this score are described. The final score was …
Paperwork, Rotas, Words and Posters
An association with mothering is viewed as the greatest stumbling block in the path to raising the quality and status of childminding. As a broadly conceived rite de passage, this article suggests, professionalisation offers childminders a symbolic route out. It is a ritual process which demands the production of 'fabrications'; particular artefacts, special words and appropriate modes of behaviour which are produced specifically to meet the regu…
(How) is Childminding Family Like? Family Day Care, Food and the Reproduction of Identity at the Public/Private Interface
This article is about family day care and the reproduction of identity at the intersection of public and private domains. It uses mealtimes as a lens to elucidate the social relations which popular fictive kinship ideologies at once suggest and obscure. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with childminders in an inner London borough, the paper explores some of the ways in which boundaries - principally of class and ethnicity - are dissolved and rep…
Families, meals and synchronicity
Based on a sample of British dual earner families with young children drawn from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the paper examines their food practices, in particular the conditions under which families are able to eat together or not during the working week. The concept of synchronicity is drawn upon to shed light on whether meals and meal times are coordinated in family life and the facilitators and constraints upon coordination. The p…
The use of visual methods with children in a mixed methods study of family food practices
In their capacity to evoke the sensory, non-rational and material aspects of life, visual research methods offer potential for the study of food and eating. The flexible and interactive nature of some visual approaches also means that such methods may be particularly appropriate for research with children. Drawing on an ongoing study of food and eating in employed families, this paper explores the usefulness of using visual methods, including dra…
Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach
Not enough is known in the UK about how economic phenomena and policy changes have impacted families’ ability to feed themselves. This article employs a novel way of identifying the types of UK families at risk of food poverty over time. Applying a relative deprivation approach, it asks what counts in the UK as a socially acceptable diet that meets needs for health and social participation and how much this costs. Comparing this to actual food ex…
Children's food, power and control
This article focuses on children's food in families and the power relations in which it is embedded. Drawing on paired interviews with parents and younger children in a qualitative sample ( N = 47), and taking a case approach, the article analyses ways in which power and control are negotiated in parent-child relationships in relation to food. Types and extent of control over children's eating are described, and the importance of resources and pa…
(How) is Childminding Family Like? Family Day Care, Food and the Reproduction of Identity at the Public/Private Interface
This article is about family day care and the reproduction of identity at the intersection of public and private domains. It uses mealtimes as a lens to elucidate the social relations which popular fictive kinship ideologies at once suggest and obscure. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with childminders in an inner London borough, the paper explores some of the ways in which boundaries - principally of class and ethnicity - are dissolved and rep…
The temporality of food practices
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study of 48 families with young children (aged 1.5–10 years), which investigated the influence of employment on children’s diets, this article focuses on the place of childhood memories and intergenerational relations in the transmission of family food practices. The article highlights the temporal nature of family food practices. First, it examines the intergenerational transmission of food practices in r…
School meals as a resource for low-income families in three European countries
In the context of successive global crises and rising household food insecurity in wealthy European countries there is renewed attention to the role of school meals as a welfare intervention. However, little is known about the extent to which school meals are a resource for low-income families living in different contexts. Drawing on a mixed methods study of food in low-income families in three European countries, this paper adopts a realist onto…
Paperwork, Rotas, Words and Posters
An association with mothering is viewed as the greatest stumbling block in the path to raising the quality and status of childminding. As a broadly conceived rite de passage, this article suggests, professionalisation offers childminders a symbolic route out. It is a ritual process which demands the production of 'fabrications'; particular artefacts, special words and appropriate modes of behaviour which are produced specifically to meet the regu…
How do children and their families experience food poverty according to UK newspaper media 2006–15
This paper contributes to scholarship concerned with media representations of poverty by exploring newspaper coverage of food poverty as experienced by UK children and families. Our content analysis of six contrasting print newspapers from 2006–15 finds that reporting of children's and families’ food poverty begins in 2011, peaks in 2014 and is dominated by articles about foodbanks. Narrative analysis identifies differences as well as similaritie…
Changing trends in young people’s food behaviour and wellbeing in England in relation to family affluence between 2005 and 2014
Research shows that healthy eating improves outcomes for children and that inequalities in diet are socially determined. However, little is known about how associations between household income and the diet intake of children and young people change over time. Descriptive analysis was carried out using the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey data for England for the years 2005, 2009 and 2014 to examine how breakfast, fruit, vegetable …
Using Narrative Sources from the Mass Observation Archive to Study Everyday Food and Families in Hard Times
By using examples from food and domestic life in England during 1950, this paper examines the use of narrative archival sources as a methodological alternative to researching everyday food practices by traditional research methods, such as interviewing. Through the analysis of three diaries written for the Mass Observation Archive, and the everyday food practices expressed in these diaries, we consider the benefits and challenges of using narrati…
Thinking about the Future
This paper examines the orientations to the future of young people living in low-income families in the U.K. and Portugal following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the contexts in which they are socially reproduced. It is based on data from comparative research on families and food poverty, funded by the European Research Council. The study focused on parents and young people aged 11–16 living in low-income families in three European countri…
(How) is Childminding Family Like? Family Day Care, Food and the Reproduction of Identity at the Public/Private Interface
This article is about family day care and the reproduction of identity at the intersection of public and private domains. It uses mealtimes as a lens to elucidate the social relations which popular fictive kinship ideologies at once suggest and obscure. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with childminders in an inner London borough, the paper explores some of the ways in which boundaries - principally of class and ethnicity - are dissolved and rep…
Paperwork, Rotas, Words and Posters
An association with mothering is viewed as the greatest stumbling block in the path to raising the quality and status of childminding. As a broadly conceived rite de passage, this article suggests, professionalisation offers childminders a symbolic route out. It is a ritual process which demands the production of 'fabrications'; particular artefacts, special words and appropriate modes of behaviour which are produced specifically to meet the regu…
The use of visual methods with children in a mixed methods study of family food practices
In their capacity to evoke the sensory, non-rational and material aspects of life, visual research methods offer potential for the study of food and eating. The flexible and interactive nature of some visual approaches also means that such methods may be particularly appropriate for research with children. Drawing on an ongoing study of food and eating in employed families, this paper explores the usefulness of using visual methods, including dra…
Designing a nutritional scoring system for assessing diet quality for children aged 10 years and under in the UK
In the UK there is no Diet Quality Index (DQI) that enables estimates of diet quality to be made for children of different age groups. This paper discusses the methodological complexities of designing an appropriate DQI for children aged 10 years and under, using dietary data in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) in relation to UK dietary guidelines. Two stages of the process of developing this score are described. The final score was …
The temporality of food practices
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study of 48 families with young children (aged 1.5–10 years), which investigated the influence of employment on children’s diets, this article focuses on the place of childhood memories and intergenerational relations in the transmission of family food practices. The article highlights the temporal nature of family food practices. First, it examines the intergenerational transmission of food practices in r…
Families, meals and synchronicity
Based on a sample of British dual earner families with young children drawn from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the paper examines their food practices, in particular the conditions under which families are able to eat together or not during the working week. The concept of synchronicity is drawn upon to shed light on whether meals and meal times are coordinated in family life and the facilitators and constraints upon coordination. The p…
Recreational drug use, polydrug use, and sexual behaviour in HIV-diagnosed men who have sex with men in the UK
BACKGROUND: Recreational drug use in men who have sex with men (MSM) is of concern because it might be linked to the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Evidence about drug use in HIV-diagnosed MSM in the UK is limited by representativeness of the study populations. We describe patterns of drug use and associations with sexual behaviours in HIV-diagnosed MSM in the UK. METHODS: We used data from the cross-sectional ASTR…
Care, gender and employment
Over the last 30 years, the authors have collaborated with Julia Brannen on five major research studies: the Day Care Project in the 1980s; the study of Four Generation Families at the turn of the millennium; the Care Careers Project in the mid 2000s; and, most recently, Fathers across Three Generations and the Food Practices and Employed Families with Younger Children studies. This article offers an overview of the studies, situating them in the…
Children's food, power and control
This article focuses on children's food in families and the power relations in which it is embedded. Drawing on paired interviews with parents and younger children in a qualitative sample ( N = 47), and taking a case approach, the article analyses ways in which power and control are negotiated in parent-child relationships in relation to food. Types and extent of control over children's eating are described, and the importance of resources and pa…
Using Narrative Sources from the Mass Observation Archive to Study Everyday Food and Families in Hard Times
By using examples from food and domestic life in England during 1950, this paper examines the use of narrative archival sources as a methodological alternative to researching everyday food practices by traditional research methods, such as interviewing. Through the analysis of three diaries written for the Mass Observation Archive, and the everyday food practices expressed in these diaries, we consider the benefits and challenges of using narrati…
TestMeEast
Late diagnosis occurs in almost half of those diagnosed in the UK (HIV Prevention England, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2014, from HIV Prevention England: http://www.hivpreventionengland.org.uk/Campaigns-Current/National-HIV-Testing-Week ). Testing occurs mainly in sexual health and antenatal clinics despite recommendations to test more broadly [Ellis, S., & Curtis, H. (2012). HIV diagnoses and missed opportunities. Results of the British HIV associa…
Changing trends in young people’s food behaviour and wellbeing in England in relation to family affluence between 2005 and 2014
Research shows that healthy eating improves outcomes for children and that inequalities in diet are socially determined. However, little is known about how associations between household income and the diet intake of children and young people change over time. Descriptive analysis was carried out using the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey data for England for the years 2005, 2009 and 2014 to examine how breakfast, fruit, vegetable …
Children's and Young People's Food Practices in Contexts of Poverty and Inequality
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and National Children's Bureau
Eating with Friends, Family or Not at All
The paper draws on findings from a study called ‘Families and Food in Hard Times’, which is examining food poverty among children and families in three European countries. In the UK , qualitative interviews were carried out with 45 11–15 year olds and their parents or carers. Young people's narratives reveal food poverty as a multi‐dimensional experience, including hunger, poor quality food and social exclusion. Analysis suggests a limited degree…
How do children and their families experience food poverty according to UK newspaper media 2006–15
This paper contributes to scholarship concerned with media representations of poverty by exploring newspaper coverage of food poverty as experienced by UK children and families. Our content analysis of six contrasting print newspapers from 2006–15 finds that reporting of children's and families’ food poverty begins in 2011, peaks in 2014 and is dominated by articles about foodbanks. Narrative analysis identifies differences as well as similaritie…
Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach
Not enough is known in the UK about how economic phenomena and policy changes have impacted families’ ability to feed themselves. This article employs a novel way of identifying the types of UK families at risk of food poverty over time. Applying a relative deprivation approach, it asks what counts in the UK as a socially acceptable diet that meets needs for health and social participation and how much this costs. Comparing this to actual food ex…
Delivering PrEP to Young Women in a Low-Income Setting in South Africa
Daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key tool in addressing high HIV incidence among young women, and breaking the cycle of transmission. From 2017 to 2020, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) offered PrEP, in conjunction with contraception and risk-reduction counselling, to women aged 18-25, in a government-run clinic in Khayelitsha, a low income high HIV prevalence area in South Africa. Drawing on clinical, quantitative, and qualitative i…
Experiences of food poverty among undocumented parents with children in three European countries
A growing literature addresses undocumented migrants in different countries, with governmental exclusion from welfare and health services a common theme. However, little is known comparatively about the difference social context makes to the resources available to these migrants in different circumstances or how they manage and experience material deprivation and social exclusion. Adopting a realist approach, this paper draws on a comparative stu…
Thinking about the Future
This paper examines the orientations to the future of young people living in low-income families in the U.K. and Portugal following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the contexts in which they are socially reproduced. It is based on data from comparative research on families and food poverty, funded by the European Research Council. The study focused on parents and young people aged 11–16 living in low-income families in three European countri…
School meals as a resource for low-income families in three European countries
In the context of successive global crises and rising household food insecurity in wealthy European countries there is renewed attention to the role of school meals as a welfare intervention. However, little is known about the extent to which school meals are a resource for low-income families living in different contexts. Drawing on a mixed methods study of food in low-income families in three European countries, this paper adopts a realist onto…
Young Adults’ Lifetime Traumas and Wellbeing
The current study assessed relations between young adults’ lifetime trauma exposure, strength of attachment to companion animals, mindfulness (objective experiential awareness), and two indicators of wellbeing (i.e., physical and mental health). Participants were 423 undergraduates (77.5% female; 91.7% White; M age = 22.23, SD = 6.87) who completed online surveys to assess previous exposure to traumatic events, attachment to companion animals, mi…
Sociology (14 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Political science (8 works) · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Poverty (7 works) · Social science (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)