Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This is a qualitative data collection. Food Practices in Residential Care, 2007-2008 explores the use and meaning of food practices within the context of children's residential care homes in Scotland. The project adopted an interdisciplinary approach building on, and developing, previous work from the sociology of childhood and child care social work. The aim was to investigate the role played by food practices in relation to the exercise of care, control, reward and punishment within an institutional setting. The research explored how the distribution and provision of food is understood and conducted. It also examined the possible ways in which these practices can be resisted and negotiated by children within residential care homes. The research was carried out at three residential children's homes which are referred to throughout the transcripts using the pseudonyms Highton, Welton and Lifton. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observations were completed with a total of 16 children aged 9 to 18 (11 boys and 5 girls) and 46 members of staff (26 women and 20 men including managerial staff, care workers, cooks, administration and domestic staff) who took part in individual interviews and/or a focus group. (The observation data are not available from the UK Data Archive.) Further information on the research project is available from the Stirling University project web page and the ESRC Award web page.
Main Topics:
The study includes 50 semi-structured interviews and 12 focus groups with children and staff from three residential care homes in Scotland. The children are aged between 9 and 18 years old. The interviews with staff include managerial staff, care workers, cooks, administration and domestic staff. The semi-structured and focus group interviews took place towards the end of a three month phase of fieldwork in each residential care home after many observations had taken place at different points throughout the day and at different times of the week. The interview data explores both children’s and adults' perspectives of food practices in residential care.
Purposive selection/case studies
Face-to-face interview
Focus group
