This article focuses on the photo-narrative research process with children and young people. The photo-narrative method invites children and young people to answer research questions by first taking photographs and then talking to the researcher about them. We reflect critically on our own photo-narrative study by asking such questions as: In what ways can the photo-narrative method be seen as a participative method? How were the various power relations between the child and the researcher actualized? What methodological and ethical challenges did we encounter during the research process? The study data were photographs and narratives by eight children and young people (aged 4 to 15 years), who were each interviewed twice. In the first interview, each participant was given a disposable camera and they were asked to take photographs of things and situations, persons, objects, and feelings relating to their everyday lives during one week. The second interview was a narrative interview where each participant could select the photographs he or she wanted to talk about. In this approach, interpretation of the photographs was primarily in the hands of the children and young people, while interpretation of the narratives was the responsibility of the researcher.

In this article, we seek to extend understanding of the role of gender in early fatherhood by examining narratives of paternal masculinities, that is, the social and cultural constructions of gendered practices and conventions produced by men on their roles as male parents. The data comprised interviews with 44 Finnish first-time fathers (aged 20-42 years) living in a heterosexual relationship. The narrative of the “decent father,” was identified as the dominant narrative of paternal masculinity in early fatherhood. Although the narrative was characterized by some important gendered differences, it was also in line with the well-known concept of the “new father.” Two counter narratives, labeled the “equal father” and “masculine father,” in which gendered parenthood was rejected in the former and essentialized in the latter, were also identified. The results indicate the normative quality of narratives on paternal masculinity.

This article focuses on parents' construction of and emotions in their everyday lives. The study brings into focus the meanings in the foreground of everyday life, while also revealing new insights into cultural beliefs and prejudices. Interviews were conducted with five nuclear and four divorced families, and each participant (N = 18) was interviewed twice. The second interview was a photo-narrative interview, for which each participant took photographs pertaining to their daily life. Content and thematic analysis were applied to the data. Three main categories of everyday life emerged from the data: family daily life, couples' daily life, and one's own daily life. The importance of and pleasure derived from one's own daily life were emphasized as the foundation of well-being for both the individual and the whole family.

Present-day parenting is centred round the question of time, especially in the case of working parents. This study analysed negotiations over time in families where one or both parents work non-standard schedules, that is, during evenings, nights and weekends. We asked what aspects of time are negotiable and with whom, and who in the family bears the ultimate responsibility for these negotiations. The analysis was based on interviews with 47 people conducted in 2013 in Finland. The findings indicated that time negotiations within the family concerned everyday routines and schedules, social life and the family‗s philosophy. Family life and schedules in the context of non-standard schedules were often subject to moralising remarks from others, including close relatives and friends. Parents seemed to have some room to negotiate on the timing of their work schedules with their employers. Men and women differed in the positions they adopted in time negotiations: women took an active “I” perspective, while men took a more passive spousal perspective. This result shows that traditional gender differences continue to prevail.

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