Centre for Applied Social Research / Family Research Steering Committee

Files of Douglas Woodhouse relating to research initiatives

1970-1974

7 files

During the 1970s, the Institute of Marital Studies began to develop a number of collaborative action research projects, looking at the relationship between the personal lives of couples and aspects of their external environment or the "outer and inner worlds of marriage".

It began to work in collaboration with the Tavistock Institute's Centre for Applied Social Research. The two units established a Marital and Family Research Steering Committee to oversee an on-going programme of research on social policy relating to contemporary marriage.

The research programme took place against a background of a large-scale Department of Health and Social Security and Social Science Research Council initiative on Transmitted Deprivation which was launched following a much-quoted speech by Sir Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Social Services, given in June 1972, in which he referred to a ‘cycle of deprivation’.

There were several important areas of reseach during this period. These included an exploration of the impact on the couple of having a first child. Working collaboratively with health visitors and the parents themselves, Institute of Marital Services staff examined the emotional adjustments required of the couple. Another initiative was on "the Present and Future of Marriage in Britain", which also became known simply as the "Marriage Project", and involved interviews with couples.