Abstract

This article explores the impacts of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown policies on young fathers and their families. We present analyses from a larger programme of qualitative longitudinal research examining young fatherhood in the UK and Sweden to develop a unique international comparative and empirical contribution. The views and experiences of young fathers are examined in context of two ostensibly different policy approaches to the pandemic. Organised thematically to enable comparison, our findings demonstrate myriad impacts, illustrating heightened precarity in young fathers’ transitions to and through fatherhood linked to restrictions on support and changes to their education and employment trajectories and relational contexts, especially in the UK. We observe how differences in policy approaches in the first wave of the pandemic shaped the experiences of young men in the respective countries.