Abstract Background In developing nations, the phenomenon of adolescent fatherhood poses significant challenges, including increased risk of poverty, limited educational opportunities, and potential ...negative health outcomes for both the young fathers and their children. However, an overwhelming majority of research has concentrated on teenage motherhood. Adolescent fatherhood in poor nations has been the subject of little research. Few public health initiatives address adolescent fatherhood, in contrast to adolescent motherhood. Although there is currently more being done in industrialized nations to recognize adolescent fatherhood in clinical settings and the academic community. Undeveloped nations such as East Africa still have more problems that need to be resolved. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of and factors contributing to adolescent fatherhood in East Africa. Methods Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), collected between 2011 and 2022 in 12 East African nations, were used in this analysis. For a weighted sample of 36,316 male adolescents aged 15–24 years, we examined variables, as well as the prevalence of adolescent fatherhood. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify candidate factors and significant explanatory variables associated with the outcome variable. The results are presented using adjusted odds ratios (AORs) at 95% confidence intervals (CIs). P values of ≤ 0.2 and < 0.05 were used to investigate statistically significant factors in the univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses, respectively. Results The overall prevalence of adolescent fatherhood was 11.15% (95% CI = 10.83,11.48) in East Africa. Age at first sex 20–24 years (AOR = 0.44, 95% CI:0.41,0.48), age–20–24 years old (AOR = 17.03,95% CI = 15.01,19.33), secondary/higher education (AOR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.49,0.67), poor wealth (AOR = 2.27, 95% CI = 2.05,2.52), middle wealth (AOR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.51,1.90), employed (AOR = 3.92, 95% CI = 3.40,4.54), utilized modern contraceptives (AOR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.69,0.81), and female household heads (AOR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.39,0.48) were associated with adolescent fatherhood. Conclusions Adolescent fatherhood is more prevalent, in East Africa. These findings highlight the complexity of adolescent fatherhood and suggest that multiple factors, including socio-demographic characteristics and reproductive health behaviors, play a role in determining the likelihood of becoming an adolescent father. Understanding these associations can inform targeted interventions and policies aimed at reducing adolescent fatherhood rates and addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by young fathers in East Africa. Further research and interventions should focus on promoting education, economic opportunities, and access to modern contraceptives, while also addressing gender dynamics and social norms that contribute to adolescent fatherhood in the region.
The development of prosocial skills in children is a key predictor of long-term social, cognitive, and emotional functioning. However, the role of fathers' psychological characteristics in fostering ...prosocial development, including during the prenatal period, and the mechanisms underlying their influence, remain relatively unexplored. This study aimed to examine whether a higher tendency of alexithymia, a difficulty to identify and verbalize emotions, in expectant fathers predicts prosocial behavior of two-year-old toddlers through the quality of coparenting and whether greater testosterone increase during a stressful parenting task moderates this indirect effect. A sample of 105 couples and their children was tracked longitudinally starting from the third trimester of pregnancy (T1), at three months (T2), and at two years postnatally (T3). Using self-report questionnaires, fathers reported on alexithymia (T1) and mothers and fathers reported on coparenting quality (T2). Additionally, fathers provided saliva samples before and after engaging in a stressful parenting task (the Inconsolable Doll Task) to measure testosterone reactivity (T1). Children's prosocial behavior was observed during an out-of-reach task (T3). A moderated mediation analysis using structural equation modeling showed that higher levels of alexithymia pre-birth predicted lower coparenting quality three months after birth, which in turn predicted lower prosocial behavior of two-year-old children, but only among fathers with mean or high testosterone increases. This study illuminates a potential mechanism by which fathers' alexithymia and testosterone reactivity forecast their toddlers' prosocial behavior.
•Poorer coparenting predicts fewer expressions of prosocial behaviors in toddlers.•Greater prenatal alexithymia predicts prosocial behavior through co-parenting.•Testosterone increase moderates the indirect effect of alexithymia on prosociality.•Parental bio-psycho-social processes forecast the toddler's prosocial behaviors.
Fathers tend to achieve higher earnings than childless men, but there is limited evidence on the associations between fatherhood timing and men's later earnings. Using a longitudinal census-based ...sample of Finnish men, including a subsample of brothers, we investigated fatherhood timing and men's midlife earnings using both between- and within-family models. Earnings around age 50 were lower among adolescent and young fathers than for men who became fathers at ages 25-29 or later, but these associations became negligible after accounting for measured confounders and unobserved familial confounding. Overall, our findings highlight the important roles of selection into early childbearing and into childlessness. At the population level, early fatherhood was associated with clear negative distributional shifts in fathers' midlife earnings. However, among all men, any influence of fatherhood timing on men's midlife earnings distribution paled in comparison with that of childlessness.
Contemporary research on fatherhood describes fatherhood as a multifaceted, dynamic social, and cultural construction, deeply affected by class, race, and gender inequalities. However, critics claim ...that dominant theories on fatherhood have been mostly elaborated based on middle‐class, Anglo‐centered, dominant, and mainstream fatherhood, whereas non‐hegemonic, marginalized father groups have remained undertheorized. This article echoes this shortfall and proposes to theorize non‐hegemonic fatherhood through a more inclusive theoretical framework capable of describing the social contexts that shape fathers' identities, behaviors, and cultures. Based on intersectional theories, the article argues for a theoretical revision of the ways in which these groups of non‐hegemonic fathers are represented in research. To illustrate this, we provide some examples of studies based on case studies of marginalized fathers in Israel. Israel is rich ground for such research since it is characterized by traditional models of fatherhood, expressed through hegemonic models of masculinity, as well as normative family models in the context of high levels of ethnic and class inequality.
La paternidad en la adolescencia tradicionalmente ha sido estigmatizada, llevando a la generación de barreras y desconocimiento de vivencias, motivaciones y significados. Por ello se planteó como ...objetivo comprender la construcción y significados de la paternidad presente y activa de hombres adolescentes que residen en Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. Se realizó un estudio cualitativo socioconstruccionista en el que participaron hombres de 16 a 19 años que eran padres o que su pareja estaba en embarazo. Se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas y observación de redes sociales; se realizó un análisis de contenido. Los resultados dan cuenta de la intersección entre masculinidades y paternidades, demostrando que en las motivaciones para su paternidad se destacan la búsqueda de reconocimiento social, la conformación de una familia y la búsqueda de suplir necesidades emocionales a través de la pareja y del hijo/hija.
Background: Despite the increasing attention to the role of the father and its importance in child development, little research has been done in this area compared to the mother's role. Methods: In ...this article, the father's role in child development was systematically reviewed from the perspective of different theoretical approaches as well as different cultures. Results: The findings showed that the role of men as fathers is changing and evolving from a mere breadwinner to a supporter. Most new generation fathers seek to participate in their children's lives and are more caregiving and emotionally responsive than the previous generation. Fathers have a unique role in raising children, which is different from the mothers’ role. The role of the father varies under the influence of culture and social structure. In Asia economic problems have changed the clear definition of the role of father. In the Middle East, Islamic beliefs determine the role of the father as the head of the family. In Europe, the role of the father as a participant and responsible person is improving. The modernization of society in Africa has complicated gaining a coherent and clear image of the father’s role for children. In North American countries, parents play an almost equal role in raising children. Expectations from fathers are vague in South America, but these expectations seem to be changing more rapidly. Conclusion: Studies confirm the important role of fathers in parenting from different psychological approaches and the change in men's definition of fatherhood. However, the father's roles are different in different cultural and social contexts.
Parenting in the Global South reflects a bias towards capturing the practices and experiences of motherhood. Thus the study aimed at examining perceptions of men, as fathers and their contributions ...on the overall development of young children in Botswana. The objectives of this study were how fathers' define fatherhood and their roles in children's upbringing. A mixed approach using purposive sampling was used to collect data from 156 fathers. The finding revealed that most of the fathers in Botswana still believe that their main role in the family is to look after the monetary aspect of the household, whereas bringing up of children is part of the mothers' responsibility. It is concluded that fathers do not always have parenting skills and support services have difficulties in reaching men. It is recommended to generate a public research agenda that will heighten awareness of the benefits of father involvement.
En la siguiente investigación se entregan antecedentes preliminares para la reflexión en torno a la construcción discursiva y las proyecciones de los anarquistas del sur de Chile respecto de su ...concepción de ‘masculinidad’, poniéndola en relación, al mismo tiempo, con sus planteamientos sobre ‘paternidad’, ‘maternidad’ y ‘crianza’ a partir de la revisión y análisis del periódico anarcosindicalista Vida Nueva, editado en la ciudad austral de Osorno entre los años 1934 y 1942. Se plantea que los anarquistas del sur de Chile, si bien buscaron poner en cuestión y tensionar los roles de género, ampliando las discusiones en torno a la situación de menoscabo de las mujeres en la sociedad local, no lograron romper con el orden socio-cultural, y reprodujeron, por el contrario, sus conservadoras lógicas a través de sus concepciones sobre las paternidades, maternidades y crianza. De este modo, reforzaron el rol de ‘padre-hombre-proveedor’ y le atribuyeron a las mujeres mandatos (inamovibles) desde una concepción biologicista y tradicional / conservadora.
This study aims to present the operation of the Tato.Net Initiative Dad.Net implemented by the Cyryl and Metody Foundation (hereafter referred to as the Foundation). The programme was launched in ...2004 to promote conscious and responsible fatherhood among contemporary men through self-education and self-formation amidst a crisis in masculinity, brought on by modern civilisation, and its negative consequences with regard to fatherhood. The Tato.Net programme implements initiatives and projects to strengthen families through the empowering presence of the father, both in the physical and spiritual sense. The programme also engages in cooperation with social organisations and institutions that similarly advance the culture of responsible fatherhood. All actions undertaken by Tato.Net reflect the idea of fatherhood, with the project itself founded on two primary values: the empowerment of a family by the presence of the father and the promotion of a culture of responsible fatherhood. The paper presents different projects executed by the Foundation in a few countries.
This research examines how fathering identities and normative gendered expectations shape the way men engage with a broad range of flexible working arrangements (FWAs). Forty-three heterosexual ...white-collar Australian fathers participated in this qualitative research, involving one-to-one semi structured interviews which were discursively analysed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Three fathering identities emerged from the data: “The Present and Visible Father”, “The Involved and Competent Father”, and “The Father as Helper.” The findings demonstrate that fathering identities have a profound impact on men’s flexible working practices, that fathering identity is fluid and complex, and that a tension still exists between the expectations surrounding involved fathering, persistent traditional fathering norms, and the material reality of men’s work practices.
