After school specials about teenage pregnancy abound. Whether in television or in society, the focus tends toward young girls coping with all of the emotional and physical burdens of pregnancy but ...rarely is the perspective of the teenage fathers portrayed.
In this informative book, Mark S. Kiselica draws on his many years of counseling teenage fathers to offer a compassionate look at the difficult life circumstances and the complicated hardships these young men experience. He dispels many of the myths surrounding teenage fatherhood and shows that, contrary to popular belief, these young men are often emotionally and physically involved in relationships with their partner and their child. But without support and guidance from adults, these relationships often deteriorate in the first year of the child-'s life. Kiselica offers advice for how professionals and policy makers can assist these young men and improve services for them.
When Boys Become Parents provides a moving portrait of teenage fathers to any reader who wants to understand and help these young men to become more competent and loving parents during their journey to adulthood.
Since
Amato and Gilbreth's (1999)
meta-analysis of nonresident father involvement and child well-being, nonmarital childbirths and nonresident father involvement both have increased. The unknown ...implications of such changes motivated the present study, a meta-analytic review of 52 studies of nonresident father involvement and child well-being. Consistent with Amato and Gilbreth, we found that positive forms of involvement were associated with benefits for children, with a small but statistically significant effect size. Amounts of father-child contact and financial provision, however, were not associated with child well-being. Going beyond Amato and Gilbreth, we analyzed the associations between different types of fathering and overall child well-being, and between overall father involvement and different types of child well-being. We found that nonresident father involvement was most strongly associated with children's social well-being and also was associated with children's emotional well-being, academic achievement, and behavioral adjustment. The forms of father involvement most strongly associated with child well-being were involvement in child-related activities, having positive father-child relationships, and engaging in multiple forms of involvement. Moderator analyses demonstrated variation in effect sizes based on both study characteristics and demographic variables. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy and practice.
All across America, angry fathers are demanding rights. These men claim that since the breakdown of their own families, they have been deprived of access to their children. Joining together to form ...fathers' rights groups, the mostly white, middle-class men meet in small venues to speak their minds about the state of the American family and, more specifically, to talk about the problems they personally face, for which they blame current child support and child custody policies. Dissatisfied with these systems, fathers' rights groups advocate on behalf of legal reforms that will lower their child support payments and help them obtain automatic joint custody of their children.
InDefiant Dads, Jocelyn Elise Crowley offers a balanced examination of these groups in order to understand why they object to the current child support and child custody systems; what their political agenda, if enacted, would mean for their members' children or children's mothers; and how well they deal with their members' interpersonal issues concerning their ex-partners and their role as parents. Based on interviews with more than 150 fathers' rights group leaders and members, as well as close observation of group meetings and analysis of their rhetoric and advocacy literature, this important book is the first extensive, in-depth account of the emergence of fathers' rights groups in the United States. A nuanced and timely look at an emerging social movement,Defiant Dadsis a revealing investigation into the changing dynamics of both the American family and gender relations in American society.
La littérature s’accorde sur l’idée que l’accompagnement du père en période périnatale doit être repensé en fonction de ses attentes et de ses besoins spécifiques. Les enjeux étant considérables au ...regard du risque de développement de vulnérabilités paternelles et de leurs effets délétères sur le développement de l’enfant, nous proposons dans cette synthèse des pistes de réflexion pour impliquer, informer et soutenir les pères durant cette période.
This study assessed the level of fathers' involvement in childcare activities and its association with the diet quality of their children in Northern Ghana.
The study was carried out in the Northern, ...Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana. The people in the study area mostly depend on agriculture as their main occupation.
A community-based comparative analytical cross-sectional study.
A sample of 422 rural mother-father pairs who had at least one child aged 6-36 months.
The overall level of fathers' involvement in childcare and feeding activities was high among 63·5 % of the respondents in the 6 months prior to the study. The most common childcare activity men were involved in was providing money for the purchase of food for the child. Minimum acceptable diet was higher for children with a higher level of paternal involvement in childcare activities (adjusted OR = 3·33 (95 % CI: 1·41, 7·90)), compared to their counterparts whose father's involvement was poor. Fathers who had a positive attitude to childcare and feeding were 2·9 more likely to get involved in childcare activities (adjusted OR = 2·90 (95 % CI: 1·87, 4·48)).
The findings confirm earlier studies that show that fathers' involvement in childcare activities including feeding is positively associated with improved child feeding practices. The findings point to the need to have a policy shift in which both men and women are key actors in interventions designed to improve child nutritional status in rural settings of Northern Ghana.
Low-income nonresident fathers face many challenges to staying involved in their children's lives. The literature on these fathers suggests that men who value their status as fathers are more likely ...to be involved with children even when faced with barriers. Previous quantitative studies have tended to focus on one aspect of these fathers' parenting identity when in fact there is more than one way to conceptualize identity. The current study examined fathers' status centrality and interactional commitment using a sample of 300 low-income nonresident fathers. A unique aspect of this study was the focus on fathers' identity in relation to their perception of how close they feel to their children as well as measures of engagement, contact, and responsibility. The findings indicated that status centrality and interactional commitment (encouragement from network members and maternal gatekeeping) are important components of these fathers' identity. The associations between identity and father involvement were not moderated by child age. Suggestions for future research and implications for programs are discussed.
Public Significance Statement
Low-income nonresident fathers face many challenges to staying involved in their children's lives. This study shows that low-income men who place a high value on their status as fathers, receive encouragement from individuals in their network, and experience less maternal gatekeeping are more likely to be involved with children. Practitioners should address these aspects of fathering identity when working with fathers.
Doing the best I can Edin, Kathryn; Nelson, Timothy J
2013., 20130601, 2013, 2013-06-01, 20130101
eBook
Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among ...inner-city men often dismissed as "deadbeat dads." Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly—without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship’s demise. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life where the father-child bond is central and parental ties are peripheral. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than 100 fathers make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.
Fatherhood, as a developmental process, is both a human experience and a text that needs to be read. For developing nations like the Philippines, little is known about the process undergone by ...first-time fathers on their transition to fatherhood, and how nurses can play a significant role in assisting them. This grounded theory study purported to conceptualize the multifaceted process of transition from the lens of Filipino first-time fathers’ lived experiences. A total of 20 first-time fathers from Metro Manila, Philippines, were purposively selected to take part in an individual, semistructured, and in-depth interview. The Glaserian (classical) method of analysis was specifically used, and field texts were inductively analyzed using a repertory grid. Member checking and correspondence were done to validate the findings of the study. Six surfacing stages emerged relative to the process of transition. Interestingly, The B.R.I.D.G.E. Theory of First-Time Fatherhood Transition Space describes how these fathers progress from the beholding, reorganizing, inhibiting, delivering, grasping, and embracing phases toward successful transition. This emerged theoretical model can be used in framing health care programs where the needs of fathers during this period are met and addressed. Finally, it can also be used in guiding nurses in their provision of a more empathetic care for first-time fathers.
Separated fathers are generally assumed to be less involved with their children than partnered fathers. Yet, extant research on separated fathers has mainly focused on nonresident fathers without ...taking into consideration the existing diversity in post-separation residence arrangements. In fact, separated resident and shared residence fathers may possibly be more involved than partnered fathers, because the former likely bear primary childcare responsibilities, while the latter often act as secondary caregivers. This study extends previous research by investigating father involvement via regular care and leisure activities across a full range of separated fathers, and how it compares to that of partnered fathers, as well as whether patterns differ by father’s education. Data from the New Families in the Netherlands survey (
N
= 1592) reveal that as compared to partnered fathers, shared residence fathers and especially resident fathers are more actively involved in the regular care of their child, whereas nonresident fathers are less involved. Results are similar for leisure, except that partnered fathers are similarly involved as shared residence fathers in this activity. Education also matters: involvement of fathers across different post-separation residence arrangements is more similar to that of partnered fathers when being highly educated. These findings suggest that including resident and shared residence fathers in the picture offers a more optimistic view of fathers’ post-separation parenting role, because these separated fathers are actually more actively involved in childrearing than partnered fathers.
The present study examined the effects of nonresident fathers' involvement–measured by the frequency of fathers' contact with their children and the quality of fathers' parenting–on their children's ...behavior problems. Using data from a subsample of African American single and non-cohabiting mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, results indicate that more frequent contact between fathers and their child and fathers' more adequate parenting were associated indirectly with fewer child behavior problems transmitted through more adequate parenting by mothers. The quality of mothers' parenting was associated positively with the quality of the mother–father relationship and with both the quality and the frequency of the fathers' contacts with their child. Policy and practice implications are discussed.
► We examined the effects of fathers’ involvement on children’s behavior problems. ► Fathers’ parenting was associated with behavior problems through mothers’ parenting. ► Father-child contact was associated with behavior problems through both parents’ parenting. ► Fathers’ parenting and mother-father relations were strong factors for mothers’ parenting.
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