The Fatherhood Experience of Divorced Custodial Fathers in Israel

This qualitative study examines the fatherhood experience of 20 divorced men who are raising children on their own. The findings were gathered from semistructured in‐depth interviews. The interviewees' depictions revealed a process of making place for oneself in a multiparticipant arena facing social systems, the mother of the children, and the children themselves. The main findings concern the circumstances of single fatherhood: a constraint and a choice stemming from the mother's incapacity, the nature of the relationships created between mother and children and between father and mother, and the burden and pleasure contained within single parenthood. The discussion looks at the findings through the prism of Baxter and Montgomery's (1996) dialectic theory. It sheds light on the ongoing, contrast‐filled process of establishing a perception of fatherhood, and the experiences of divorced fathers raising their children on their own.     

Gender vulnerability for parenthood among male adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To analyze gender relations perceived by male adolescents and how they contribute to making them more vulnerable to pregnancy during adolescence. METHODS: Qualitative study carried out in Campo Grande, Midwestern Brazil, in 2003. Subjects were 13 male adolescents under 20 years of age, fathers of an only child aged up to 11 months whose mother was in the same age group as them. Semi-structured interviews were carried out, tape recorded and transcribed. Thematic content analysis was carried out. RESULTS: Gender stereotypes were identified in which the role of leader, provider, and sexually active was stressed and the role of caregiver was rejected. These roles seemed consolidated especially in the subjects' perspective regarding paid employment as a marker of their male condition as well as of a family provider. Adolescents' leadership prevailed in the relationship with the mother of their child especially in taking initiative in sexual intercourse and the use of contraceptives. They considered that pregnancy was unexpected and happened "by chance". However, fatherhood was experienced as a definite evidence of their status as adult men. CONCLUSIONS: Male adolescents showed to be vulnerable to fatherhood due to gender socialization following traditional patterns. This was evidenced by the inexistence of roles related to self care and care for others, and early playing roles of male sexual dominance, of father and family provider in order to grow up and become a man.     

Gatekeeping and its impact on father involvement among Black South Africans in rural KwaZulu-Natal

Involved and caring fatherhood contributes to the health and wellbeing of children, women and men. The corollary is also true – men, women and children are affected when fathers are not involved or supportive of their children. Many factors affect fathers’ involvement, including women’s attitudes, the history and nature of the relationship between mother and father, and the cultural context. This study explores gatekeeping and its impact on father involvement among Black South Africans in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Among married couples, gatekeeping occurs with respect to childcare and housework through women’s attempts to validate their maternal identity according to socially and culturally constructed gender roles. Among unmarried, non-resident parents, women control father-child contact and involvement, with mothers and/or their families either facilitating or inhibiting father involvement. In this context, we found that cultural gatekeeping had a huge impact on father involvement, with the non-payment of inhlawulo or lobola regulating father-child involvement. In a country like South Africa, where there is high non-marital fertility and father-child non-residence, future research, parenting and family programmes should focus on strategies that encourage positive paternal involvement as well as maternal and cultural support for father involvement, regardless of parental relationship and residence status.     

Full‐Time,Part‐Time Full‐Time,and Part‐Time Fathers: Father Identities Following Divorce

This grounded theory study examined how 20 newly divorced, nonresidential fathers manage their fatherhood identities. The theory created from this study proposes that fathers' perceptions of (a) father‐child relationships, (b) how their children's fiscal needs are met, and (c) barriers to their physical interactions with their children influence their fatherhood identities. In spite of all fathers identifying themselves as involved, three types of fathers emerged: full‐time fathers, part‐time full‐time fathers, and part‐time fathers. The findings suggest that men's conceptualizations of father involvement are influenced by their postdivorce experiences with nonresidential fatherhood.     

Experiences of, and attitudes towards, pregnancy and fatherhood amongst incarcerated young male offenders: findings from a qualitative study

Teenage parenthood is problematised in the UK. Attention is increasingly falling on the potential or actual father yet we still know relatively little about young men's experiences and attitudes in this area. This paper focuses on the experiences of, and attitudes towards, pregnancy and fatherhood amongst a sample of men incarcerated in a Scottish Young Offender Institute. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 inmates, aged 16-20, purposively sampled using answers from a questionnaire administered to 67 inmates. Twelve men reported eighteen pregnancies for which they were, definitely or possibly, responsible. All but one of the pregnancies were unplanned. Five of the men were fathers: two were still in a relationship with the mother of their child and were in close contact with her and the child while incarcerated, three, all of whom had separated from their partner before the birth, had had patchy contact with mother and child before and/or during their sentence. All five of the men expressed a strong desire to be 'a good father'. Amongst the interview sample as a whole, most said they did not feel ready to become fathers. The main reason given was being unable to fulfil what they regarded as the key role of financial provider. Most of the men had given little or no thought to the possibility of a sexual partner becoming pregnant. Contraceptive use was high, however, amongst the minority who reported thinking about this possibility. The paper concludes by considering the cultural context of the men's attitudes and the potential for intervention development for incarcerated male young offenders in the areas of Sex and Relationships Education and parenting.     

The case of expectant fathers: negotiating the changing role of males in a 'female' world

Research was carried out to investigate the needs of expectant fathers and to determine whether television can be implemented to provide parent guidance to South African expectant fathers during the transition into fatherhood. Focus was on understanding the specific type of information required by expectant fathers, in conjunction with their perceptions of the most suitable form of media to provide such guidance. Sixty-five fathers were involved in a telephone survey, after which in-depth interviews were conducted with four fathers to establish their perceptions regarding the possible use of television to provide guidance to expectant fathers. It seems that expectant fathers experience a need for information to help prepare them for their role as a father, require more knowledge regarding the topic of fatherhood and pregnancy, wish to receive guidance to develop certain basic childcare skills, and perceive television to be the most suitable medium for providing them with such guidance.     

‘Virtuoso ideal daddy’: Finnish children's perceptions of good fatherhood

Changes in family structures, such as the increase in the number of cohabiting couples, divorces, and blended families pose new challenges for fatherhood and research on fatherhood has been mainly adult-centred. This research studied how Finnish children perceive good fatherhood and what expectations they set for fathers. The following research questions were set for the study: (1) How do Finnish children describe a good father? and (2) How do Finnish girls' and boys' perceptions of a good father differ from each other? The participants of this study comprised pupils (n?=?39; 21 girls and 18 boys aged 10–12 years) from 3 to 6 grades at a typical northern Finland school. This was a narrative study in which pupils' narratives of a good father were used as the data. The pupils' narratives of a good fatherhood could be categorised into seven main types which are introduced as findings of the study. Also a metanarrative of a good father was composed based on the children's narratives. In conclusion, a good father's virtues as the basis on a good father–child relationship are discussed.     

The Effects of Father Involvement during Pregnancy on Receipt of Prenatal Care and Maternal Smoking

Objectives To examine whether women whose partners are involved in their pregnancy are more likely to receive early prenatal care and reduce cigarette consumption over the course of the pregnancy. This study also examines sociodemographic predictors of father involvement during pregnancy. Methods Data on 5,404 women and their partners from the first wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) were used to examine the association between father involvement during pregnancy and maternal behaviors during pregnancy. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were used and data were weighted to account for the complex survey design of the ECLS-B. Results Women whose partners were involved in their pregnancy were 1.5 times more likely to receive prenatal care in the first trimester and, among those who smoked at conception, to reduce their cigarette consumption 36% more than women whose partners were not involved in the pregnancy (p = .09). Fathers with less than a high school education were significantly less likely to be involved in their partner’s pregnancy, while first-time fathers and fathers who reported wanting the pregnancy were significantly more likely to be involved. Conclusions The positive benefits of father involvement often reported in the literature on child health and development can be extended into the prenatal period. Father involvement is an important, but understudied, predictor of maternal behaviors during the prenatal period, and improving father involvement may have important consequences for the health of his partner, her pregnancy, and their child.     

Maternal exposure to paternal HLA does not explain the postpartum increase in rheumatoid arthritis

The postpartum period, particularly after the first pregnancy, represents a time of increased risk for the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present study was undertaken to investigate whether this increase in risk may be due to maternal exposure to fetally inherited paternal HLA-DR antigens that were either 1) similar to their own or 2) had an increased likelihood of being one of the two specific types, HLA-DR1 and DR4, implicated in the etiology of RA. We recruited 94 families where the mother had developed RA within 12 months of a pregnancy, and HLA typed the mother, father, and relevant child of each family. Mothers were not more likely to share HLA-DR genes with their partners than would be expected, and children whose parents shared one HLA-DR gene were not more likely to inherit the shared gene from their father as opposed to the non-shared gene. Further, those children whose fathers were heterozygous for HLA-DR1 or DR4 were not more likely to inherit these genes as opposed to the non-DR1/DR4 gene. In conclusion, maternal exposure during pregnancy to either fetally inherited paternal HLA-DR1 and DR4 genes or to paternal DR genes similar to their own does not appear to contribute to postpartum maternal susceptibility of RA. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Fathers' smoking and use of alcohol--the viewpoint of maternity health care clinics and well-baby clinics

The study population consists of the fathers of the familieswhich took part in the project ‘The Finnish Family CompetenceStudy’, conducted by the Department of Public Health,University of Turku. The initial phase of the study included1279 men. At the onset of the study project their families wereexpecting their first baby. When examining the fathers' useof alcohol, it was found that those with the highest level ofbasic education and those in professional occupations had thehighest frequency of alcohol use, but they only consumed smallamounts of alcohol at a time. In contrast, industrial employeesand those with a lower level of education used alcohol lessfrequently, but they used larger amounts at a time. Thirty-twoper cent of the respondents reduced their drinking after theonset of the wife's pregnancy. Of the respondents 43.7% weresmokers, 8.4% of whom stopped smoking after the onset of thewife's pregnancy. Smoking cessation by the father was statisticallysignificantly explained by the fact that the wife had not smokedbefore pregnancy or that she had stopped smoking after the onsetof pregnancy, in which case the father did the same. When thefathers were divided into two categories according to theiralcohol use, i.e. lighter and heavier users, it was found thatthe latter group had a more negative attitude towards theirchildren. Similarly, smoking fathers were found to have a morenegative attitude towards their children than the non-smokingones. The results of the present study point to the necessityfor recognition of each family's needs and the introductionof new kinds of care practices in family-centred and integratedcare.     

An Exploration of Aspects of Boundary Ambiguity Among Young,Unmarried Fathers During the Prenatal Period

Abstract: This research represents an exploration of patterns of boundary ambiguity among poor, young, unmarried men and their reproductive partners. Interviews were conducted with men and their partners during the third trimester of pregnancy. Interviews focused on patterns of men’s physical and psychological presence in relationships with their partners and in activities associated with pregnancy and prenatal care. Patterns of presence among fathers‐to‐be are identified and factors associated with those patterns are explored. Patterns of presence reflect degrees of physical and psychological presence in relation to pregnancy and the father role. These patterns reflect the influence of various social and emotional dimensions that impact a man’s transition to the new father role and raise a number of policy and practice issues.     

Determinants and Consequences of Adolescent Fatherhood: A Longitudinal Study in Ethiopia,India, Peru,and Vietnam

PurposeAdolescent parenthood is a major challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the vast majority of the evidence has focused on adolescent motherhood. Little is known about adolescent fatherhood in LMICs. The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of early fatherhood and its consequences on a range of outcomes among adolescent males.MethodsThis study used three waves of longitudinal data from the multicountry Young Lives cohort study, specifically following a sample of 1,779 adolescent boys at ages 15, 19, and 22 years in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. Individual fixed effects models were conducted to investigate the sociodemographic determinants of adolescent fatherhood and the consequences of adolescent fatherhood on males' education, health, psychosocial well-being, and time use outcomes.ResultsThe results indicated that lower educational attainment, absence of the adolescent's mother and father from the home, larger household size, and poverty increased the likelihood of becoming an adolescent father by age 22 years. The results revealed that becoming an adolescent father was associated with a higher likelihood of school dropout, being overweight, smoking, greater internalizing problems, and less time spent on leisure activities and more time spent on caregiving responsibilities.ConclusionsHighlighting the experiences of young men as adolescent parents in LMICs, findings underscore the importance of prevention strategies to delay early parenthood for adolescent boys and multicomponent interventions to support young fathers and their unique health, socioeconomic, psychosocial, and behavioral needs.     

'Just a bystander'? Men's place in the process of fetal screening and diagnosis

Despite increasing research into men's experience of pregnancy and fatherhood, experiences of men whose partner is undergoing fetal screening and diagnosis have been less well-studied. This paper begins to fill a gap in the literature by identifying several potentially conflicting male roles in screening, diagnosis and subsequent decision-making. Drawing on a wider qualitative study in the UK of experiences of antenatal screening, it is suggested men may play inter-linked roles: as parents, bystanders, protectors/supporters, gatherers and guardians of fact, and deciders or enforcers. These may be roles they have chosen, or which are assigned to them intentionally or unintentionally by others (their female partner, health professionals). Men's status and feelings as fathers are sometimes overlooked or suppressed, or may conflict with their other roles, particularly when screening detects possible problems with the baby. The paper concludes by discussing these findings in the context of the wider literature on men and pregnancy.     

Middle-class teenage sexuality and pregnancy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The subject of this paper is teenage pregnancy among middle-class youth, a topic not sufficiently studied in Brazil. The paper is based on a qualitative, socio-anthropological study of 14 middle-class families in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whose children have remained single, living with their parents after the child's birth. A total of 25 in-depth interviews were conducted with 6 young men and 7 young women, ages 18 to 24, and their parents (11 mothers, one father), to examine the event in retrospect and its impact on these young people and their families. Three aspects are analyzed: difficulties young people face in internalizing contraception as a norm; late discovery of pregnancy; and how the decision to either have an abortion or give birth is made by young people and their parents. This research allows seeing teenage pregnancy as an event that hinges on the process of constructing a young person's autonomy, in which sexuality plays a prominent role. Concluding, the phenomenon should be analyzed in a specific historical and cultural context, with changes over the decades in the rules underlying the process of individualization among young people.     

接触二硫化碳对子代神经行为及尿5-HIAA水平的影响

目的研究怀孕前父、母亲有不同浓度二硫化碳(CS2)接触史的儿童神经行为功能和尿中5-羟吲哚乙酸(5-HIAA)改变。方法选择怀孕前父亲或母亲有CS2接触史者所生育的子女61名为接触组,按父母接触水平分为高浓度组和低浓度组。同时选取同一地区父母无任何毒物接触史的39名儿童为对照组,进行神经行为功能和尿中5-HIAA水平测试。结果父亲或母亲接触高浓度组儿童注意力、反应速度、心理运动能力、运动协调能力都受到影响,低浓度组仅在视感知和运动协调能力方面有所影响。分成母亲接触组、父亲接触组与对照组比较,除心理运动能力外未见到其他指标测试结果的差异有显著性。尿中5-HIAA水平,接触组与对照组儿童间差异未见有显著性。结论接触CS2对子代可产生一定的神经行为改变,且有一定的剂量-反应关系。     

Is it an issue before it’s a problem? Investigating men’s talk about fertility

While fatherhood and male involvement in family life have been the focus of much research during the past few decades, we know less about men’s involvement in the stage that precedes fatherhood and reproductive decision-making, their awareness of and sense of responsibility for reproductive health and fertility. This article draws attention to how men talk about fertility and reproductive intentions, focusing on how their perceptions and knowledge of fertility and procreation are structured around social norms and expectations. The study was based on interviews with 25 men in reproductive age with no prior history of infertility, including men with as well as without children and men of different sexual orientations and gender diversity. Our findings indicate a tension between, on the one hand, a general tendency among the men to take their fertility for granted and neither think nor talk about it, and, on the other hand, a latent concern about possible infertility which seemed to be activated in the interview situation. These findings raise questions of how conversations about fertility might impact men’s thinking about their own fertility that call for further exploration and that are of significance in considerations of how to promote fertility awareness and reproductive health.     

Fatherhood,marriage and HIV risk among young men in rural Uganda

Compared to a large body of work on how gender may affect young women’s vulnerability to HIV, we know little about how masculine ideals and practices relating to marriage and fertility desires shape young men’s HIV risk. Using life-history interview data with 30 HIV-positive and HIV-negative young men aged 15–24 years, this analysis offers an in-depth perspective on young men’s transition through adolescence, the desire for fatherhood and experience of sexual partnerships in rural Uganda. Young men consistently reported the desire for fatherhood as a cornerstone of masculinity and transition to adulthood. Ideally young men wanted children within socially sanctioned unions. Yet, most young men were unable to realise their marital intentions. Gendered expectations to be economic providers combined with structural constraints, such as limited access to educational and income-generating opportunities, led some young men to engage in a variety of HIV-risk behaviours. Multiple partnerships and limited condom use were at times an attempt by some young men to attain some part of their aspirations related to fatherhood and marriage. Our findings suggest that young men possess relationship and parenthood aspirations that – in an environment of economic scarcity – may influence HIV-related risk.     

Addressing Policy Barriers to Paternal Involvement During Pregnancy

Efforts to reduce infant mortality in the United States have failed to incorporate paternal involvement. Research suggests that paternal involvement, which has been recognized as contributing to child development and health for many decades, is likely to affect infant mortality through the mother’s well-being, primarily her access to resources and support. In spite of that, systemic barriers facing the father and the influence on his involvement in the pregnancy have received little attention. The Commission on Paternal Involvement in Pregnancy Outcomes (CPIPO) has identified the most important social barriers to paternal involvement during pregnancy and outlined a set of key policy priorities aimed at fostering paternal involvement. This article summarizes the key recommendations, including equitable paternity leave, elimination of marriage as a tax and public assistance penalty, integration of fatherhood initiatives in MCH programs, support of low-income fathers through employment training, father inclusion in family planning services, and expansion of birth data collection to include father information.     

Inside the Portrait of a Family: The Importance of Fatherhood

The perception and role of fatherhood appeared to change dramatically during the last century, from father as Victorian patriarch to one who acknowledged the need to 'get in touch with his feminine side'. However, official definitions, and therefore professional practice, rarely confirm the father in his nurturing role. The result is debilitating not only for the father, but the family of which he is a part. Legislation is needed to reinforce the changed role of fatherhood in the context of the modern family. Official documents and procedures should recognise changed expectations of family definition and professional practice, to enable professionals to support real families.     

Services to adolescent fathers

Until recently, service programs for adolescent fathers have been rare. Such a program for teenage fathers and service characteristics that encourage the involvement of teenage fathers are described. In particular, fathers who did not live with the mothers of their babies had dramatically greater participation in prenatal activities if they used teenage father services. Services to fathers and fathers' participation in prenatal activities also were associated with higher birthweights. Engaging adolescent fathers in pilot fatherhood projects thus has high potential to benefit teenage fathers and mothers and their infants.