Fathers and Their Infants: Caregiving and Affection in the Modern Family

Despite social work's expressed interest in families and belief in the importance of parents to children, social work researchers have done little to explore the importance of fathers in children's everyday lives. This is especially true for infants. Moreover, as more and more infants and children grow up in single-mother homes, step-families, and other family configurations, knowledge is needed about how these demographic trends affect parents' interactions with their young children.

This article examines men's caregiving of infants and their displays of affection in a longitudinal study of a diverse sample of infants and their mothers, using both person-centered and variable-centered statistical methods. Comparisons are made among various “types” of fathers, including those who live with and separately from their children and men who are not biological fathers but live with and care for infants.

Results indicate that caregiving and expressions of affection appear to represent two distinct domains of fathering behaviors for residential fathers. We found two classes of residential fathers: one with low levels of both types of fathering behavior and one with higher levels, particularly higher expressions of affection. Similarly we found two classes of non-residential fathers with dramatically different levels of fathering behavior. Though surrogate fathers did provide affection to their infants, their levels of caregiving were low.     

Does Fatherhood Matter for Men?

Ignored in the flurry of new research on fathers is that fatherhood may have consequences for men. This article explores possible effects on the lives and well‐being of men for a range of fatherhood experiences. Data are drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households. The first part of this article examines whether men's varied associations with children (no children, coresident, non‐coresident, and stepfatherhood) are associated with men's psychological health and behavior, social connections, intergenerational family relations, and work behavior. We found strong evidence that fathers differ from nonfathers in their social connections, family relationships, and work behavior. There is significant variation in effects among the father types as well. The second section of this article focuses attention only on men who are fathers and examines whether fathering behavior (e.g., the amount of time and nature of the activities that fathers are reported to be spending with their children) is associated with men's well‐being. The effects of father involvement on men was found to be most significant for those who were living with their own children.     

Becoming Custodial Dads: Exploring Parenting Among Low‐Income and Working‐Class African American Fathers

The authors use an ecological framework and grounded theoretical analysis to explore the circumstances in which working‐class and low‐income custodial African American fathers gain custody of their children, their transition from part‐time to full‐time parents, and the role of support networks in enhancing or inhibiting these men's parenting. Twenty‐four men from an impoverished Midwestern urban area participated in the study. The findings suggest that these men, and perhaps others sharing their demographic profiles, generally become parents by default and are often reluctant to take on a full‐time, single parenting role. Adaptation to the role seems to be enhanced by these men's use of extended kin support networks and shared living arrangements. However, low wages, a lack of sufficient assistance from public assistance programs, and informal custody arrangements often inhibit their fathering.     

Male Pregnancy Intendedness and Children's Mental Proficiency and Attachment Security During Toddlerhood

Using a sample of biological resident fathers and their children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B) 9‐ and 24‐month surveys (N = 5,300), this study examines associations and the direct and indirect pathways through which men's pregnancy intentions influence toddlers' mental proficiency and attachment security. Findings indicate that unwanted and mistimed pregnancies for fathers had negative consequences for toddlers' mental proficiency and attachment security. Additionally, men's pregnancy intentions were found to work indirectly through lower prenatal behaviors and father engagement and greater mother‐father relationship conflict to negatively influence toddlers' mental proficiency. Men's pregnancy intentions also worked indirectly through greater relationship conflict and higher father involvement to influence attachment security.     

Men and infertility: Insights from the sociology of gender

This review explores the framing of men and infertility in recent interdisciplinary social science research. I illustrate how men's diverse institutional roles surrounding medicalized experiences of infertility are critical for understanding inequality in reproduction. Situating research on men and infertility in the theoretical framework of gender as social structure shows how men's secondary position in reproduction can be seen across institutional roles, which include men as patients, men as partners, men as sperm donors, and men as doctors. Men's experiences with reproductive medicine often reinforce men's marginal position in reproductive medicine through institutionalized arrangements; yet, men are intimately and structurally involved in reproductive decisions. I argue that bringing gender to the center of research on infertility could make clear the many structural ways women and women's bodies are controlled, regulated, and treated by reproductive medicine.     

Fathers' Early Emotion Talk: Associations With Income,Ethnicity, and Family Factors

Contextual, mother‐, child‐, and father‐level variables were examined in association with fathers' emotion talk to infants during a shared picture book activity, in an ethnically diverse, low‐income sample (N = 549). Significant main effects included the rate of emotion talk from fathers' romantic partners (i.e., the infant's mother), infant attention and distress, and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions were also found. Higher income African American fathers referred to negative emotions more than non‐African American higher income fathers. In addition, African American fathers who demonstrated more negative and intrusive parenting referred to positive emotions more than non‐African American fathers who demonstrated negative and intrusive parenting. Our findings support family systems theory and, specifically, the interdependence of individuals' behaviors within the family unit. Interaction effects are discussed with respect to cultural variation in beliefs about parenting behaviors and the cultural experience of African Americans, including the Black cultural experience and the minority experience.     

Coming out of the Shed: Reflections on Men and Fathers

This paper is based upon a keynote address I delivered to the 2000 Australian Family Therapy Conference. The address invited conference participants to reflect on the functional or ‘provider’ roles so often assigned to men as partners and fathers. I link socio‐historical observations about the construction of gender‐based roles, with personal experiences of three generations of men from my own family of origin. I suggest that a continuing division of roles along gendered lines is not serving men well. Nor does it offer many benefits to men's female partners or their children. Practices within family law provide one illustration of persistent gender‐laden attitudes that, in the light of solid experimental evidence on men and fathering over the past twenty years, need to be challenged. Therapists, too, are challenged to reflect on how to engage men in ways that avoid the reinforcement of gender stereotypes.     

Conditional Fatherhood: Identity Theory and Parental Investment Theory as Alternative Sources of Explanation of Fathering

Two alternative theoretical models of parenting, identity theory and parental investment theory, are investigated as sources of explanation of men's fathering attitudes and behaviors. Four dimensions of fathering are explored: responsivity, harshness, behavioral engagement, and affective involvement. Concepts from identity theory operationalized as predictors include father role salience, role satisfaction, and reflected appraisals. From parental investment theory, concepts included investment maximization, contingent commitment, and paternity certitude. Using telephone survey data drawn from a community‐based probability sample of 208 fathers, each of the four individual indicators of fathering and a composite fathering measure were regressed against the theoretical predictors in hierarchical regression analyses. Both theoretical models were significant, with identity theory predictors accounting for a greater proportion of variance than the parental investment theory predictors. This study underlines the importance of social psychological variables to understanding variations in men's commitments to children.     

Empathic Accuracy and Aggression in Couples: Individual and Dyadic Links

The authors examined links between intimate partner aggression and empathic accuracy—how accurately partners can read one another's emotions—during highly affective moments from couples' (N = 109) video recall of laboratory‐based discussions of upsetting events. Less empathic accuracy between partners was generally related to higher levels of aggression by both partners. More specific patterns emerged based on the type of aggression and emotion being expressed. Women's poorer ability to read their partners' vulnerable and positive emotions was linked to both men's and women's greater physical and psychological aggression. Moreover, women's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's greater psychological aggression toward the men. Men's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's (not men's) greater physical and psychological aggression. The results suggest important nuances in the links between empathic inaccuracy and aggression, and implications for prevention and treatment of partner aggression are discussed.     

Fertility and social change: the neglected contribution of men's approaches to becoming partners and parents

Attitude survey and interview data are mobilised to address neglect of men's contribution to low fertility and wider social change in families and relationships. Men's attitudes are as relevant as women's to understanding fertility behaviour. However, fertility behaviour can only be understood in the context of a package of changes in gender relations and family life. Data from a random sample of men aged 18–49 surveyed in the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey 2005/06 are combined with in‐depth interviews conducted in 2007 with 75 men aged 25–44 identified through the Scottish Household Survey as not living in co‐resident partnership arrangements. Both datasets encompass the age span conventionally associated with having children and men who were the potential partners of women delaying a first child until their 30s. They allow consideration of the impact of social contact with parents and children on men's fertility intentions and how the role of provider features in men's views about parenting. The interviews focus on men who have fallen out of, or have not entered, co‐resident partnerships and examine the relationship between partnering and parenting. In combination the data suggest how men act as a complementary or contradictory downward drag on women's fertility and that their role has been underestimated in understanding the package of family change of which low fertility is a part.     

Mother–Infant Person‐ and Object‐Directed Interactions in Latino Immigrant Families: A Comparative Approach

Cultural variation in durations, relations, and contingencies of mother–infant person‐and object‐directed behaviors were examined for 121 nonmigrant Latino mother–infant dyads in South America, Latina immigrants from South America and their infants living in the United States, and European American mother–infant dyads. Nonmigrant Latina mothers and infants engaged in person‐directed behaviors longer than Latino immigrant or European American mothers and infants. Mother and infant person‐directed behaviors were positively related; mother and infant object‐related behaviors were related for some cultural groups but not others. Nearly all mother and infant behaviors were mutually contingent. Mothers were more responsive to infants' behaviors than infants were to mothers. Some cultural differences in responsiveness emerged. Immigrant status has a differentiated role in mother–infant interactions.     

Doing Gender,Doing Surveys? Women's Gatekeeping and Men's Non‐Participation in Multi‐Actor Reproductive Surveys

Gender differences in research participation have been documented in both quantitative and qualitative studies, a pattern that is particularly pronounced in studies of reproduction. We use the National Survey of Fertility Barriers to analyze three reasons frequently used to explain men's non‐participation in reproductive research: (1) Reproduction is a sensitive subject for men, (2) reproduction is women's domain, and (3) men's unavailability due to seemingly pragmatic reasons (e.g., work schedule). Using binary logistic regression, we test these three explanations across two different models: women's gatekeeping (denying researcher access to partners) (n = 1,637) and men's own non‐response (n = 1,454). A substantial minority of women (12.8 percent), engaged in gatekeeping, but the dominant mechanism of men's non‐participation was their own non‐response once women granted researcher access to partners. Consistent with prior studies on general survey non‐response, several demographic variables were associated with men's participation. Additionally, findings suggest that the notion of reproduction as women's domain received the strongest support, though specific variables within this construct differed for models predicting women's gatekeeping versus men's non‐response of their own accord.     

The Role of Men's Childbearing Intentions in Father Involvement

An expanding body of research has investigated factors that influence fathers' involvement with their children. Generally overlooked has been the role of pregnancy intentions on men's fathering behaviors. In this study, the authors used nationally representative data from men interviewed in the 2002 and 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth to examine relationships between fathers' pregnancy intentions and multiple aspects of their parental involvement. Using propensity score methods to control for confounding, they found that men were less likely to live with a young child from a mistimed than intended pregnancy and that among nonresident fathers, mistimed pregnancies were associated with lower levels of visitation and consequently reduced participation in caregiving and play. Among both resident and nonresident fathers, mistimed pregnancies were also associated with lower self‐appraisals of fathering quality when compared with intended pregnancies; for nonresident fathers, however, this association was moderated by other involvement.     

Understanding Men's Health and Illness: A Gender-relations Approach to Policy,Research, and Practice

Abstract

Men's health has emerged as an important public concern that may require new kinds of healthcare interventions and increased resources. Considerable uncertainty and confusion surround prevailing understandings of men's health, particularly those generated by media debate and public policy, and health research has often operated on oversimplified assumptions about men and masculinity. A more useful way of understanding men's health is to adopt a gender-relations approach. This means examining health concerns in the context of men's and women's interactions with each other, and their positions in the larger, multidimensional structure of gender relations. Such an approach raises the issue of differences among men, which is a key issue in recent research on masculinity and an important health issue. The gender-relations approach offers new ways of addressing practical issues of healthcare for men in college environments.     

Dyadic Interaction: Greater than the Sum of its Parts?

The study of dyadic interaction plays a major role in infancy research. To advance conceptually informed measurement of dyadic interaction and integration across studies, we examined factor structure of individual parents' and infants' measures and dyadic measures from face‐to‐face interactions in two samples of 6‐month‐old infants and their parents: mothers from a demographically heterogeneous sample (N = 164), and mothers and fathers (N = 156) from a Caucasian middle‐class sample. Results suggested that a) individual and dyadic measures, and parents' and infants' behaviors contribute independent information, b) measures of both valence and process are needed, c) there are context‐general and context‐specific qualities, and d) structure of dyadic interaction is more similar among mother–infant dyads from independent samples than between mother–infant and father–infant dyads within the same sample. Future research should use multiple measures incorporating valence, temporal processes, contextual influences, and behaviors of individual partners along with dyadic measures to adequately assess the quality of dyadic interaction.     

Paternal Work Characteristics and Father‐Infant Interactions in Low‐Income,Rural Families

To examine the implications of paternal occupational conditions for the quality of father‐infant interactions, home visits, including interviews and videotaped observations of father‐infant interactions, were conducted with 446 fathers living in six low‐income, nonmetropolitan counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. When a variety of individual and demographic characteristics were controlled for, a less supportive work environment was associated with lower levels of fathers’ engaged and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions pointed to the importance of understanding combinations of risk factors. Experiencing high levels of workplace stressors, including low levels of self‐direction and high levels of care work, in the presence of other individual or demographic risk factors was associated with lower levels of father parenting quality.     

Clinically depressed and typically developing mother–infant dyads: Domain base rates and correspondences,relationship contingencies and attunement

Maternal depression is associated with adverse outcomes in infants. Unfavorable parenting practices likely constitute one pathway of risk transmission from mother to infant, but definitional and methodological variation in the extant literature precludes a comprehensive or conclusive understanding of potential underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to illuminate the role of maternal clinical depression in mother–infant interaction by turning a microanalytic lens on four substantive relationship issues: base rates, correspondences, contingencies, and attunement. Several maternal parenting practices (aggregated into social, didactic, and language domains) and several infant behaviors (aggregated into social, exploration, and non-distress vocalization domains) were microcoded to 0.10 s from naturalistic hour long interactions of clinically depressed mothers (n = 60) and matched non-depressed controls (n = 60) with their 5-month-olds. Clinically depressed mothers spontaneously engaged their infants less didactically, were less contingent to their infants in social, didactic, and language domains, and were less attuned with their infants than were non-depressed mothers. Infants of clinically depressed mothers vocalized non-distress less than infants of non-depressed mothers. These differences unveil key disadvantages in the everyday lived experiences of infants of clinically depressed mothers. The findings advance understanding of maternal depression and its effects and have implications for identifying infants at risk on account of their mothers’ clinical depression.     

Masculinities and fathering

There is a developing body of research regarding fathering, in the UK, but the experiences of African-Caribbean and white working-class fathers, and how their experiences are mediated by gender and ethnicity have been neglected. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in research by reporting on the similarities and differences within the stories of African-Caribbean and white working-class men about fathering, and to examine the personal and structural dimensions to these experiences using Connell's theoretical framework for understanding masculinities (1995, 2005). Qualitative, semi-structured individual interviews were undertaken with seven white and six African-Caribbean fathers. Findings indicate that African-Caribbean fathers, specifically, their associated practices, regarding children's ‘behaviour’ and learning, with experiences of racism that they anticipated their children may encounter in the future. Both groups of men's stories demonstrated limited reflexivity about the unequal distribution of domestic labour within the home. The study also found that fathers’ experiences were associated with contradictory and differing forms of masculinity. The fathers’ stories provide evidence of changing forms of masculinity, for example, in ways in which fathers conceptualised fathering as enjoyable involvement with children, and the ways fathers negotiated and resisted the constraints of paid work in order to be involved with children. Findings also reinforce the importance of health and social care services reorienting their priorities to engage with fathers, and opportunities for future research, regarding the experiences of African-Caribbean fathers in particular, are also identified.     

Heterosexual Masculinities,Anti‐homophobias,and Shifts in Hegemonic Masculinity: The Identity Practices of Black and White Heterosexual Men

In this study, I use in‐depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shifts in the role of homophobia in the social construction of heterosexual masculinities. A continuum is introduced to map a range of interactional practices through which these men enact heterosexual masculinities. Heterosexual men who, on one end of the continuum, construct their heterosexual masculinities through homophobic practices establish strong boundaries of social distance from gays. The other end documents heterosexual men's anti‐homophobias, moving from men who establish weak boundaries to those who blur them. These heterosexual men's anti‐homophobic stances trade on the prestige of being tolerant of gays, with black men's anti‐homophobias drawing on their experiences with racism.