Remembering,Apologies, and Truth: Challenges for Social Work Today

Abstract

In 2003, over 41?000 families with accompanying children throughout Australia were assisted by homeless services. Sole fathers with children in their care who are homeless are a minority group within this overall population of homeless families and, as such, little is known about their experiences of homelessness and fathering. The present paper reports on an exploratory study of sole fathers with children in their care who were homeless in the Australian Capital Territory. The study identifies the fathers’ pathways into and experiences of homelessness, and the fathers share their stories of what it means to be a sole father. The paper identifies the issues fathers may experience when dealing with homelessness and fatherhood. An increased understanding of these experiences can contribute to the development of further research and improved practice with such families.     

Disabled men and fathering: opportunities and constraints

Over the last decade in the UK and elsewhere, fathers have become a visible presence in research and social welfare policy and practice agendas. While there is an increasing awareness of the heterogeneity of fathering contexts and experiences, disability as a dimension of difference among fathers has received little attention. This is so across all relevant bodies of research, including those on fathering, masculinities, disability, and parenting. In this paper, we seek to contribute to filling this gap by exploring the experiences of disabled men in relation to their fathering experiences. We draw on the findings from two qualitative research projects conducted in the UK, one on the experiences of disabled parents (mothers and fathers), the other on the experiences of disabled fathers. The findings suggest that the experience of impairment and disability positions men in relation to fathering in ways which can be both constraining of their fathering practices, as well as opportunistic in terms of re-articulating more ‘traditional’ fathering identities and practices. We suggest that while disability intersects with other important social divisions, there is a need for further research focused on the shared experiences of disabled fathers, particularly to inform family and child welfare policy and practice agendas.     

The practice of ‘Othering’ in reaffirming white working-class boys’ conceptions of normative identities

This paper considers how the practice of ‘Othering’ is used by white working-class boys in Boremund, South London to mark identity boundaries and reaffirm their habitus. Through unearthing themes of difference within the young men’s accounts, the work identifies various ways of ‘doing masculinity’ in two social groups, ‘Boremund Boys’ and ‘emos’, who contrasted greatly in style but who were of the same race, class, and ethnicity. Focusing on the identity negotiations of a small cohort, aged 14–16, the data indicate how a normative white male identity specific to this locale is policed and how ‘Othering’ is employed as a strategy. Using Bourdieu’s tools alongside the hermeneutic of heteronormativity, the research explores how emos, through inverting a traditional working-class masculinity, brought the habitus of Boremund Boys into disjuncture. Within the field of masculinity, the habitus of Boremund Boys, through a process of reorientation, reconciles competing and contrasting conceptions of what it is to be a white working-class male in South London.     

Fathers Under Scrutiny: Nonresidential Fathers’ Perceptions of Visitation Centers

Visitation centers provide a protected environment for meetings between noncustodial fathers and their children. The aim of the study was to analyze fathers’ experiences with the visitation center. This qualitative study is based on 12 interviews with fathers who had been meeting their children in visitation centers. Findings show that the fathers’ experiences were structured by two poles. On one pole were fathers who experienced the visitation center as a hostile place designed for supervision, limiting their parenthood role. On the opposite pole were fathers who experienced the visitation center as a secure and enabling space that helped in the continuity of relationships with their children. Another group of interviewees expressed both dichotomous voices, experiencing the visitation center as a positive opportunity to meet children, but as negative due to supervision. The discussion focuses on masculinity as constructing the fathers’ experiences.     

Changing Fatherhood: An Exploratory Qualitative Study with African and African Caribbean Men in England

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study undertaken with 46 African and African Caribbean men exploring their experiences of fatherhood. Data analysis was informed by Connell’s theoretical work on changing gender relations. Findings indicate that fathers’ lives were mediated by masculinities, racism, gender, migration and generational changes in parenting. Fathers advocated a style of parenting centred on good communication with children. The implications of findings for theory, future research and health and social care policy regarding both children’s well‐being and the inclusion of fathers by health and social care practitioners are discussed.     

Leaving legacies: African American men discuss the impact of their fathers on the development of their own paternal attitudes and behavior

In recent years there has been an increase in research examining issues related to fathers. Despite these contributions to the literature, studies including primarily African American samples disproportionately feature fathers who are non-resident, low income, or incarcerated. Thus, little is known about African American men from across the social and economic spectrum. To fill this gap, this qualitative analysis features a diverse sample of African American men discussing their relationships with their fathers and influence of those relationships on their own fathering attitudes and behaviors. Findings revealed that most of the participants modeled their fathers’ behavior. The findings also revealed that participants described their parenting as attempts to leave their children and communities with a legacy of engaged fathering.     

The Diverse Fathering Practices of Men Who Perpetrate Domestic Violence

Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from in-depth interviews with 17 Australian fathers who were participating in a men's behaviour change program. The study found that men's fathering varied and posed significant, yet different, risks to women, children, and young people. Variations were particularly evident when analysing narratives of masculinity with perceptions of control over the use of domestic violence. Other aspects of men's identities such as class, culture, and health intersected with gender and contributed to the diversity of harmful fathering practices. This paper spotlights the substantive issue of men's domestic violence and its impact on all aspects of family life, rather than current practices which frequently focus on women and their mothering practices.     

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.     

The Evolution of Fathering Research in the 21st Century: Persistent Challenges,New Directions

Since the last decade review of the fathering literature in 2000, scholars across numerous disciplines such as demography, family studies, medicine, nursing, law, psychology, social work, and sociology have continued to produce a steady stream of work on fathering and father–child relationships. This literature is reviewed selectively with a focus on key developments, persistent challenges, and critical directions for future research. Significant developments include greater availability of large and nationally representative datasets to study fathers; expansion and evaluation of U.S. federal policy regarding fathers; thoughtful consideration of conceptualization and measurement of fathers' parenting; growth in research on coparenting, maternal gatekeeping, and fathering; increased attention to issues of diversity in fathering; and awareness of the effects of fathering on men's development. Persistent challenges and critical new directions in fathering research include full and routine inclusion of fathers in research on parenting, improved assessment and appropriate data analysis, adherence to evidence-based portrayals of fathers' roles in children's development, generation and use of scientific evidence to guide policy-making, and sustained attention to diversity and fatherhood. These should be priority areas of focus as fathering research proceeds into the next decades of the 21st century.     

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.     

Being the “Go-To Guy”: Fatherhood,Masculinity, and the Organization of Work in Silicon Valley

Based upon in-depth interviews with fathers who are employed as knowledge workers in Silicon Valley, this article argues that a newly constituted masculinity has emerged that coincides with the new way work is organized in the new economy. The article examines the relationship among this gendered subjectivity, processes of labor control, and fathering. It finds that the new masculinity functions as a key mechanism of control in high-tech workplaces that rely on identity-based forms of control and that the enactment of this new masculinity impacts the way fathers think about, experience, and manage their work and family lives.     

The Importance of the Coparental Relationship for Nonresident Fathers’ Ties to Children

We examine the importance of the coparental relationship for nonresident fathers’ ties to their children. Using data from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households, we focus on the link between two dimensions of coparenting, cooperative coparenting and conflict over childrearing, and three dimensions of nonresident father involvement, contact, relationship quality, and responsive fathering. Cooperative coparenting predicts more frequent father‐child contact, which in turn predicts higher relationship quality and more responsive fathering. Conflict over childrearing, however, is not significantly related to nonresident father involvement. Findings are consistent across different groups of children. Results suggest that cooperative coparenting between parents who live apart is associated with stronger ties between nonresident fathers and their children.     

The parenting role of African-American fathers in the context of urban poverty

This qualitative study examines low-income African-American fathers' perceptions of their parenting role and the strategies they employ to bring up children in poor urban neighborhoods. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with 36 fathers who had contact with their children at least twice a month. Men in the study expressed conventional views of their fathering roles as provider, nurturer, and teacher, but placed the most emphasis on ‘being there’ for their children, as their financial circumstances limited other forms of involvement. Many fathers felt their circumstances to be exacerbated by a hostile child-support system. They desired to teach their children alternatives to the negative practices and values they saw in their urban neighborhoods and to have the skills to prosper in mainstream society. Overall, the findings suggest that many low-income urban fathers already desire to be responsible fathers but see themselves as limited by material and structural challenges. Services and policies that promote the economic stability of low-income fathers are recommended.     

‘Little children are not for dad's?’ Challenging and undoing hegemonic masculinity

Studies on work and organizations state that traditional gendered cultures support hegemonic masculinity and obstruct an engaged form of ‘new’ fathering. Not only do employers hinder fathers in sharing equally in childcare, but the dynamics within the couple also matter. An examination of the negotiations within couples regarding paid and unpaid work reveals the need to revise conceptualizations of masculinity, with a focus on undoing masculinity. Based on in‐depth interviews with couples in Germany, I argue that social change at the interactional level encompasses at least the possibility that gender, as a resource of the differentiation and hierarchization of masculinities and femininities within the realm of paid and unpaid labour, can be fragile or can even be episodically undone. Hence, more empirical and theoretical work within and beyond the context of fathering is crucial to further theoretical approaches to undoing masculinity.     

Workplace support of fathers’ parental leave use in Norway

ABSTRACT

This article highlights the importance of social policy and working life contexts for employed fathers’ use of parental leave. It directs attention towards the Norwegian model, which is known for its gender equality aims and welfare-state support to families, but which is also active in the regulation of working life. Based on interviews with fathers who have used the father’s quota (a statutory, earmarked, non-transferable leave), findings run counter to work–family research where gendered assumptions in work organizations are found to prevent active fathering. The interviewed fathers report positive attitudes and supportive practices among employers. Fathers’ stories show that their use of the leave is subject to cooperation and compromising processes at the workplace level that research on fatherhood and organizations have hardly addressed.     

Fathering attitudes and behaviors among low-income fathers

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a fatherhood intervention designed to improve the fathering attitudes and behaviors of fathers who are low income from metropolitan and rural communities in Louisiana. The study was successful in recruiting a sample of predominantly African American fathers (N = 57) and retaining the participants over time. An adequate number of fathers achieved the intervention goals to obtain employment, increase their earnings, and complete educational (i.e., Graduate Equivalency Diploma [GED]) training. In addition, after having completed the program, there was a statistically significant improvement in fathers’ relationship with the mothers of their children. Additionally, there were increases in fathers’ positive attitudes about being a father, perceived closeness with their children, amount of contact with their children, and satisfaction with the amount of time spent with their children; however, none of these differences were statistically significant. Most of the fathers gave favorable reports regarding the fatherhood program’s goals and delivery.     

DIFFERENT CLASSES,DIFFERENT FATHERS?

This paper discusses how social class and different economic conditions influence men's parenting. The paper is based on a qualitative study of 30 Swedish couples who live together with their biological children. The study shows that, despite the generosity of the Swedish welfare state and family subsidies, both internal and external economic conditions affect the way men construct their fatherhood. This was shown most clearly in the couples’ discussions around parental leave where parents under economic pressure often distributed the leave in a gender-traditional way. It was also apparent how traditional class patterns and structures still have a strong influence on today's parenthood. Fathers in working-class households often saw fatherhood as creating meaning in their lives and saw the process of becoming a parent as an explicit aspiration to establish something ‘natural’, well known and predictable. Fathers in middle-class households, on the other hand, considered fatherhood as something new, a reflexive project or an opportunity to develop their identity and to get to know new sides of themselves. In practice, these different ways of creating meaning in fatherhood are illustrated by the finding that working-class fathers tend to take up fewer parental leave days and uphold more traditional patterns of family life than fathers in middle-class households.     

From the Margins to the Center

Abstract

How can research data about gender role strain in gay fathers improve clinical work with all men? This article describes a qualitative research study of 25 primarily White, middle to upper middle class gay fathers who had children in the context of a heterosexual marriage, and later established a gay identity. The fathers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire in a focus group format. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. The narrative data chronicles the men's efforts to integrate their fathering identity and their gay identity. The findings are discussed using the theoretical framework of gender role strain. The authors propose that research on gay fathers has the potential both to challenge stereotypes about gay men and also to expand the fathering role for all men. The authors use clinical examples to illustrate how research findings from minority groups can expand knowledge about mainstream populations.     

Norwegian Working Fathers in Global Working Life

This article examines the impact that global working life has on working fathers’ practices and family life. The internationalization of working life implies that different traditions and practices encounter and challenge each other. The focus is on mothers’ and children's experiences with work–family life and their perceptions of fathers working in global companies. Using a case study approach, we explore how working conditions in global knowledge work organizations affect fathers’ work practices and family life. The findings indicate that working conditions in global working life are gendered and not conducive to the development of the Norwegian fatherhood ideal of the working father. This is due to global and flexible working conditions, which imply long working hours, extensive travel and jetlag‐related problems. Global working conditions produce a traditional masculinity practice, what Connell terms ‘transnational masculinity’, which infringes upon fathers’ practice of being present.