Intergenerational Transmission of Fathering Roles in At Risk Families

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to examine the long-term consequences of paternal involvement for a sample of young men, with the intent being to examine whether patterns of fatherhood are transmitted across generations. Initially, a theoretical framework is discussed that has led researchers to expect that patterns of fatherhood will be produced across generations. Data from the Baltimore Parenthood Study were used, a 30-year longitudinal study that has followed the reproductive patterns of teenage parents and their children. A subsample of 110 males were examined with an occasional reference made to a subsample of females. Results indicated that a strong link existed between the stable presence of a biological father in the histories of the young men and the timing of their own family formation. Early fatherhood, both during the teen years and early twenties, is much more likely to occur if young men did not grow up living with their own fathers. Moreover, early fatherhood is somewhat more likely to occur if the young men did not have a stepfather in the past who was a stable presence in the home. Young fathers also were less likely to be living with their children if their own fathers had not lived in residence with them throughout childhood.     

The presence of the absent father: how lone mothers with sons construct and animate the absent father through narratives

This article builds upon results from an empirical study of nine cases where single mothers and their teenage sons have reflected on the relationship to the absent father and on his significance for the family. The results have led us to reflect further on how the construction of a father figure is shaped. The cases are selected from ongoing interventions from the social services. The child's age at the start of the father's absence varied from birth to seven years old or more. Through analysis of the different cases of mother–son dyad, their narratives and their joint construction of a father figure, the dyad transforms into a triad with the presence of the absent father. Also discussed is the question of which underlying conditions contribute to the need for a joint construction of the father. Further, doubt is cast on the one-sided gender perspective that presupposes young men's need for an adult man as a model of masculinity. The analysis is related to Swedish legislation, emphasising the importance of ascribed biological parenthood, meaning that fathers’ right to joint custody and to visit the child have been strengthened. Along with the biological relationship, the welfare state also regulates the content of fatherhood, i.e. a state-controlled fatherhood.     

Young Fatherhood and Subsequent Disadvantage in the United Kingdom

Although there has been increasing attention to the importance of fathers and their relationships with their children, few studies have examined young parenthood and its consequences for fathers’ life chances. In recent years, this has begun to change, and research is examining, to a far greater extent, the experiences of young fathers. Using data from a cohort of British men born in 1970, this paper uses a propensity score–matching technique to compare the well‐being of 344 men who reported becoming fathers before the age of 22 with men from similar backgrounds who did not. The findings suggest that selection into young fatherhood is substantial but, for some outcomes, significant differences remain.     

Auswirkungen Der Familiengründung Auf Den Berufsverlauf Von Männern

In this article we use longitudinal data from the German socio-economic Panel to examine the relationship between parenthood and labour market outcomes for men. Both traditional sociological and economical perspectives predict a positive effect of fatherhood on wages, whereas the spreading idea of a modern fatherhood suggests that, at least, fathers of the younger generation tend to reduce their working hours and thus accept wage reductions. Our focus is on the effect of fatherhood on wage growth, hours worked and interfirm mobility. We find that fathers receive higher wages than married men without children, even when controlling for selection into fatherhood. The positive income effect of fatherhood results from greater on-the-job wage growth. However, fathers are not likely to increase their wage by working longer hours or leaving their current employer for a better paid position.     

Explaining the Early Development and Health of Teen Mothers’ Children1

The transmission of social disadvantage from teenage mothers to their children is well established, but when and why do these disparities emerge in the early life course? Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort, this study investigated the relationship between teen childbearing and children’s cognition, behavior, and health from infancy through preschool. Developmental disparities between teenage mothers’ children and others were largely nonexistent at nine months but accumulated with age. Having a teenage mother predicted compromised development across several domains by age four and a half. Our conceptual model expected preexisting disadvantage, ongoing resource disadvantage, and compromised parenting quality to explain the association between teen childbearing and child outcomes. Preexisting social disadvantage accounted for much of this relationship. Financial, social, and material resources in the child’s household partially or fully explained each of the remaining significant relationships between teenage childbearing and child outcomes. Parenting quality explained a smaller proportion of these relationships than did resources, and these factors’ influences were largely independent. Because children of teenage mothers with a modest set of resources were not predicted to have compromised development, resources provided in early childhood may have the potential to reduce developmental disparities for teenage mothers’ children.     

Teen Childbearing and Educational Attainment: A Comparison of Methods

This research examines the impact of teenage childbearing on secondary school completion, while focusing on the problem of causal ambiguity in the relationships among self-determined behaviours. Techniques for dealing with the teenage childbearing problem are discussed, and results from these methods are compared. Data from the High School and Beyond Study on young women (n = 5257) who were enrolled as sophomores in sample schools in February 1980 and who had not given birth before November 1980 are used. Results indicate that teen childbearing reduces the probability of completing high school by 8% to 10%. Some evidence suggests that programs that target reduction of teen childbearing in improving young women's education and subsequent economic and labor force outcomes.     

Teenage Pregnancy and Female Educational Underachievement: A Prospective Study of a New Zealand Birth Cohort

This paper examines the relationship between teenage pregnancy and educational underachievement in a cohort of 520 young women studied from birth to 21 years. Results showed that young women who became pregnant by the age of 18 years were at increased risk of poor achievement in the national School Certificate examinations, of leaving school without qualifications, and of failing to complete their sixth‐form year at high school. In addition, pregnant teenagers had lower rates of participation in tertiary education and training than their nonpregnant peers. Subsequent analyses showed that the links between teenage pregnancy and tertiary educational participation were largely noncausal and reflected the earlier academic ability, behavior, and family circumstances of young women who became pregnant. In contrast, antecedent child and family factors only partially explained associations between teenage pregnancy and high school participation and achievement. After adjustment for these factors, significant associations remained between teenage pregnancy and educational achievement at high school. An examination of the diverse life histories of young women who became pregnant revealed that for the majority of young women, pregnancy occurred after they had left school before finishing. These findings suggest that rates of teenage pregnancy might be elevated among young women who leave school early, rather than rates of early school leaving being elevated among young women who become pregnant during their teenage years.     

‘Someone of Your Own to Love’: Experiences of Being Looked After as Influences on Teenage Pregnancy

Previous research has shown that children and young people who are looked after are vulnerable to poor life outcomes, including early pregnancy. This paper examines how experiences of being looked after may contribute to teenage pregnancy. Using in‐depth interviews, data were collected from 63 young people recently looked after who are aged 15–24 and 78 professionals, across four research sites. The young people reported feelings of loneliness, rejection, stigma and not being able to trust others, emotions which seriously influenced their decisions about becoming parents. The findings suggest that such young people may benefit from a greater degree of emotional and practical support throughout their lives in care. Copyright © 2006 Institute of Education, University of London.     

Collapsing the Boundaries? Fatherhood,Organization and Home‐Working

In the modern western world, the discursive construction of fatherhood and everyday fathering practices has been underpinned by the spatial separation of work from home, of public from private. However, increasing numbers of employees are now working from home and a disproportionate number of these are men with young children. This article draws on new empirical research to examine the implications for fathers and for organizations as home‐working disrupts earlier spatial configurations of fatherhood and fathering practices. The article concludes that as the spatial boundaries between home and work collapse, new accommodations between fatherhood/fathering and organization are emerging. However, these are underpinned by a traditional gender division of labour in the household. More broadly, these findings confirm the inadequacy of static distinctions between public and private, showing that while such distinctions are still used to mark space and time, this is relational, contingent and unstable.     

Men’s Work Efforts and the Transition to Fatherhood

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the transition at younger ages. The data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The transition to fatherhood was associated with an increase in work effort among young unmarried men, but not for married men. Among married men who were on-time fathers, work effort decreased. Among childless men, the marriage transition was associated with increased work effort.     

Scholarship on Fatherhood in the 1990s and Beyond

Throughout the 1990s, scholars interested in fatherhood have generated a voluminous, rich, and diverse body of work. We selectively review this literature with an eye toward prominent theoretical, methodological, and substantive issues. This burgeoning literature, complemented by social policy makers' heightened interest in fathers and families, focuses on fatherhood in at least 4 key ways. First, theorists have studied fatherhood as a cultural representation that is expressed through different sociocultural processes and embedded in a larger ecological context. Second, researchers have conceptualized and examined the diverse forms of fatherhood and father involvement. Third, attempts have been made to identify the linkages between dimensions of the father‐child relationship and developmental outcomes among children and fathers. Fourth, scholars have explored the father identity as part of a reciprocal process negotiated by men, children, mothers, and other interested parties. Our review highlights research that examines the relationships between dimensions of the father‐child relationship and children's well‐being and development. We conclude by discussing promising avenues of scholarship for the next generation of research on fatherhood.     

Parental duties,labor market behavior,and single fatherhood in America

Longitudinal analysis using samples from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggests that men’s income and wages decrease after entering into single fatherhood by marital separation. This loss exceeds what can be explained by marital separation alone. Using a difference in difference approach, I estimate that single fatherhood suppresses men’s annual income by more than $8,000 per year, putting these men and their children at increased economic risk. Similar labor market changes are experienced by widower fathers, a subset of exogenous single fathers. The apparent effects show persistence after single fathers remarry, but mostly diminish after children mature and leave the household. These results stand at odds with previous research suggesting that fatherhood increases men’s wages and hours, and that male labor market outcomes are not significantly influenced by housework.     

Exploring Fatherhood Diversity

SUMMARY

Our analysis, grounded in a social constructionist perspective, explores the theoretical and political complexities facing researchers and policymakers as they attempt to conceptualize, study, and promote fathers' involvement with their children. Taking into account the growing diversity of life course and residency patterns for men and children today, we stress how the definition of fatherhood and conceptualization of paternal involvement are interwoven. As our starting point, we highlight how diverse stakeholders construct differing images and types of fatherhood during an era when men are “doing fatherhood” in a wide range of contexts. Next, we explore issues associated with a broad conceptualization of father involvement, influence, and motivation with an eye toward fatherhood diversity. We then consider how several family processes are implicated in the way men develop, negotiate, and sustain their rights, privileges, and obligations as fathers in different types of family structures. We conclude by suggesting how our treatment of these issues can guide future research on fatherhood.     

The storyscapes of teenage pregnancy. On morality,embodiment, and narrative agency

Young women tell different stories about teenage pregnancies. Their stories are embedded in the storyscape of their environment, which offers a limited set of narratives. Normative discourses influence the stories young women tell about their pregnancies. Social norms and stigma play an important role in the construction of the meaning of teenage pregnancies. However, the embodiment of being pregnant constitutes meaning as well. This paper draws on findings from a qualitative study conducted in 2015 among 46 young Dutch women who got pregnant before their 20th birthday. Our study explores how young women navigate the moral arena when they are confronted with a teenage pregnancy and which role the embodiment of pregnancy plays in the construction of social meanings. The concept of storyscapes visualises how young women are constrained by their embeddedness in multiple storyscapes, defined by different and often contrasting audiences. Nevertheless, our study indicates that the momentum of pregnancy can offer agentic possibilities to take up another position towards their social environment and develop narrative agency.     

The effects of teenage childbearing on long-term health in the US: a twin-fixed-effects approach

This paper explores the effect of teenage childbearing on long-term health outcomes and behaviors of mothers using the Midlife Development in the US dataset. Within-family estimations, using samples of siblings, and twin pairs, are employed to overcome the bias generated by unobserved family background and genetic traits. The results suggest no significant effects on health outcomes, and modest effects on health behaviors, including exercise and preventive care. However, accounting for life-cycle effects demonstrates that teenage childbearing has significant effects on both health outcomes and behaviors early in life, but very few significant effects later in life. Moreover, teenage childbearing has a particularly acute effect among minorities. Finally, this paper provides evidence that the effects operate through reduced income and labor force participation, and matching with a lower “quality” spouse.     

The Soul of Fatherhood

SUMMARY

This paper proposes several lenses through which one can look past the obvious roles of fathers and see into the meaning that fatherhood has for our culture. The paper suggests that we are reinventing social fatherhood and redefining what it means to protect. It also describes how the very language of who we are as parents is shifting.     

Making the Best of a Bad Situation: Material Resources and Teenage Parenthood

Past research has largely ignored the influence of material resources on teenage parents' life outcomes. A lack of resources such as housing, child care, and financial support is hypothesized to explain the negative effect of teenage parenthood on educational attainment. Regression analyses use nationally representative data from the 1988 - 2000 National Education Longitudinal Study (N = 8,432, n = 356 teenage parents). Results support the hypothesis completely for the teenage fathers in the sample and partially for mothers: Resources substantially diminish the educational penalty teenage parents paid by age 26. Gender influences which types of resources are protective, providing policy implications. Help with child care is critical for teenage mothers, whereas housing and financial resources may be important for men.     

Unemployment and Fatherhood: Gender,Culture and National Context

Hegemonic representations of masculinity and dominant images of fatherhood have usually been linked to the domain of work. This article explores the experiences of men under the hardship of unemployment and the impact of these experiences on the construction of their gender identities, specifically on the construction of their fatherhood identity. In addition, the article examines how culture and national context affect the interrelationship between unemployment and fatherhood. Drawing on a post‐structural constructivist theoretical perspective, the article describes a qualitative study of low‐income unemployed Palestinian fathers in Israel. The study examines three areas of interest: perceptions of fatherhood, the experience of unemployment and the impact of unemployment on the construction of fatherhood. On the theoretical level, the article proposes a conceptualization of the relationship between unemployment and fatherhood. It argues that in order to generalize the impact of unemployment on fatherhood, we must first examine the context in which gendered and cultural perceptions of fatherhood are embedded. On a policy level, the article offers some recommendations for developing more contextualized, gender‐ and cultural‐sensitive policies for unemployed fathers.     

Facilitating Fatherhood: A Longitudinal Examination of Father Involvement Among Young Minority Fathers

The effects of father absence on children have been well documented in research and range from increased risk of poverty, to increased risk of incarceration (Anderson et al. Family Relations 51(2):148–155, 2002). This study presents a longitudinal evaluation of young father’s involvement with their children conducted within the scope of a teen parenting program in Arlington County, Virginia. The respondents in the study are young, mainly Hispanic fathers who come from lower socio-economic groups. The theoretical foundation for the parenting program was derived from Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model of Change (1979). Three scales of fatherhood involvement were assessed at four time periods, including two years post-program. Results from the evaluation indicated that all three fatherhood scales increased steadily and significantly from pre-test to two years post-program. Results support the notion that fatherhood involvement curricula have the potential to positively influence young fathers and keep them involved with their children. Suggestions for further research and discussion of public policy implications are included in the study.

Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the current political agenda. The key new issue that this research addresses is the relative importance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of outcomes later in life. How far are the ‘effects’ of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood poverty? Subsidiary questions relate to the magnitude of these associations, the particular levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and whether, as often assumed, only teenage mothers are subsequently disadvantaged, or are those who have their first birth in their early twenties similarly disadvantaged? The source of data for this study is the National Child Development Study. We examine outcomes at age 33 for several domains of adult social exclusion: welfare, socio‐economic, physical health, emotional well‐being and demographic behaviour. We control for a wide range of childhood factors: poverty; social class of origin and of father; mother's and father's school leaving age; family structure; housing tenure; mother's and father's interest in education; personality attributes; performance on educational tests; and contact with the police by age 16. There are clear associations for the adult outcomes with age at first birth, even after controlling for childhood poverty and the other childhood background factors. Moreover, we demonstrate that the widest gulf in adult outcomes occurs for those who enter motherhood early (before age 23), though further rein‐forced by teenage motherhood for most adult outcomes. We also show that any experience of childhood poverty is clearly associated with adverse outcomes in adulthood, with reinforcement for higher levels of childhood poverty for a few outcomes.