Engaging Fathers in the Post-Divorce Family

SUMMARY

Data we collected in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of divorcing families provide an empirical basis for understanding the dynamics of divorced fathering. Our findings focus on the difficult circumstances of divorced fathers, rather than on their defective characters. We find that fathers continue visiting and paying at high levels when they perceive that they retain some degree of paternal authority. The loss of this sense of paternal authority appears to occur, in part, because fathers perceive that the legal system and their divorce settlements were unfair to them. We also find that the custodial mother, who sometimes sees little value in the father's involvement, limits the father's role within the post-divorce family. These findings formed the theoretical foundation for an intervention we developed for recently divorced fathers called DADS FOR LIFE. This 8-week program focuses on retraining divorced fathers' attitudes and motivations by teaching them skills to manage conflict with the custodial mother, and giving them parenting tools to use during visitation. We are in the process of a randomized trial to evaluate this program.     

Fathers in Prison

ABSTRACT

The parenting roles and responsibilities of incarcerated men have not traditionally been considered an important public concern. The impact of criminal justice policies and practices on family functioning has rarely been addressed by policy makers or family scholars and men's family obligations have not been a priority for the individuals responsible for the safety and security of correctional institutions. Similarly, and with few exceptions, fathers in prison have been out of sight and out of mind of community organizations concerned with family life and children's wellbeing. Several recent developments challenge this historical approach to handling parental incarceration and responsible fatherhood initiatives involving incarcerated fathers are being promoted. This article examines the individual and societal issues that must be addressed if responsible fatherhood among incarcerated men is to become a serious social goal. It presents an overview of the complex family roles and relationships of incarcerated men and describes ways in which individual situations and family preferences affect their ability to function as parents. Analyses of prison location strategies and communication regulations and the post-release environment are used to show how public policies influence and shape family relationships and responsible fatherhood. The article concludes with an agenda for research to guide informed and humane policy decisions.     

Fathers' experiences with child welfare services

The lack of engagement of fathers by child welfare services is well‐documented in the literature as a serious problem. Towards addressing this problem, this paper reports the findings of interviews with 18 fathers about their involvement with child welfare services in Ontario, Canada. Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded themes about what men saw as the positive and negative aspects of their involvement with child welfare. Positive aspects of service involvement for fathers included understanding and supportive workers, useful assistance from workers, being connected to useful resources and being given a ‘wake‐up call’. Negative aspects of service involvement included uncaring, unhelpful and unprofessional workers; prejudice against fathers; and experiencing the child welfare system as unresponsive, uncaring and rigid. Implications for practice are discussed with a view to improving the engagement of men in, and their experiences with, child welfare services.     

Caregiving fathers and the negotiation of crossroads: Journeys of continuity and change

This article addresses the sustainability of extensive paternal involvement in caregiving by applying a temporal approach to understandings of the journeys of primary- and equal-carer fathers and their families. Drawing on a second phase of interviews with UK fathers first spoken to 5 years earlier, we explore continuities and changes in their roles, identities and outlooks as their caregiving journeys progressed and their children became older. Specifically, we explore how fathers and their families negotiated significant moments of change that had the potential to prompt reflection or reorientation, moments that we term caregiving crossroads. Through doing so, we highlight how, in spite of shifts in their arrangements and understandings, the embeddedness of fathers' caregiving routines, bonds and identities had apparently enabled their commitment to counter-normative roles to endure through such crossroads. We also outline, however, how gendered limitations to some aspects of the scope of their caregiving seemed also to persist as their journeys as fathers progressed.     

Paternal supervisor gatekeeping: How supervising fathers hinder other fathers at work in their uptake of flexible work arrangements

This study explores the role that supervisors play in the low uptake of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) among fathers in France. We draw on 28 interviews with fathers who had requested access to FWA and reported on the reaction of their supervisors. These supervisors were all fathers themselves and had previously benefitted from such arrangements themselves, but did not grant such policies to other fathers. To understand these unexpected findings, we conducted an additional 16 interviews with supervising fathers in organizations who had previously enjoyed similar FWA. The findings show that supervising fathers can act as barriers to other fathers in their organizations who try to push for more gender equality. We identified four ways in which supervisors tend to dissuade fathers from accessing policies to which they are entitled: gender-role confirming discourses; career threats; practical reasons as a justification; and a lack of paternal workplace support. The findings highlight the role of men (in this case, supervising fathers) in the lack of increasing gender equality at work. By showing that fathers can function as ‘paternal supervisor gatekeepers’ for other fathers in their organizations, we open up new fruitful ways for studying gender equality in organizations.     

Do Young Mothers and Fathers Differ in the Likelihood of Returning Home?

Building on research examining “boomerang” adult children, the author examines multigenerational living among young parents. Returning home likely differs between young mothers and fathers given variation in socioeconomic characteristics, health and risk taking, their own children's coresidence, and union stability. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the author finds that more than 40% of young parents (n = 2,721) live with their own parents at their first child's birth or subsequently. Mothers are generally less likely to move home than fathers but only when not controlling for child coresidence and union stability. Individuals who live with all their children are less likely to return home, and controlling for child coresidence reverses gender differences, though this association disappears in the full model. Young parents who are stably single and those who experience dissolution are highly likely to return home compared to the stably partnered, with the association significantly stronger for fathers than mothers.     

Parenting a child with a disability: An examination of resident and non-resident fathers

Children with disabilities often require, more extensive family involvement and greater paternal support than other children. Yet these children are the children least likely to live with their fathers. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 from the United States to examine the association between child disability and resident and non-resident biological fathers’ supportiveness, relationship, and monitoring of their children. Regression analyses indicate significant challenges for all fathers of children with disabilities. Children of resident fathers report more positive interactions than children of non-resident fathers. However, earlier co-residence and more frequent contact significantly improve the quality, of father-youth relationships among men who do not live with their children.     

父亲参与和母亲幸福感关系的中日比较研究

以中日抚养学龄前儿童双收入家庭父母为对象,探讨父亲参与育儿对母亲心理幸福感的影响,结果发现中日父亲参与育儿的影响模式一致,即父亲参与育儿通过母亲对父亲育儿支持的认知,间接影响夫妻关系满意度。但在中日之间在母亲对父亲育儿支持的认知影响健康关联QOL的途径存在差异。中国母亲对父亲育儿支持的认知直接或通过心理健康影响健康关联的QOL。日本母亲对父亲育儿支持的认知通过夫妻关系满意度间接影响健康关联QOL。     

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.     

Postsecondary Education and Economic Well‐Being of Single Mothers and Single Fathers

We investigate the effects of postsecondary education on the economic well‐being of single parents. The data for this study are from the 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, with a sample of 930 single mothers and 168 single fathers. The results indicate that postsecondary education, particularly a 4‐year college degree, improves the economic status of both single mothers and single fathers. Controlling for the effects of education and other factors, single fathers fare better than single mothers, and White single parents fare better than their African American counterparts. To benefit single parents, social policies must devote more resources toward human capital development and reduction of gender‐ and race‐based discrimination in the labor market.