“Some of My Children Are Worth More Than Others”: Perceptions of Nonresidential Fathers with Second Families as to the Fairness of the Australian Child Support Agency's Handling of First Family Child Support Financial Arrangements

One in three Australian marriages end in divorce, and over half of such divorces involve children. Research indicates that men tend to repartner within 1 to 2 years of a divorce and women within 3 to 5 years. A significant issue for repartnered men is the provision of financial support for children from both their first and second families. Although only 6% of all Australian first family children spend near/equal time (shared care) after divorce with both parents, fathers in Australia are mandated under child support legislation to provide financial support for their first family children, whether they reside with them or not. However, it is argued by this study's nonresidential fathers that the Child Support Agency, when considering the level of financial support for first family children, tends to overlook the needs of second family children, thus creating an advantaged and disadvantaged set of siblings. This finding is reviewed through a distributive justice theory lens. Finally, some future directions for research aimed at exploring the impact of Child Support Legislation on second families are suggested.     

Problematizing Fatherhood: Impact of the Intact Family Ideal on Fathers in Hong Kong

Discourses that uphold the superiority of the married two-parent family ignore the findings that parental practice rather than family form matters. Few studies have examined the impact of the hegemonic notion of the intact family on fathers. Based on data from participant observation in a men's center in Hong Kong and in-depth interviews with 20 members, this article analyzes the implied hegemony of the intact family in the new manhood proposed by the center. Results show intact family hegemony led fathers to endure bitter and violent marriages and that divorced fathers felt a sense of failure and guilt toward their children. I argue that the fatherhood movement should abandon the obsession with the intact family and promote involved fathering for all families.     

媒介再现父职：“新父亲”形象与父职教育契机——基于网络短视频的内容分析

随着网络短视频在日常生活中的广泛渗透,以“爸爸带娃”为主题的家庭父职生活也逐渐媒介化。以微信视频号、小红书和抖音三大主流网络平台的短视频为研究对象,采用内容分析法,探究媒介再现父职中的“新父亲”形象,以及媒介再现父职隐含的父职教育契机。研究发现：媒介再现父职以“关爱父职”为主导,关爱父职影响积极且效果良好;父亲参与意愿和参与主动性强;父亲参与的互动性较为充分;平等、亲和、睿智的父亲形象突出;引流变现下的“花式带娃”等多样化“新父亲”形象。鉴于网络传播的巨大影响力和实效性,媒介再现父职的促进路径为：推动新父职理念的传播与实践转向;设立常人榜样,实现父职教育的日常渗透;明确本土化父职研究方向,拓展父亲情感参与维度。     

Making use of work–family balance entitlements: how to support fathers with combining employment and caregiving

ABSTRACT

Much workplace support to parents offered by employers is gender neutral in design, but fathers’ usage rates are generally very low and far below that of mothers. This paper reflects on men’s dual roles as fathers and employees in relation to formal and informal work policies and practices, with the aim of answering the question: How could fathers feel supported by their work environment to take a more active caregiving role in the lives of their children? We take a capabilities approach to explore models of change, which supports the assumption that many fathers are somehow not fully enabled by their organisations to use policies. Focus groups were conducted within a large public sector organisation in the UK to capture the individual and interactional experiences of fathers. Findings suggest that workplace culture, line manager relationships, the ‘modelling’ behaviour of peers and gendered leave practices all impact on how fathers feel about using work-family balance policies, and whether they are likely to use them. The limits of workplace support for fathers can be challenged via the consideration of some key institutional conversion factors which if addressed may better enable fathers to exercise greater agency with regard to work-family balance entitlements.     

Work–Life Balance for Fathers in Globalized Knowledge Work. Some Insights from the Norwegian Context

This article takes as its point of departure the introduction of a new flexible time regime in parts of working life. There has been increased focus on how knowledge work in particular is developing into total commitment organizations where employees put in more and more time at work. Using two case studies from law and computing companies the article focuses on the organization of work and the organization of time in globalized knowledge organizations, and what effect this has on the time practices of male employees who are fathers. In the same period the Nordic countries have introduced state incentives and regulations that aim to help fathers achieve work–life balance. The article also discusses whether this is a fruitful policy, or whether fathers working in flexible time cultures need more deregulation, individual choice and flexible policy measures.     

Are they ideological renegades? Fathers' experiences on taking parental leave and gender dynamics in Korea: A qualitative study

Despite their fear of repercussions on career advancement and gender identity, Korean fathers taking parental leave have continually increased. Why do Korean fathers take parental leave in spite of the risk of being stigmatized as less masculine and less ideal workers? Are they willing to be ‘ideological renegades' to be new involved fathers? In‐depth interviews with fathers who took parental leave provide interesting answers. Overall, taking parental leave does not make fathers become ideological renegades since it is mainly utilized in a manner that accommodates the work devotion schema, deviating from the formal policy objectives. This deviant utilization is encouraged and even valued by organizations. This may be part of a psychological contract between organizations and employees, ensuring that employees are dedicated to their career even during parental leave. Furthermore, beyond the legal eligibility of uptake, informal but powerful ‘organizational eligibility' such as high performance or their contribution to the organization, makes not only the likelihood but also the aftermath of taking up different across fathers. As a result, a hierarchy among fathers with class connotations emerges. This hierarchy among fathers, combined with the traditional gender hierarchy, may reinforce the masculine fabric of ideal workers as the norm.     

Wait Until Your Mother Gets Home! Mothers' and Fathers' Discipline Strategies

From a traditional viewpoint, fathers are seen as the main disciplinarian in the family. However, recent studies suggest that these traditional family role patterns may have changed. In this study, we observed discipline strategies of mothers and fathers toward their sons and daughters. Participants included 242 families with two children (1 and 3 years of age). Findings revealed that parental discipline varied by the age of the children, but that mothers disciplined their children more often than fathers. Fathers, conversely, showed more laxness in response to child non‐compliance. Gender of the children was only related to physical interference, with mothers using more physical interference with boys than fathers, irrespective of birth order. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of parent gender for parent–child interactions in early childhood, but also suggest that child age should be taken into account as important explanatory factors.     

A Sociohistorical Analysis of Gay Men's Procreative Consciousness

SUMMARY

This qualitative study argues that an understanding of gay men's thoughts about fatherhood must be situated within a socially constructed historical context that is rapidly changing how gay men think about the possibility of creating families. Analysis draws on 39 interviews with gay men about their reproductive decision-making. Two samples of gay men were recruited-19 childless gay men ranging in age from 19–53 years, and 20 gay fathers who became a parent through non-heterosexual means, aged 33–55 years. Findings reveal how gay men's procreative consciousness and fathering desires are intimately tied to the social and historical context by which they came of age. Private thoughts about fatherhood and reproductive decision-making are better understood within a sociohistorical framework that can grasp how institutional relations shape how gay men navigate the reproductive arena.     

Children Caught in the Middle

Children from divorced homes are caught in the middle of parental conflict significantly more often and are experiencing more resulting stress than children from intact homes. Our intention was to use a brief educational intervention to reduce the number of times divorced parents put their children in the middle. Participants were 45 high school students with divorced parents (male = 22, female = 23; Mage = 15.8). These subjects rated the frequency and stressfulness of 32 such situations. The parents of the intervention group were mailed the subjects' averaged responses on the 32 items and an explanatory letter. The same 32-item questionnaire was given about 1 month after the mailing as the intervention evaluation. Subjects in the intervention group improved more than the two control groups combined, F(1,42) = 3.45, p < .10. These results imply that having divorced parents read some brief information is sufficient to produce behavior changes in the majority of those parents.