Joseph Pleck

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | UIUC · Department of Human Development and Family Studies

This foreword to Levant & Wong (Eds.), The Psychology of Men and Masculinities, discusses how the field has evolved since it emerged in the 1970s, and analyzes particular concerns in understanding masculinity issues in fatherhood and fathering, especially the idea that "fathers are essential for good child development.".

Objectives: To estimate national need for family planning services among men in the United States according to background characteristics, access to care, receipt of services, and contraception use. Methods: We used weighted data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth to estimate the percentage of men aged 15 to 44 years (n = 10 395...

Preconception care for men focuses on prevention strategies implemented prior to conception of a first or subsequent pregnancy to improve pregnancy and infant outcomes. Little is known about U.S. men in need of preconception care. This analysis describes the proportion of men in need of preconception care and associations of these needs by backgrou...

Research has shown that more traditional masculinity attitudes are associated with risk behavior and healthcare use, yet few studies have explored the relationship between masculinity attitudes and chronic health conditions among men. Further, it is unclear whether this relationship varies by race/ethnicity. Using fourth wave (2008-2010) data from...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Healthy People 2020 call for improvements in meeting men's reproductive health needs but little is known about the proportion of men in need. This study describes men aged 35 to 39 in need of family planning and preconception care, demographic correlates of these needs, and contraception use among...

Understanding the relationship between union status and men's sexual risk behavior in their 30s is important to ensure appropriate reproductive health services for men in middle adulthood. Data from 1,083 men aged 34-41 who participated in the 2008-2010 wave of the National Survey of Adolescent Males were used to examine differentials in sexual ris...

Seventy-seven ethnic Serbian refugee young adults (mean age = 23) from Bosnia and Croatia (in die former Yugoslavia) presently living in die United States completed an online survey. Young adults reported their own and their parents' level of acculturation to both Serbian and U.S. cultures. In contrast to most prior studies, acculturation gap was o...

OBJECTIVE: We address the extent to which parenting practices of fathers and mothers are associated with their sons' parenting behaviors as young adults and whether adolescent behavior explains this association. DESIGN: Data come from 409 young men interviewed in the 2006 Young Adult study of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. RESULTS:...

The most widely used techniques for identifying the varying effects of stressors involve testing moderator effects via interaction terms in regression or multiple-group analysis in structural equation modeling. The authors present mixture regression as an alternative approach. In contrast to the more widely used approaches, mixture regression is ab...

This article presents the approach that other investigators and I take in fathering research employing the construct of paternal involvement. First, I review the involvement construct, analyzing its social and methodological background, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it evolved subsequent to its initial formulation. Next considered are appro...

This article reviews the literature on family relationships of incarcerated fathers, examining the literatures’ topics, samples, and theories. Nineteen studies were identified that treated fatherhood as a primary construct, with 20 relating indirectly to fatherhood. Various theories were represented in the literature, yet with a general lack of stu...

Data were drawn from 845 males in the National Survey of Adolescent Males who were initially aged 15-17, and followed-up 2.5 and 4.5 years later, to their early twenties. Mixed-effects regression models (MRM) and semiparametric trajectory analyses (STA) modeled patterns of change in masculinity attitudes at the individual and group levels, guided b...

In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), young fathers include heterogeneous subgroups with varying early life pathways in terms of fatherhood timing, the timing of first marriage, and holding full-time employment. Using latent class growth analysis with 10 observations between ages 18 and 37, we derived five latent classes with...

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45587/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00287254.pdf

Racial and ethnic health disparities are an important issue in the United States. The extent to which racial and ethnic differences in STDs among youth are related to differences in socioeconomic characteristics and risky sexual behaviors requires investigation. Data from three waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1988, 1990-1991 and 1...

Analyzes and critiques the "essential father" hypothesis, the belief that fathers are "essential" for positive child development. Proposes an alternative, the "important father" hypothesis.

This article examines some persistent paradoxes in the definition of the male role, and proposes a distinction between traditional and modern male roles. Four current perspectives on the problems of the male role are distinguished: individual-level sex-role identity, cultural-level sex-role identity, contradictory socialization role strain, and inh...

This paper calls attention to the impact of masculinity ideology, an aspect of gender-related attitudes, on adolescent males' heterosexual relationships. Previous approaches to the male gender role and close relationships, and attitudes toward the male gender role (the operationalization of masculinity ideology), are briefly reviewed. Data from the...

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 tr...

This research item refers to 2 chapters of mine which appeared in the book titled The Role of the Father in Child Development (2010). (ResearchGate lists book chapters with the title of the book that included the chapter.) #1 is “Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes.“ #2 is “Fatherhood and mas...

Self-reports are the standard measure of STD history used in survey research. We explored to what extent self-reports of ever having an STD are recanted in a follow-up data collection. Using the National Survey of Adolescent Males (NSAM), we assessed consistency over time in self-reports of ever having an STD in a sample of young men transitioning...

Understanding how young men's sexual risk behaviors change during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood is important for the design and evaluation of effective strategies to reduce the transmission of HIV and other STDs. Data from three waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1988, 1991 and 1995) were used to categorize 1,880...

Even though there is little supportive evidence, teenage males in the United States are typically stereotyped as being sexually very active and irresponsible. Terms such as "sexual adventurer" or "roving inseminator" have been used to describe a prototypical young male who pursues sexual conquests to demonstrate his virility and prowess (Sorensen 1...

This study hypothesized that father involvement is influenced by mothers' level of involvement as well as by marital conflict, mothers' work hours, and fathers' status as biological or step father. The analysis also tested hypotheses about mother involvement as a potential mediator of the effects of marital conflict and maternal work hours on fathe...

This chapter analyzes challenges in studying immigrant fathering in the United States. The issues discussed concern: 1) sampling and recruitment, 2) research design and analysis, and 3) fathering constructs and dynamics. Some of the research challenges discussed are unique to investigations of immigrant fathers while others arise in fatherhood rese...

Four theoretical perspectives about why father involvement could have positive consequences for child development are briefly reviewed: attachment theory, social capital theory, Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, and "essential father" theory. Strengths and weaknesses of each perspective are discussed, and the prospects for an integrated ecologica...

This observational study supplements the strong and consistent link found between childhood depression and deficits in interpersonal functioning by examining the relationship between a high versus low score on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and children's emotions when interacting with their best friends. High-CDI and low-CDI target chil...

Male adolescents frequently become disconnected from health care, especially as they get older, which limits physicians' abilities to address their health needs and results in missed opportunities to connect them to the health care system as they enter adulthood. In this study we tested the ability of modifiable (beliefs about masculinity, parental...

The effects of wives' employment status on wives' and husbands' evaluations of their own marital adjustment are examined in two recent national surveys. Working wives whose husbands also work report having wished they had married someone else and having thought of divorce significantly more often than housewives, but do not score significantly lowe...

Qualitative interview data are used to explore fathers’( N = 24) perceptions of their own fathers and others as influential parental role models and associations between fathers’ role model perceptions and their involvement with their own children. In fathers’ descriptions of their parental role models, three themes emerged: types of models that fa...

Maurer, Pleck, and Rane's Gender Congruence Theory was further expanded via Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and tested to predict parenting behaviors in fathers and mothers. Results provided some support for the revised theory for fathers: Both perceived expectations from their wives for caregiving behavior and the perceived caregiving behaviors...

The comparative willingness of men and women to be geographically mobile for occupational advancement and the contributions of various factors to this relationship are explored using national survey-data. Variables identified by past theory and research as mediating the association between sex and willingness to move did explain a substantial amoun...

Using data from the National Survey of Adolescent Males (NSA), this chapters first discusses how adolescent boys’ heterosexual sexual and contraceptive behavior have changed between 1979-1988, and between 1988-1995, finding increases in condom use and, among white males, postponement of first heterosexual intercourse. The validity of the self-repor...

Prior research on paternal identity focuses on identity salience or commitment. Using an inductive approach, this study investigated paternal identity using fathers’ narratives about meaningful experiences they have had or anticipate having with their child. In an exploratory study of 28 married couples (N = 56) with preschool children, the Parenti...

This study discusses methodological considerations in assessing paternal identity with scale versus pie chart measures as they relate to paternal involvement. Additionally, it compares data on paternal identity and behavior at the role level (father) versus the domain level (more specific aspects of fathering, such as caregiving). Results indicate...

To evaluate the sustained effectiveness of a middle school service learning intervention on reducing sexual initiation and recent sex among urban African-American and Latino adolescents from 7th grade through the 10th grade. During the fall of seventh grade and again in eighth grade, students were randomly assigned by classroom to participate eithe...

A new qualitative method for investigating parental identity, the Parenting Narrative Interview (PNI), is introduced. Participants included 28 married couples (N = 56 individuals) with preschool children. Narratives of five meaningful temporally bounded parenting experiences (Marker Experiences) and meaningful experiences in five parenting domains...

A new theoretical model for parental identity, reflected-appraisals, and behavior was proposed. Parental identity and behavior in married parents were then investigated as a function of partner's and perceived reflected-appraisals, taking into account gender context effects. Sixty-four married couples completed the Caregiving and Breadwinning Ident...

Objectives: This study examines the association of beliefs about gender differences (frequently termed gender attitudes or attitudes about women in other research) and of beliefs specifically about masculinity to health risk behaviors in minority, urban, early adolescents, in light of the "gender conventionality" hypothesis. Methods: Data from a...

Changes in the sexual behavior of teenagers can have a significant impact on levels of adolescent pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Understanding the role played by attitudes and educational efforts will provide critical prevention information. Data on the sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, educational experiences...

This study examines shifts in sexual experience and condom use among US teenaged males. Results from the 1988 and 1995 National Surveys of Adolescent Males were compared. The proportion of never-married 15- to 19-year-old males who had had sex with a female declined from 60% to 55% (P = .06). The share of those sexually active using a condom at las...

Surveys of risk behaviors have been hobbled by their reliance on respondents to report accurately about engaging in behaviors that are highly sensitive and may be illegal. An audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (audio-CASI) technology for measuring those behaviors was tested with 1690 respondents in the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Male...

stern patriarchs and others / distant breadwinners and others / "dads" and others / the co-parent and others (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

This chapter reviews recent research concerning the levels, origins. and consequences of paternal involvement. Its focus is restricted to adult lathers in heterosexual two-parent families, as other chapters in this volume consider other important paternal groups. Investigations conducted in the United States provide most of the data discussed here,...

Are changes in job quality more closely linked to changes in distress for men than for women? Conversely, are changes in marital quality more closely linked to changes in distress for women than for men? These questions were addressed in a longitudinal analysis of a random sample of 210 full-time employed dual-earner couples. Change over time in jo...

A recent follow-up of the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Men suggests fairly regular patterns of condom use and nonuse. The 1991-92 follow-up survey collected data on 1676 young men who also participated in the first survey round in 1988 when they were 15-19 years old. 59% of the men aged 17-18 used condoms the first time they had sex with a ne...

According to data from the 1991 National Survey of Adolescent Males, condom use is likely to be highest at the beginning of relationships and to decline as the relationship continues. The proportion of sexually active men aged 17-22 who used a condom with their most recent partner declined from 53% the first time they had intercourse with that part...

This study investigates the discriminant validity of a measure of attitudes toward male roles, i.e., beliefs about the importance of men adhering to cultural defined standards for masculinity. Using data from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males, the Male Role Attitude Scale (MRAS) is evaluated in terms of (1) its independence from measures...

This paper analyzes age- and period-related changes in risk behaviors for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and sexually transmitted diseases among young men in the United States between 1988 and 1991. Data were from the 1988 and 1991 waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males. The 1988 survey was a nationally representative survey...

This article examines the effects of neighborhood, family, and individual characteristics on teenage males' premarital sexual and contraceptive behaviors and on their experiences with pregnancy or fatherhood, using data from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males and the 1980 census. It also systematically compares the effects of related pers...

Analyses of a nationally representative survey of 1,880 15- to 19-year-old men were conducted to examine factors associated with (a) the age when first sexual intercourse occurred and (b) whether a condom or other contraceptive method was used at first intercourse. Discrete time-event history models assessed factors influencing their age until firs...

Data from more than 1,000 sexually active young males interviewed in 1988 for the National Survey of Adolescent Males at ages 15-19 and reinterviewed in 1990-1991 at ages 17-22 show that as the respondents grew older, their condom use declined. Although respondents' attitudes about the effects of condoms on pregnancy risk, partner appreciation, sex...

This review evaluates 11 masculinity ideology measures that examine attitudes toward men and masculinities and 6 instruments for other masculinity-related constructs. Four conclusions regarding the available measures and the future development of instrumentation in the area are drawn from the review. First, there is evidence that measures of gender...

The relationship between the quality of adult sons' experiences in their current relationships with their mothers and fathers and the sons' psychological distress was examined in a random sample of 285 sons, aged 25 to 40. Quality of experience in the son role was assessed separately for the son-mother and son-father relationships. Sons who reporte...

According to a 1988 nationally representative survey, most 15-19--year-old men in the United States have received formal instruction about AIDS (73%), birth control (79%) and resisting sexual activity (58%). Results of multivariate analyses show the receipt of AIDS education and sex education to be associated with modest but significant decreases i...

There is general agreement that men's subjective experiences in their job role affect their psychological health. Less attention has been paid to the incremental contribution of family role variables. In a random sample of 300 employed, married men in two-earner couples, we estimate the relationship between men's subjective experiences in their wor...

Analyses of the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males indicate the prevalence of risk behaviors related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, including sexual, contraceptive, and drug use behaviors, among 15- to 19-year-old men. About three-fifths had sexual intercourse, indicating that a majority of teenage men have at least some potential exp...

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In the last two decades, men's social roles have changed to incorporate the increasing time they spend with their families, their greater concern about adult children's leaving or returning home, and alternative sexual preferences and life-styles. One related development is the increased amounts of psychiatric distress reported by men in recent yea...

In analyses from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males, about a third of sexually active males aged 15-19 report they used condoms consistently (i.e., 100% of the time) with their last partner and with recent partners, about half use condoms sometimes, and somewhat under a fifth never use them. Greater consistency of condom use is related to...

Although three-fifths of adolescent males aged 15-19 say they have had sexual intercourse, analyses of data from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males indicate that their level of sexual activity is relatively moderate. The data show that among sexually experienced young men the mean number of partners in the last 12 months is 1.9, and the m...

The relationship between the quality of adult daughters' (N = 350) experiences in their current relationships with their mothers and fathers and the daughters' mental health (i.e., subjective well-being and psychological distress) was examined. The daughters are a subsample drawn from a larger, disproportionate, random, stratified sample of 403 wom...

present a perspective on men's average level of family involvement and the extent to which it has increased in recent decades, issues that have recently become a matter of debate and set the stage for the potential impact of family-supportive employer policies on men / review evidence in several areas: levels and consequences of work–family stress...

In the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males, about three fifths of sexually experienced and inexperienced adolescent males intending to have sex in the next year reported there is an “almost certain chance” they will use a condom with a hypothetical future partner. Sexually experienced males report lower perceived costs for condom use related t...