No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Does Adherence to Masculine Norms Shape Fathering Behavior?: Masculinity and Father Involvement
Abstract
Research suggests that many fathers struggle balancing hegemonic masculine norms with new fatherhood ideals. This study uses data on 2,194 fathers from a national study on fathers of children aged 2 to 18 and incorporates a comprehensive assessment of masculine norms to examine whether adherence to masculine norms is associated with father involvement and whether this relationship is mediated by fathers' adherence to the new fatherhood ideal that promotes engaged, nurturing parenting. Results suggest that fathers who more closely adhere to masculine norms are less involved in instrumental and expressive parenting and are more likely to engage in harsh discipline than fathers who are less masculine. Adherence to masculine norms also reduces the likelihood of embracing the new fatherhood ideal, and adherence to the new fatherhood ideal at least partially mediates the relationship between masculinity and father involvement. Overall, despite changing expectations for fathers, hegemonic masculine norms continue to shape fathers' behavior.
... Research conducted during COVID-19 also showed that woman in heteronormative relationships struggled more than before (Del Boca, Oggero, Profeta, & Rossi, 2021). For fatherhood practices, although expectations of fathers had changed, gender differences in parenting were reported to remain (Petts, Shafer, & Essig, 2018). These studies have shown that gender roles may still play a role in family dynamics. ...
... According to various sources, fatherhood has changed from a traditional form to new ideal form (Carlson, 2006); yet there is limited information about the possible relationship between gender ideology and father involvement (Petts et al., 2018). Individuals who adhere to traditional gender norms are likely to perform gender traditional co-parenting, resulting in fathers' becoming breadwinners rather than active participants and mothers' becoming caretakers in the house (Kuo et al., 2018). ...
... Currently, a new fatherhood ideal term which argues the changing expectations of fathers due to changing gender norms has emerged. This term underlines the shift in maternal caregiving, affection and involvement (Petts et al., 2018). In other words, chores related to children and mainly involvement are not accepted as traditionally feminine work; they are accepted as familial duties shared also by the father. ...
The aim of this study is twofold; to answer the question of whether gender notions are predictors of father involvement, and to investigate whether involved fathers who have egalitarian notions raise more resilient children. Fathers of children aged 5–6 years (n=377) answered questions about their gender role attitudes, their level of father involvement and their children’s resilience. The data analysis has shown weak significant associations between the dyads of egalitarian viewsfather involvement, father involvement-child resiliency and egalitarian views-child resiliency. Besides, a higher level of gender egalitarian view predicted a higher level of father involvement; and higher father involvement predicted a higher level of child psychological resiliency. However, including gender views in the dyad of father involvement and resilience made no significant effect. In conclusion, attitudes towards gender roles still effect fathers’ choices about being involved in their children’s lives and father involvement is an important agent supporting resilience.
... However, perceptions of masculinity as a wider ideological construct beyond work and family roles have not been sufficiently addressed. As noted by Petts et al. (2018), studies of fathering should take into consideration broader conceptualizations of masculine identity and perceptions of masculinity that inform and shape fathers' behaviors. Along these lines, this study addresses masculinity irrespective of the work-family nexus and treats it as an ideological construct while taking into consideration also the psychological barriers associated with threats to one's sense of masculinity. ...
... This form of masculinity includes values such as emotional restraint and toughness, assertion of male status and avoidance of femininity (e.g., Thompson & Pleck, 1986). Several studies in this vein found that fathers who endorsed traditional masculinity ideology reported less involvement in childcare practices than fathers who did not endorse traditional norms (Bonney et al., 1999;Petts et al., 2018). ...
... In the next stage, we examine how endorsement of masculinity ideologies is associated with participation in domestic work. In line with previous research (Offer & Kaplan, 2021;Petts et al., 2018), we hypothesize that strong identification with values of traditional masculinity will be associated with lower participation in housework and childcare (Hypothesis 3a) whereas strong identification with new masculinity ideology will be associated with higher involvement in these domestic tasks (Hypothesis 3b). ...
Although research on precarious manhood has mushroomed in recent years, the implications of masculinity threats for father involvement at home has rarely been addressed. This study examined how endorsement of traditional masculinity and new masculinity ideologies related to fathers’ involvement in housework and childcare and the extent to which these associations were mediated by sensitivity to masculinity threats, measured in terms of the importance of masculinity to a man’s sense of self-worth. The sample was drawn from the AmeriSpeak Panel and included 1,424 heterosexual employed fathers of young children in the United States (61% White, 21% Hispanic and 7.5% Black). Results showed that fathers who were sensitive to masculinity threats were less likely than others to participate in housework and childcare. Endorsing traditional masculinity ideology was also associated with less involvement in both domains. This effect was partly accounted for by these men’s heightened sense of masculinity threat, suggesting that traditional masculinity ideology may inhibit changes in work and family roles not simply because of its content but because of its hegemonic status and men’s concern of losing it. By contrast, endorsing new masculinity ideology was associated with increased participation in childcare and was not mediated by sensitivity to masculinity threats. By taking into consideration fathers’ beliefs about masculinity and identifying for whom domestic work constitutes a masculinity threat, this study helps reveal the barriers to father involvement.
... In this study we take a different analytic approach, one that puts men on center stage and focuses on perceptions of masculinity as a broader cultural and ideological construct beyond work and family roles. Several studies that have explored the association between fathering and dominant views of masculinity, commonly referred to as traditional masculinity ideology, found the traditional views to be a major barrier to father involvement (Bonney, Kelley, and Levant 1999;Petts, Shafer, and Essig 2018). These studies, however, have not addressed potential changes in masculinity norms. ...
... Hofferth (2003) is one of the first researchers to have treated "warmth" as a distinct domain of father involvement. Similarly, Petts et al. (2018) examined expressive engagement with the child separately from other childcare dimensions. ...
... Only a limited number of studies have specifically examined attitudes about fathers' caregiving roles, but they too suffer from important conceptual and methodological inconsistencies that have led to mixed results. Most importantly, rather than probing attitudes about the appropriate roles expected of men (what fathers should do), many of the measures used in these studies confound the question of normative appropriateness with other considerations, such as essentialist beliefs about men's caregiving capabilities (e.g., Hofferth 2003), the importance of fathers' roles in child development (e.g., McBride and Mills 1993;McGill 2014;Petts et al. 2018), or fathers' personal experience in childcare (e.g., Gaunt 2019). The current study avoids this pitfall by employing attitudinal measures that center exclusively on normative attitudes, that is, on a prescriptive belief stating what fathers should do. ...
Current research demonstrates a gap between widely shared ideals of new fatherhood and men’s limited participation in childcare. Previous studies treat gender attitudes primarily in terms of work and family roles. In contrast, this study centers on perceptions of masculinity as a broader cultural-ideological construct. Specifically, it focuses on “new masculinity ideology,” a previously unexplored masculinity perspective associated with values such as authenticity, emotional expressivity, and holistic self-awareness. Using a sample of around 1,400 employed fathers in the United States drawn from the AmeriSpeak Panel conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, we examined how identification with new masculinity relates to gender role attitudes and three childcare involvement outcomes. Results from moderation analyses based on the computation of simple slopes show that new masculinity played an important role in emotional engagement and parental responsibility but not in routine care. New masculinity moderated the association between father involvement attitudes and childcare outcomes, suggesting that fathers who endorse this ideology are more likely to act in ways that are congruent with their inner beliefs. The breadwinning role appeared to remain important. This study highlights the ways in which the often confounded images of the “new man” and “new father” are conceptually distinct.
... Despite trends toward more engaged and equitable parenting by men, however, substantial gender inequalities in family life persist (Parker & Livingston, 2017). The persistence of gaps between mothers and fathers in domestic labor may be rooted in paternal expectations reified by social pressures, economic and institutional barriers, gender norms, and gendered identities (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005;Petts et al., 2018;Risman, 2004). From the colonial period in the U.S. through the 1970s, these traditional expectations stipulated that fathers, and particularly European American fathers, emphasize stern patriarchal household control and breadwinning (Pleck & Pleck, 1997), although more contemporary expectations also underscore the importance of caregiving and emotional labor (Pleck, 2010). ...
... Because variability in paternal childrearing practices and traditional fathering expectations persist, scholars have started to consider how traditional masculine norms influence men's parenting. Fathers who endorse a traditional view of masculinity which eschews caregiving and emphasizes male dominance, emotional stoicism, and the prioritization of work tend to be less involved in their children's lives (Gaunt, 2006;Petts et al., 2018) than fathers who believe that nurturance is central to the paternal role (Rane & McBride, 2000). Similarly, fathers-and mothers-who endorse traditional gender roles report more conflictual coparenting behaviors in their partners (Kuo et al., 2017). ...
... Pleck (2010), for example, argued that low identification with traditional masculinity represented an important cognitive resource in men that allowed them to undertake behaviors that are commonly gender-typed as feminine, such as caregiving, emotional support, warmth, and other actions not traditionally aligned with the paternal role. Empirical evidence underscores this point, finding that adherence to traditional masculine norms is negatively associated with contemporary fathering norms such as coequal parenting, caregiving, and emotional availability (Petts et al., 2018). ...
We investigated whether dual-earner fathers' adherence to traditional masculine norms, father nurturing role beliefs, and maternal gate closing behavior predicted the quality of new fathers' observed parenting and coparenting behavior. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of the transition to parenthood among 182 dual-earner different-sex couples. Expectant fathers reported their masculine agency, hostile sexism, gendered provider beliefs, and father nurturing role beliefs in the third trimester of pregnancy. Maternal gate closing behavior was coded from observations of mother-father-infant interaction at 3 months postpartum. At 9 months postpartum the quality of fathers' parenting behavior was coded from observations of father-infant interaction, and the quality of fathers' coparenting behavior was coded from observations of mother-father-infant interaction. SEM analyses indicated that fathers who held stronger father nurturing role beliefs showed more positive parenting behavior and less undermining coparenting behavior. Fathers higher in masculine agency also showed more positive parenting behavior. Mothers' greater gate closing behavior was linked to less positive parenting and less supportive coparenting behavior by fathers. More positive couple behavior observed prenatally was also associated with better parenting and coparenting by fathers. These results highlight the complexity of relations of traditional masculinity, father role beliefs, and maternal gate closing with the quality of new fathers' behaviors with children and partners in dual-earner families.
... Overall, the way that masculinity and fatherhood are discussed in research literature is shifting, with less focus on the amount of father involvement and more discussion of father-child relationship quality, as well as emotions in masculinities (Hunter et al., 2017;Silverstein et al., 2002) and adherence to masculine norms (Petts et al., 2018;Shafer et al., 2020). For instance, Pleck (2010) proposed an alternative to the essential father hypothesis, shifting toward a new nurturant father, a coparent who is emotionally involved (i.e., warm and nurturing), termed the "important father." ...
... Implicit in the discussion of theories about caring masculinities and important fathers is the expectation that women already embody these ideals and do not require explanation for why they might engage in nurturing behavior or aim to emotionally socialize their children. This conflict stems from the traditional division of labor by gender and cultural changes in the United States, as these new ideals for masculinity have arisen in the context of women's increasing participation in the labor force as well as increased cultural diversity in the United States (Cabrera et al., 2000;Petts et al., 2018). Cabrera et al. (2000) described two diverging paths of fathering approaches in the United States in the context of women's increasing employment: one where there is more father involvement in two-parent families, and the other with more nonresidential fathers. ...
... Thus far, most research specifically considering culture in masculinity and fathering is qualitative. This detailed approach can describe intersecting identities, which is important given the roles of factors such as religiosity, fathering context (e.g., married, cohabitating, step-parenting), age, race, ethnicity, native status, family size, involvement prior to birth, and neighborhood and regional variations (Petts et al., 2018). For instance, Black fathers may endorse more egalitarian parenting attitudes and more responsibility for children, monitor their children more, and exhibit less warmth than White fathers; Hispanic fathers may monitor children less, and endorse more responsibility for children than White fathers, with differences related to cultural factors, economic circumstances, and neighborhood (Hofferth, 2003). ...
Emotion regulation skills are important across the lifespan for psychological and interpersonal functioning. Research on children's emotion regulation skill development often examines parent socialization of emotion. However, this research has focused on mothers, neglecting fathers' roles in emotionally socializing children. This is concerning because traditional Western masculine norms include restricted emotionality, and conformity to these norms relates to emotion dysregulation. Fathers' views on masculinity are likely to impact their parenting attitudes and behavior and therefore relate to their socialization of children's emotion regulation. Research and theory need to include fathers from a variety of cultural backgrounds and family constellations in order to better understand the relation between masculinity and fathering behavior, particularly fathers' beliefs and behaviors toward socializing their children's emotion regulation. This review also discusses implications for prevention and intervention work with fathers and children, as well as key methodological issues and future directions for research and policy.
... Many theories on fatherhood are informed by ideas on masculinities, and researchers agree that masculine identities influence fathering ideas and practices (e.g. Brandth, 2016;Petts et al., 2018). Connell (1987Connell ( , 2005 developed her seminal theory of Hegemonic Masculinity, which is still widely cited within critical studies on men and masculinities research. ...
... HM ideals clearly continue to shape the fatherhood norms among the participants in our study, similar to what was reported by Petts et al. (2018). The salience of these HM ideals among the participants in this study are likely linked to their Christian beliefs (Lesch & Scheffler, 2015;Morrell & Jewkes, 2011), as the overwhelming majority of participants indicated that they belong to the Christian faith and were involved in church activities. ...
Early research on fatherhood in South Africa emphasize the prevalence of absent fathers and the detrimental impact thereof on families. More recent research on fatherhood, however, has shown a shift in fathering practices, where contemporary men engage in more involved and complicated fathering practices, which include nurturing and caring activities. Although local studies have begun to identify nurturing and caring activities in fathering, they have not comprehensively explored these caring ideas and practices. Furthermore, there has been a call for research providing more contextual knowledge on fathering practices across diverse groups of fathers locally and globally. This study, therefore, explored the ideas and practices of paternal care in a group that is especially under-represented in South African fatherhood literature. We draw on the data of fifteen families, each consisting of a father-figure, a mother-figure and an adolescent child. These 45 individuals were interviewed separately. The thematic analysis of participants’ accounts revealed complicated notions of paternal care. Although more contemporary caring ideas and practices of fathering behaviour were reported, these caring masculinity ideas remained intertwined with traditional hegemonic masculinity ideals. Nevertheless, these findings indicate that traditional ideas about fatherhood and masculinity have expanded to incorporate more nurturing, caring and expressive qualities.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
This open access book presents a novel multidisciplinary perspective on the importance of human flourishing. The study of the good life or Eudaimonia has been a central concern at least since Aristotelian times. This responds to the common experience that we all seek happiness. Today, we are immersed in a new paradoxical boom, where the pursuit of happiness seems to permeate everything (books, media, organizations, talks), but at the same time, it is nowhere, or at least very difficult to achieve. In fact, it is not easy to even find a consensus regarding the meaning of the word happiness. Seligman (2011), one of the fathers of the positive psychology, confirmed that his original view the meaning he referred to was close to that of Aristotle. But, he recently confessed that he now detests the word happiness, since it is overused and has become almost meaningless.The aim of this open access book is to shed new light on human flourishing through the lenses of neurosciences and health, organizations, and arts. The novelty of this book is to offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on the importance of human flourishing in our lives. The book will examine further how different initiatives, policies and practices create opportunities for generating human flourishing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
In this chapter, we examine the association between forgiveness and flourishing. We begin by identifying what forgiveness and flourishing are. We then move to considering conceptual models as well as evidence supporting the connection between forgiveness and flourishing. An early model of the forgiveness and mental health relationship offers a beginning in this regard. Next, we examine the stress-and-coping models of forgiveness of oneself and others. The final model is the scaffolding self and social systems model of forgiveness and subjective well-being. These models offer multiple vantage points from which to consider the forgiveness-flourishing connection. Limitations to these models and to the current state of knowledge on forgiveness and flourishing are highlighted, especially the limits to comprehensive assessment of flourishing in the extant literature. Conclusions and future directions for studying and promoting flourishing in people of different religious affiliation, cultures, countries, and life-circumstances are discussed in closing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
This chapter attempts to connect fatherhood involvement with human flourishing. We begin by presenting to the reader the reasons why fatherhood involvement matters. We then review fatherhood as a transformative event, together with the barriers that may limit the transformational aspect of fatherhood. Next, we review the concept of generativity, and a new definition of paternal generativity is also provided. Then, we present a model that connects fatherhood to human flourishing, partially explained by the role of paternal generativity and relational flourishing. Finally, the chapter ends with implications for researchers, organizations, and governments.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
To establish a “neuroscience of flourishing” one must first boil down its definition to only feature psychological concepts and then build a definition based on what the brain does. The “trait” perspective treats flourishing as a trait of the person that is reflected by forms of brain structure and/or patterns of neural functioning. The “behavioral” perspective emphasizes the brain as doing the behaviors that flourishing people do. I spend more time fleshing out the “belief” perspective, which is the brain’s representions of ‘having flourishing. In particular, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) forms these flourishing beliefs by generating positive evaluations of life circumstances (e.g., life satisfaction), the self (e.g., self-esteem), relationships (e.g., relationship satisfaction), and goal progress (e.g., purpose). This “belief” neuroscientific perspective on flourishing is parsimonious, helps explain the overlapping yet distinct features of hedonic and eudaimonic flourishing, and forms the basis for neurologically constrained psychological models of flourishing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Work and family are two domains of human life that are closely interconnected. For that reason, job resources can potentially contribute to have a better non-work life domain. The purpose of this research is to study how contextual resources, such as spouse behavior at home, can foster human flourishing through spill crossover, resulting in enriched outcomes in the work and home domain. We explore how support for work received from the spouse can lead to the generation of resources such as creativity, self-efficacy and strategic renewal. This chapter contributes to the work and family literature by introducing the concept of work supportive spouse behavior (WSSB), defined as behaviors exhibited by spouses that are supportive of their partner’s role in the workplace—this concept mirrors the family supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) that denotes behaviors by supervisors that favor their employees’ role as family members.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Eudaimonic well-being builds on the writings of Aristotle and integrates contemporary theories of positive psychological functioning. The empirically operationalization is detailed, emphasizing the importance of rigorous psychometric evaluation. Scientific advances of this model of well-being are noted, showing links to sociodemographic factors, experiences in work and family life, and health outcomes. Three future directions for research are considered. The first addresses growing problems of socioeconomic inequality and their role in undermining the opportunities of disadvantaged segments of society to experience eudaimonia. These problems have now been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted those who were already vulnerable. The second new direction examines the role of the arts and humanities as factors that nurture eudaimonic well-being. Whether the arts can activate needed compassion and caring among the privileged is also considered. The third new direction examines the intersection of entrepreneurial studies with eudaimonic well-being. Conventional conceptions of entrepreneurial success focus on business profits; a case is made that eudaimonia, of the entrepreneur as well as his/her employees and surrounding communities, constitute further measure of success that elevate issues of virtue, morality, and ethics.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
The great architect Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (1852–1926) is one of the shining lights of humanity on its path to social and individual perfection.
Through his works, his life, and his teaching to his disciples and collaborators, we can easily describe a real form of human flourishing. Millions of people from every corner of the world are interested in the works of Gaudí and the positive impact it has on humanity.
In this chapter, first we discuss human flourishing in the life and the teachings to his disciples of Gaudí, how Antoni Gaudí achieved his own flourishing; secondly, we indagate about how his art works are contributing to the flourishing of millions of human beings and, finally, we illustrate our opinions with three examples of Gaudí’s works which demonstrate to others ways to flourish themselves.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Human flourishing has been defined as a subjective and holistic sentiment related to growth, prosperity, fulfillment, and sense of life completeness. This definition may lead to think that human flourishing is unique to people living under privileged circumstances of health and well-being, whereas people with life limiting illnesses are deprived from this possibility.
In this paper, we reflect on the idea of human flourishing in the context of palliative care. Although people with advanced illnesses experience in a special manner the limits of human life and vulnerability, and the final stages may inevitably imply considerable suffering, we argue that it is also possible to experience this final stage as an opportunity for personal growth, to live it in full accordance with one's beliefs and values, and to reestablish a profound connection to oneself and to others. In sum, the end of life may also be a time of human flourishing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
We tend to think of flourishing as a place we get to, where we have arrived, but often do not see that act of change itself is a core facet of what it means to flourish. Indeed, we argue that flourishing is in fact our ability to change and adapt rather than a state that we are striving for. This points to human flourishing requiring an ‘adaptive’ approach to manage change: supporting careful navigation, negotiation and trade-offs. On this basis we need to identify the barriers that get in the way of enacting these possibilities and as such organisations and institutions that seeks to facilitate behaviour change will lean on barrier identification as well identifying ways to overcome them thought educating, assisting and facilitating. Using a behaviour change framework to identify the mechanisms shaping behaviour can help to identify ways to overcome barriers and facilitate positive outcomes.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Governments should help citizens thrive, not merely survive. Doing so means alleviating stress and addressing mental illness, as well as amplifying positive experiences and emotions that allow humans to blossom and grow. But what factors support human flourishing? In this chapter, I challenge early pessimistic views of human nature as purely selfish by summarizing evidence demonstrating that humans are social and prosocial beings. Critically, I discuss how social and prosocial behavior have been repeatedly shown to promote well-being, a finding that aligns with numerous theories espousing that meaningful social connections are the essential feature to human flourishing (Ryff and Singer, Personality and Social Psychology Review 4(1):30–44, 2000). Using these insights, I suggest that institutions should revise their policies to mirror and inspire human proclivities to connect and care.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Human flourishing is a complete state of well-being, comprised of essential elements that are universally valued across cultures as ends in themselves rather than as means to ends. Understanding the ontological interconnectedness of individual and communal flourishing has important implications for health. A narrow view of health has been framed in biomedical—and frequently physical—terms as the absence of disease or impairment. But broader and more holistic understandings derived from long-standing wisdom in the humanities are increasingly being used in tandem with the allopathic approach, thereby offering a relational understanding of health that transcends a focus on physical infirmity and locates the individual in social, ecological, and spiritual contexts. This wisdom has profound implications for the organization of healthcare, including a restoration of compassion as the heart of healthcare practice, as recent iterations of lifestyle medicine and integrative medicine have demonstrated. A synthesis of interdisciplinary knowledge affirms the goal of building a wellbeing ecosystem that transcends self-centeredness and reimagines health as flourishing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
This chapter concerns how artificial agents can be used to bolster moral emotions like compassion that are linked to well-being. While technology-based interventions for well-being are plentiful, e.g., wellness apps, two critical components for flourishing in the twenty-first century are currently overlooked: (1) promoting moral emotions , e.g., gratitude, that relies on complex emotional experiences rather than simple negative or positive affect, and (2) using conversational agents , e.g., chatbots, rather than other technological interventions, e.g., mobile apps, which reframes well-being interventions as conversations . We look into gratitude and compassion as specific moral emotions that can be fostered by talking with technology rather than clicking through technology. This extends our relations of care to include artificial agents, in which we explore flourishing along with (not despite) technology in a new light.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
One of the clearest manifestations of a flourishing life is manifested in the positive impact one projects on society, in the sense of making other lives flourish. Cristóbal Balenciaga is a paradigm of a flourishing life in the fields of creation and education within fashion. This article explains his professional achievements from a doble perspective, artistic and entrepreneurial, and his contribution to the flourishing of clients, workers, and even the fashion of future generations. The legacy of Balenciaga show that human flourishing may be considered as the result of a creative process, for which setting goals, audacity, resilience and consistency are required. When these capacities are put into practice they transcend the improvement of the personal well being to create an expansive mechanism that generates flourishing societies.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Wellbeing and flourishing are two interconnected concepts. Usually both are studied from just one discipline. In this book we combine research from academics look to combine the evidence on how flourishing has an impact and is influenced by health, art, entrepreneurship, and work life, among other factors. These influences and impact can be categorized in three groups. First, the interconnection with the self that is how we construction the image of ourselves impacts how we interpret and perceive different stimuli or experiences, and this has an impact on our flourishing. Second, the interconnection with others impacts the relationship we build with them, and this relationship impacts our flourishing. Finally, the interconnection with the environment shows us that being aware of the impact that our behaviors and traditions the environment can foster behaviors and changes that look to promote flourishing.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
Travel Literature can be a way of approaching eudaimonia and an interdisciplinary meeting point. When travelling, the individual is exposed to a multiple encounter experience. On the other hand, travelling is an intergenerational experience, and it will be increasingly so. From this perspective, it is possible to enrich studies by focusing on tourism and globalization, but also on relationships with technology. It is also possible, from this angle, to open new ways of developing new narratives that deepen in the encounter with oneself, with other cultures and that define new values in an ethics of human flourishing. The attempt to synthetize Travel Literature, an “elusive genre”, does not only contribute to sort out a tenuous typology, but also evidences the need to keep thinking about two fundamental dimensions of human existence; the dimension of circumstance, and the dimension of imagination.
... Such contexts may offer opportunities for vivid fatherhood involvement through protective and enhancing factors such as social policies, flexible work arrangements, or a new caring and egalitarian culture. At the same time, such a context may limit fatherhood engagement through risk factors such as lack of political support, flexibility stigma in organizations, or a non-egalitarian culture (Ewald et al., 2020;Kotelchuck & Lu, 2017;Moran & Koslowski, 2019;Petts et al., 2018). ...
The study of the good life or Eudaimonia h as been a central concern for academics and philosophers, as well as for many people, at least since Aristotelian times. This responds to the common experience that we all seek happiness. Today, we are witnessing a new paradoxical boom. The pursuit of happiness seems to permeate everything (i.e., books, media, organizations, talks), without reducing, or in some cases even increasing, the numbers of suicides, depression, and similar pathological consequences of anxiety and stress.
... В последние годы сформировался общественный запрос на поддержку института отцовства, реализацию системы мер по формированию ответственного и результативно-деятельностного отцовского поведения. В современной психологии актуальными направлениями исследований феноменологии отцовства являются следующие: − причины кризиса института отцовства и маскулинности (Кон, 2009;Schoppe-Sullivan & Fagan, 2020;Petts, Shafer, & Essig, 2018); − изучение влияния, функций и роли отца в развитии и воспитании ребенка (Garfield, Fisher, Barretto, Rutsohn, & Isacco, 2019;Cabrera, Volling, & Barr, 2018;Golombok et al., 2018;Цветкова, Рыбакова, 2018); − исследование гендерных аспектов родительства, т. е. выявление различий в мотивационно-потребностной, поведенческой и функциональной сферах материнства и отцовства (Zinovieva, Kazantseva, Pleshkova, & Kostromina, 2019;Карабанова, 2015;Jeynes, 2016); − определение влияния отцовства на развитие личности мужчин (Захарова, 2015;Завгородняя, 2017;Saxbe, Rossin-Slater, & Goldenberg, 2018); − выявление особенностей представлений об отцовстве и факторов, детерминирующих содержательно-структурные характеристики образа идеального отца (Борисенко, Белогай, 2007; Вагапова, 2015; Захарова, Карабанова, Старостина, Долгих, 2019; Мерзлякова, Голубева, Бибарсова, 2020); − разработка технологий социального и психолого-педагогического сопровождения родителей-отцов (Загвязинский, Чехонин, 2017;Борисенко, 2017;Семенова, Серебрякова, Князева, 2018;Golubeva & Merzlyakova, 2019). В ранее проведенных исследованиях установлено, что особенности представлений об отцовстве (идеальный отец, Я -будущий отец) определяются полом (Вагапова, 2015;Merzlyakova, 2019), возрастом (Борисенко, Белогай, 2007; Захарова и др., 2019), типом семейного самоопределения (Мерзлякова, Бибарсова, 2018), структурой ценностных ориентаций (Мерзлякова и др., 2020). ...
Введение. Одной из приоритетных задач государственной молодежной политики Российской Федерации на период до 2025 г. является воспитание традиционных семейных ценностей и позитивного отношения к семье и браку в молодежной среде, формирование образа успешной молодой семьи, ориентированной на многодетность. Реализация этой задачи ставит вопрос о том, какие детерминанты способствуют формированию гармоничных, полных и адекватных представлений об отцовстве у студенческой молодежи. Методы. Использованы обзор и обобщение содержания психолого-педагогической отечественной и зарубежной литературы. Для определения доминирующей нравственной ориентации применялась методика «Нравственное самоопределение личности» А. Е. Воробьёвой, А. Б. Купрейченко. Для диагностики содержательных характеристик представлений об идеальном отцовстве были использованы: модифицированный вариант методики семантического дифференциала, разработанный Ч. Осгудом, проективная методика «Незаконченные предложения», опросник «Ролевые ожидания и притязания в браке» А. Н. Волковой. Математико-статистические методы: критерии сравнения распределений, множественный регрессионный анализ, корреляционный анализ. Результаты. Впервые выявлено значимое влияние нравственных ориентаций личности на ценность категории «идеальный отец» для юношей и девушек. Раздел включает описание содержания представлений об идеальном отцовстве в зависимости от нравственной ориентации личности и пола студентов. Обсуждение результатов. Сравнительный анализ статистических данных позволяет сделать вывод о наличии значимых различий в представлениях об идеальном отце в зависимости от нравственной ориентации юношей и девушек. Представленные данные открывают ряд перспективных направлений исследования в предметной области психологии отцовства: 1) практико-ориентированная разработка технологий формирования полных и адекватных представлений об отцовстве посредством воспитания у студентов гуманистической и миросозидательной ориентации; 2) выявление возрастных различий в представлениях об отцовстве в зависимости от нравственной ориентации личности для определения возрастного периода в качестве сенситивного для развития ценностно-позитивного отношения к отцовству у студентов.
... Aquesta nova transició de la paternitat, i les seves barreres, junt amb una constel·lació de riques evidencies relatives a la involucració paterna han fet explotar la recerca en paternitat en moltes disciplines com la sociologia (Kaufman, 2013;Petts et al., 2018), la pediatria (Yogman and Garfield, 2016;Garfield, 2018), o polítiques socials (Kvande and Brandth, 2019) per posar alguns exemples. Aquest interès cap al pare, no ha estat únicament acadèmic, sinó que ha emergit també en els mitjans de comunicació i en el terreny polític. ...
L’adjectiu calidoscòpic té dos accepcions al diccionari, pertanyent o relatiu al calidoscopi, i en segon lloc, múltiple i canviant. Aquesta segona entrada és la que es vol aplicar a la paternitat. L’estudi de la paternitat ha crescut considerablement en els últims anys, però de forma fragmentada, amb molt poques interacciones interdisciplinars. Cal una mirada múltiple, enfortida per una coordinació entre disciplines que acostumen a parlar poc. Alhora, la paternitat està en transició, i cal fer un esforç per copsar i entendre tan les raons com les implicacions de tal transició. L’objectiu d’aquest article és doble, exposar en un primer lloc, perquè és necessari fer recerca sobre la paternitat, i en un segon lloc, justificar el perquè és necessari que aquesta recerca sigui interdisciplinar.
... Mothers (Brandth and Kvande 1998;Norman 2020;Raley et al. 2012;Petts and Shafer 2018;Rehel 2014); and inequities among men with different races and classes (Randles 2020). Quantitative studies finding heterosexual fathers often began completing additional household labor at the outset of the pandemic (Dunatchik et al. 2021;Yaish et al. 2021) are especially notable because men's changing participation in gendered household labor often prompts shifts in the meanings and enactments of fatherhood (Brandth and Kvande 2018;Rehel 2014). ...
Across a range of countries, analysts have found that adaptations to the COVID‐19 pandemic often exacerbated previously existing labor inequalities between men and women in formal employment markets and households. This has been especially true for mothers with children in their households. Drawing on decades of sociological and feminist scholarship on labor, we suggest the following three strategies to strengthen ongoing research concerning pandemic‐induced reorganizations of gendered labor. First, ongoing research should expand considerations of gendered labor to account for more types of work and workers. Second, initial findings should be extended through the continued utilization of diverse methodologies to better account for the ambivalent experiences and meanings associated with emergent reorganizations of gendered work during the pandemic. Finally, ongoing research should pursue intersectional analyses of gendered labor that are sensitive to the complex dynamics of place and time. By expanding and strengthening considerations of gendered labor in these manners, ongoing analyses could generate more comprehensive, precise findings that better guide policy interventions meant to address the gendered inequities being sharpened by the pandemic. Foundational theoretical understandings of gendered labor and its associated inequalities could also be extended.
... The diffusion of detrimental educational practices and harsh discipline presents an urgent theme to be addressed (UNICEF, 2014). This research field is multifaceted and many authors gave their contributions underlining the necessity of deepening our understanding of harsh discipline in its diffusion, determinants, and consequences that hinder children's well-being in several ways (Jansen et al., 2012;Gunnoe, 2013;Knerr et al., 2013;Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016;Banzon-Librojo et al., 2017;Niu et al., 2018;Petts et al., 2018;Pace et al., 2019;Lokot et al., 2020;Silveira et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2021). According to a recent study (Pace et al., 2019) involving data from a very large sample of children (215,885) across 62 countries, "spanking" is a common method used by parents for imparting discipline. ...
In a complex and systemic view of human development, the educational relationship is conceived as the keystone of development (Pianta, 1999; Pianta, 2001). However, harsh discipline practices may still be culturally rooted, thus affecting children’s well-being. Two constructs that may provide useful insights on this topic are Adultcentrism (AD) and Black Pedagogy (BP). AD is conceived as a paradigm of thought entailing a bias in the interpretation of children’s needs, hindering adults’ capability to truly understand children’s culture, and promoting a binary thinking based on the adult–child opposition. BP represents a label for those “old-fashioned” disciplinary methods (punishments or physical/mental violence) based on adults’ power and control over children, that may be still deemed as acceptable to a certain degree in a specific cultural and social context. Adultcentrism and Black Pedagogy Scales were administered to a sample of 294 Italian primary school teachers (age M = 47 years, SD = 8.96). Measures of authoritarian educational styles and of the ability to recognize subtle maltreating situations were also included. Results indicated that the higher the agreement with AD and BP, the lower the capacity to correctly recognize subtle maltreating situations in classroom. Adultcentrism proved to be a significant predictor of Black Pedagogy: F(1, 231) = 71.06, p = .000, with R² = .24. Results support the idea that it is worth reflecting on the risk that Adultcentrism brings about detrimental Black Pedagogy educational practices, in order to provide suggestions about possible application models for family and professional caregivers to use to foster children’s well-being.
... Acceptance of wife beating by women is known to further promote men's endorsement of traditional gender roles by accepting and not challenging society's beliefs about men's superiority (Arënliu et al., 2019;Uthman et al., 2009). Fathering studies showed that encouragement and endorsement of higher traditional masculine beliefs were associated with lower levels of involved parenting behaviors for fathers due to the view that childcare was women's duty (Dette-Hagenmeyer et al., 2014;Petts et al., 2018;Pleck, 2010;Russell, 1978). For example, in line with this view, mothers' and fathers' beliefs of traditional gender roles were found to be associated with fathers' decreased involvement in child health care and decision-making (Zvara et al., 2013). ...
Purpose: While the importance of domestic violence has been examined in relation to parenting behaviors and child development, less is known about the link between justifying attitudes toward wife beating and parenting, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This study employs an actor–partner interdependence mediation model to examine how parents’ justifying attitudes toward violence against women relate to their own (actor effects) and their partners’ (partner effects) level of parental involvement, which then influence their preschool children’s early development. Method: Using data from mothers, fathers, and children in 16,010 families residing in LMIC that participated in UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Waves 4-5-6 and a dyadic mediation modeling approach, we have examined the associations between maternal and paternal justification of violence against women, parental involvement, and children’s early development. Results: Results revealed that mothers’ greater justification of violence against themselves were associated with decreased level of maternal (actor effect) and paternal (partner effect) involvement, while fathers’ greater justification of violence against their wives was related to decreased paternal involvement (actor effect). Furthermore, mediation tests indicated that paternal justification of violence was negatively and indirectly associated with early childhood development through paternal involvement. Moreover, maternal justification of violence was negatively and indirectly associated with early childhood development through both maternal and paternal involvement. Conclusion: Mothers’ and fathers’ justifying attitudes toward domestic violence emerge as a possible risk factor for child development that can be addressed by preventive interventions.
... The traditional male gender role is characterized by attributes like independence, competence, assertiveness, social dominance, risk proneness, and physical strength (Bem, 1974;Spence and Helmreich, 1979;Smiler, 2004). Men with such masculinity orientation tend to adhere to the traditional patriarchal family model (Bulanda, 2004;Petts et al., 2018). Accordingly, men should marry women and give their (then) wives children; fathers and mothers are expected to divide their family tasks as breadwinners and caregivers; and fathers should be the ultimate authorities in their families, as men should be in society in general (McAdams et al., 2008;Banchefsky and Park, 2016). ...
The present study examined associations between fathers’ masculinity orientation and their anticipated reaction toward their child’s coming out as lesbian or gay (LG). Participants were 134 German fathers (28 to 60 years) of a minor child. They were asked how they would personally react if, one day, their child disclosed their LG identity to them. As hypothesized, fathers with a stronger masculinity orientation (i.e., adherence to traditional male gender norms, such as independence, assertiveness, and physical strength) reported that they would be more likely to reject their LG child. This association was serially mediated by two factors: fathers’ general anti-LG attitudes (i.e., level of homophobia) and their emotional distress due to their child’s coming out (e.g., feelings of anger, shame, or sadness). The result pattern was independent of the child’s gender or age. The discussion centers on the problematic role of traditional masculinity when it comes to fathers’ acceptance of their non-heterosexual child.
... Dan's comments about scouts being able to separate from their family emphasized emotional autonomy during adolescence, whereas Gus's discussion of youth leadership and initiative to act without adult direction provided an example of agentic or behavioral autonomy (see Friedman, DeLucia, Holmbeck, Jandasek, & Zebracki, 2009;Koenig, 2018). The emphasis on autonomy and independence could be considered a reification of traditional masculine norms (Petts, Shafer, & Essig, 2018; see also Garner & Grazian, 2016;Koenig, 2018), which continue to exist in the BSA despite the organization's 2019 decision to allow girls to join sex segregated troops in (Anakwe et al., 2020;Frey, 2019). The BSA's survival likely depends on its volunteers' success in recruiting increasingly diverse cohorts of youth members. ...
This instrumental case study explored non-formal educators’ lay theories of adolescence using the case of the Boy Scouts of America’s Scouts BSA program, a co-ed program serving youth between the ages of 11 and 17. We conducted an iterative analysis of 110 structured interviews with Scouts BSA adult volunteer leaders who served as scoutmasters or assistant scoutmasters. Results indicated that participants discussed adolescence in terms of youth characteristics as well as processes youth underwent during their adolescent years. These adults sometimes viewed adolescence as idiosyncratic, identifying differences in learning, behavior, and family situations among youth, particularly those whom they had identified as exhibiting specific challenges like autism. The results also illustrated relationships between the program and lay theories of adolescence. Namely, core Scouts BSA programmatic structures and expectations such as operating the patrol/troop method hierarchies, building leadership skills, camping or outdoor activities, and including all youth in activities influence participants’ own views of adolescence, including their views of adolescence as a time to cultivate maturity and independence. The study concludes with a brief discussion of results and limitations of the study, including recommendations for training and additional research.
... Conversely, some studies observing emerging unconventional patterns in parents' childcare arrangements have claimed that structural factors, such as an economic crisis, might force a gender-role change at the societal or institutional level (Chesley 2011;Dominguez-Folgueras et al. 2018). The emerging pattern of gender-egalitarian fathers that adopt an active role in childcare and subscribe to the "new fatherhood ideal" (Petts et al. 2017) is associated with higher educational levels and younger ages (Escot et al. 2014). At the interactional level, men and women match their behaviors according to what they expect from each other and socially with respect to parental responsibilities (Singley and Hynes 2005). ...
This aim of this open access book is to launch an international, cross-disciplinary conversation on fatherhood engagement. By integrating perspective from three sectors—Health, Social Policy, and Work in Organizations—the book offers a novel perspective on the benefits of engaged fatherhood for men, for families, and for gender equality. The chapters are crafted to engaged broad audiences, including policy makers and organizational leaders, healthcare practitioners and fellow scholars, as well as families and their loved ones.
... Conversely, some studies observing emerging unconventional patterns in parents' childcare arrangements have claimed that structural factors, such as an economic crisis, might force a gender-role change at the societal or institutional level (Chesley 2011;Dominguez-Folgueras et al. 2018). The emerging pattern of gender-egalitarian fathers that adopt an active role in childcare and subscribe to the "new fatherhood ideal" (Petts et al. 2017) is associated with higher educational levels and younger ages (Escot et al. 2014). At the interactional level, men and women match their behaviors according to what they expect from each other and socially with respect to parental responsibilities (Singley and Hynes 2005). ...
This study explores how men in South Korea, Spain, and the U.S. use parental leave and shows how distinct labor-market structures, divisions of unpaid and paid labor, and parental leave policies shape individuals’ intentions and decisions to utilize leave policies. Using in-depth interviews of 80 men, we show two important findings: One, in Spain and the U. S., the systematized monetary support strongly encourages fathers to use parental leave whereas in South Korea, a generous policy becomes of little use because work culture heavily discourages men from taking leave. Two, gender norms shape the desirability of using parental leave regardless of the availability of the policy. An emerging group of men in Spain and the U.S. actively reconstruct what an engaged father should do whereas Korean men took it for granted that fathers should not take leave, instead should work even harder to be a responsible father. In the end, this study shows how the monetary structure and schema of what an engaged father should do shape how men approach and use parental leave in three different contexts.
... Literature also indicated that the Y chromosome has a significant effect on learning performance by affecting multiple cognitive abilities, such as visuospatial abilities, which play an important role in the developing of Chinese written vocabulary [54,55]. Second, previous studies suggested that fathers were the representative of male behavior patterns in their children's lives and are the main role models for boys' role identification [56][57][58]. Boys were more likely to portray fathers as their own role models and imitate father's behavior and vocabulary [59][60][61]. Moreover, McBride-Chang et al. followed 22 Chinese children from the beginning of kindergarten to Grade 1, and also found that the mediation of maternal guidance for children only explained children's Chinese character reading, but not Chinese character writing [62]. ...
Written vocabulary size plays a key role in children’s reading development. We aim to study the relationship between Chinese written vocabulary size and cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors in primary school students. Using stratified cluster sampling, 1162 pupils from Grade 2~5 in Guangzhou were investigated. Chinese written vocabulary size, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors were assessed by the Chinese written vocabulary size assessment scale, the dyslexia checklist for Chinese children (DCCC) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), respectively. The scores of visual word recognition deficit (β = −3.32, 95% CI: −5.98, −0.66) and meaning comprehension deficit (β = −6.52, 95% CI: −9.39, −3.64) were negatively associated with Chinese written vocabulary size; the score of visual word recognition deficit (odds ratio (OR) = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.07) was the related factor of a delay in written vocabulary size. The score of meaning comprehension deficit was negatively associated with boys’ Chinese written vocabulary size, while the score of auditory word recognition deficit was negatively associated with girls’ Chinese written vocabulary size. The related factor of a delay in written vocabulary size was spelling deficit in boys and visual word recognition deficit in girls. There is a significant correlation between Chinese written vocabulary size and cognitive factors, but not emotional and behavioral factors in primary school students and these correlations are different when considering gender.
Most of the scholarship looking at men in families focuses on fathers and their engagement in the lives of children and how they partner with their co‐parents. There have been significant changes in how scholars conceptualize and operationalize paternal involvement and engagement with children and families. Current models use multidimensional models and address the significance of father–child relationship quality. This involvement has significant positive effects on children, co‐parents, and fathers themselves. However, there are significant structural factors that can either facilitate or impede men's involvement in families – potentially impacting the well‐being of children and families. There are, importantly, significant differences in paternal engagement across a diverse range of characteristics which intersect with these structural characteristics. Future directions are discussed.
Existing research points towards an overall intensification of parenting expectations including newer expectations for fathers’ involvement in caregiving. At the same time, the ideal worker norm persists, and employers continue to expect men’s full and uninterrupted work commitment. This article explores what these competing expectations attached to work and parenting mean for single fathers. To do so, the article draws on 30 in-depth interviews with a sample of working single fathers with primary caregiving responsibility in the United States and differentiates between those with white- and blue-collar jobs. The study finds that both white- and blue-collar single fathers prioritize caregiving and resist the ideal worker norm and, as a result, experience work–family conflict. Resolving this conflict becomes single fathers’ individual responsibility, and the resources to resolve it are primarily available to white-collar men in the form of understanding supervisors and access to workplace flexibility. Blue-collar single fathers need to be more creative and resourceful in reconciling their caregiving and breadwinning roles. Inability to resolve work–family conflict can lead to job penalties such as reduced income and/or a job loss, which are found across different job types.
This chapter examines the assessment process with fathers. This chapter begins with a discussion of the significance of fathers and their involvement. It includes an examination of the importance of conducting a comprehensive assessment that focuses on father strengths and challenges. By understanding fathers’ strengths, practitioners can build on existing resources, both internal and external. To effectively intervene, practitioners must understand the historical and current needs and challenges of fathers. A primary focus of this chapter is the assessment of father involvement and the quality of fathering he provides his children. This chapter then discusses the relevance of understanding fluidity—changes in the father’s status, context, and parenting situation over time rather than assuming these are stagnant factors. Content includes the use of father-friendly assessment tools and strategies to accurately assess overall health and well-being. This chapter provides recommendations for practitioners and programs to improve assessment processes for fathers and strategies to make assessment more welcoming and useful.KeywordsFather-friendly assessment Father strengths and challenges Father involvement Fluidity Context
The social environment has long been recognized as an important context for human development in general and gender development in particular. Children’s environments are replete with cues about gender appropriateness and models of gendered behavior. Children receive direct and indirect feedback about their gendered behavior such as the reward of social approval by peers or parents. As a result, gender role differences appear early, especially in domains where the environment is strongly gender-differentiated such as in the realm of play or children’s media. From early in life, boys and girls show gender-differentiated preferences for color, toys, and same-gender peers. In this chapter we review classic and contemporary theories of gender development with a focus on Social Cognitive Theory (Bussey & Bandura, 1999) and a newer developmental model of persuasion (Buijzen et al., 2010). We then discuss environmental contexts in which social influences operate to produce gender role development, including parents, peers, school, toys and play, and children’s media.KeywordsSocial Cognitive TheoryDevelopmental Persuasion ModelGender developmentGender socialization
It is important to assess the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality, but we know little about US parents' domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the pandemic or how simultaneous changes in employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and care supports may have altered domestic arrangements. This study assesses changes in parents' domestic labor during the first year of the pandemic using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March, April, and November 2020. Parents' divisions of housework and childcare became more equal early in the pandemic, but divisions of housework reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by Fall 2020 whereas fathers' shares of childcare remained elevated. Changes in parents' divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents' labor force conditions, but shifts in gender ideology also mattered. Decreases in fathers' labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in fathers' shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased their time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell. Shifts toward more traditional gender ideologies were also associated with decreases in fathers' shares of childcare in Fall 2020. Overall, results point to remote work as a possible means for achieving greater gender equality in domestic labor among couples, but shifts toward traditional gender ideologies may suppress any gains stemming from supportive work-family policies.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11113-022-09735-1.
This study examines whether parental leave‐taking affects perceptions of workers as good parents, and whether this relationship varies between mothers and fathers. Contemporary parenthood norms promote intensive parenting, but pressures to engage in intensive parenting are more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Paid parental leave policies have the potential to improve gender equality, but only if such policies help to change gendered parenting norms. We assess whether leave‐taking further entrenches gendered parenting norms within workplaces or promotes greater perceptions of good parenting among fathers. We use combined data on 3333 respondents from two survey experiments in which parental leave‐taking and parental gender were randomly assigned. This enables us to assess the causal effects of parental leave‐taking on perceptions of mothers and fathers as good parents. Mothers and fathers in married, different‐sex partnerships are more likely to be viewed as good parents when they take longer periods of leave. Also, the positive effects of leave‐taking on perceptions of workers as good parents are stronger for fathers than for mothers—but only for short amounts of leave taken. Greater access to, and use of, paid parental leave may enable more parents to be perceived as fulfilling contemporary parenting norms, and may especially increase the likelihood that fathers are viewed as good parents. As such, these policies may help to change gendered perceptions of parenting and promote greater gender equality.
This study uses bioecological and identity theories to explore associations among maternal education and employment, fathers’ gender role beliefs and identities, and fathers’ caregiving and nurturing involvement in a Turkish context. The study sample was derived from data collected in 2016 from 1,102 fathers of children between birth and 3 years of age. We used path analysis in structural equation modeling to test direct and indirect associations. Direct paths between maternal education and employment and fathers’ caregiving and nurturing behaviors were not significant; however, some fathers’ gender role beliefs mediated the associations. Modernity beliefs mediated the association between education and caregiving, and fathers’ emotional closeness mediated the association between maternal education and fathers’ nurturing behaviors. Furthermore, maternal employment was indirectly associated with fathers’ caregiving via his beliefs about the equality of sons and daughters and division of labor at home. Father identity development was not associated with maternal education or employment, and only mediated associations between fathers’ beliefs about emotional closeness and their caregiving and nurturing involvement. The current findings suggest that cultural norms and beliefs likely play themselves out via parenting styles and family structures (the microsystems for children), and therefore these family variables may contain very valuable cultural information in understanding the processes of father identity construction, masculinity beliefs, and father involvement behaviors.
Reproductive health knowledge and services utilization are the most crucial aspect to be observed amongst rural adolescents. It is always seen that adolescent girls struggle in the utilization of reproductive healthcare services due to various reasons. The findings of the present can enhance the efforts towards promoting the use of reproductive services in slum communities. The present study follows the eclectic approach of research. Primary and secondary data has been collected using semi-structured questionnaires, focus-group discussion, and case studies from slums, i.e., Talashai and Jadabpur in Balasore, Odisha. The study's findings reveal a significant relationship between knowledge and utilization of reproductive healthcare services among adolescent girls in slums of Balasore, Odisha. The reasons for disparity revolve around lack of healthcare services, lack of proper knowledge, social stigma, customary practices, affordability, and shyness.
Keywords: Covid-19, Corona Virus, Psychological effect,
Mental Health, Co-morbidities, Elderly.
Consistent with ecological systems theory and the heuristic model of parental behavior dynamics, the current study is focused on both individual and contextual factors that determine fatherhood involvement in the context of a traditional patriarchal culture. Father–child interaction during the early childhood period is a salient factor in predicting later child outcomes. However, studies on antecedents of involved fatherhood are scarce, mostly concentrated on one aspect of fathering behavior, and limited to few cultural contexts. Data were collected from a representative urban sample of fathers of preschoolers in Turkey (N = 1,070). Different components of fatherhood involvement were assessed to project three distinct paternal behavior dimensions as care, affection, and control. Father role satisfaction, psychological value attributed to the child, and perceived family support were positively associated with involved fatherhood and higher parental warmth. Working hours per day was negatively associated with involved fatherhood, as expected. Higher life satisfaction was associated with higher positive parenting. Patriarchal views of masculinity were found to be the main predictor of parental physical punishment, controlling for all other predictors in the model. Study findings emphasized the importance of factors other than parenting skills that contribute to fathers' parental effectiveness. Our study's findings have implications for family practices and policies. For example, besides parenting skills, father support programs should also focus on other factors such as developing awareness of traditional masculinity norms and gender role prescriptions that can harm democratic family environments and childcare practices.
The number of incarcerated individuals has skyrocketed over the last thirty years. The majority of incarcerated individuals are racially minoritized individuals and many are also parents. Seventy percent of incarcerated fathers were raised in households without the presence of a father and, thus, struggle with building close relationships and maintaining family ties. More research is needed to further explore factors that influence incarcerated fathers’ familial relationships. Data were utilized from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering to answer: Do incarcerated fathers parenting attitudes predict parental warmth? Results indicated that the father’s emotional health and fatherhood attitude related to decision-making involvement was positively associated with parental warmth. Results can be used to inform clinical practice and future research in reference to incarcerated fathers and their relationships with their child(ren). Clinical implications and future directions are provided to advocate for family services as well as to better serve this population.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how professional men in dual-career relationships craft and enact their fatherhood role ideologies during the transition to fatherhood. In particular, the authors focus on the impact that the development of a more involved approach to fatherhood has on the mother's ability to combine career and family.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes a longitudinal, qualitative methodology. Pre- and post-natal interviews were conducted with 18 professional men in dual-career heterosexual relationships.
Findings
Although the traditional mode of fatherhood that is rooted in breadwinning continues to be the dominant approach among working fathers in the US, new modes of more involved fathering are emerging. The results of the study indicate that a general shift away from a strict, gendered division of household labor is taking place in today's dual career couples, and this is leading to an increase in men's involvement in childcare. Further, although much of the extant research conceptualizes fatherhood as a role typology, the results reveal that all fathers are involved in caring for their babies, though to varying degrees. Thus the authors propose a continuum of involvement. Finally, the authors discovered how men are finding creative ways to use official and unofficial workplace flexibility to be more involved at home.
Originality/value
The findings offer novel insights into the factors that encourage involved fathering. The authors encourage organizations to create more supportive environments that foster involved fathering by extending paid parental leave benefits to men and providing more access to flexibility.
The role of fathers in the provision of care for their children is changing. This research explored fathers’ experiences of caring for their child with cancer within a paediatric oncology ward in Australia and to what extent, if any, gendered expectations played a role in their experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with six fathers to explore their current experiences of caring. This study found that their child’s individual journey with cancer played a central role in the experiences of fathers, as this shaped engagement with staff, management of caring and work responsibilities, and the kinds of support available. The study identifies barriers as well as positive experiences for fathers during hospital treatments. Recommendations for future research are suggested to further explore how social workers and other health practitioners can support fathers in their caring role.
• IMPLICATIONS
• Fathers have gendered experiences in caring for their child with cancer, although this is not always recognised.
• Ideals and expectations of the role of fathers are changing, leading to differing explanations of how fathers define and enact fatherhood.
• Further research is needed to explore how social workers can better engage with fathers to further understand their specific needs in caring for their child with cancer.
Family science brings new perspectives to the study of masculinity in the social sciences and public health. Families are spaces to both examine and to change expectations for masculinity, in part through encouraging the expression of multiple masculinities. In this article we identify two unique theoretical contributions of family science: reconceptualizing masculinities as family‐level processes, and as intergenerational processes that emerge over time. We situate the social construction of masculinities within family relationships over time, as well as in structural contexts and institutions guided by laws and policies. Finally, we provide four dimensions of masculinities as tools for new research: families and enabling of hegemonic masculinity; families and development of alternative masculinities; mental health consequences of family‐level masculinity processes; and expanding masculinities beyond the body with a gender‐inclusive approach.
Over the last two decades, men themselves have been dedicating more time and resources to care work within families. After parents' separation, however, mothers are still commonly the primary caregiver. A major change though has been the introduction of shared residency models. While in Sweden shared residency is widely adopted, in Germany, however, it is only rarely practiced. Drawing on these differences, the qualitative study uses data from 12 interviews to explore and compare experiences of fatherhood after separation in Sweden and Germany. The articles applies the concepts of caring and protective masculinities to discuss the relation between masculinity and fatherhood in men's identities as fathers. Applying both concepts aims to theorize how both notions of care and protection are entangled in practices of male care. The study discovered that, even though most fathers in the sample have shared residency models, there is great variation in how fatherhood is experienced. The relationship with the mother, legal regulations and socio-cultural norms were identified as decisive determinants for post-separation fathering. Especially sharing care and responsibilities equally after separation contributed to sharpening men's understanding of care work. ARTICLE HISTORY
In this review, we synthesise the growing body of interdisciplinary research on fatherhood and employment for the purpose of guiding future management studies research on the topic. We argue that shifts in research approaches and assumptions are required to fully understand the situation of contemporary employed fathers. Our review draws attention to four distinct but related lenses: work, family, and fatherhood; masculine hegemony and fatherhood; involved fathering; and diversity and fatherhood. Extant research on fatherhood and employment reflects often static notions about the ‘nuclear family,’ with expectations about paternal work orientation failing to reflect contemporary paternal experience. We introduce the sociological concept of ‘family practices’ as a means of shifting from traditional (wherein fathers are positioned as breadwinners and mothers as child‐carers within heterosexual couples) to more fluid family forms that characterise 21st century ways of ‘doing fatherhood.’ Implications and avenues for future management studies research are discussed.
Prior studies that show no association between fathers’ work flexibility and their domestic contributions suffer from measurement limitations and/or the lack of nationally representative data. Using data on fathers in different-sex partnerships (n = 1,956) from the 2017–2018 American Time Use Survey Leave Module, we examine three indicators (use, frequency of use and reason for use) of working from home—a work–family benefit is known as flexplace—and consider whether partners’ employment status moderates the association between flexplace and fathers’ time in domestic labor. Fathers who use flexplace benefits report more routine childcare, regardless of the reason for flexplace use or their partners’ employment status. The association between flexplace use and fathers’ housework time is conditional on their partners’ employment status and fathers’ rationale for working from home.
This qualitative study examined 25 stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) in the United States and their lived experiences through the perspective of the theory of caring masculinities. Results from semistructured telephone interviews demonstrated that the majority of SAHFs voluntarily opted to be full-time caregivers, named financial reasons for becoming a SAHF, reported high levels of satisfaction in caring for their children, and experienced little change in their relationship with their spouse or partner as a result of being a SAHF. Major findings included the potential change in attitudes and masculine identities that accompany becoming a SAHF, men’s emotional connection with others, and their increased respect for caregiving. Overall, SAHFs reported incorporating aspects of masculine and feminine qualities to develop a new masculine identity that best supports their caregiving role and experiences. In addition, SAHFs identified social isolation and mixed reactions from people as the 2 main challenges against constructing and maintaining their new masculinity; they also reported support from multiple social networks (e.g., partners, female family members, other SAHFs) as a means to successfully overcome such challenges. The results are further discussed in the context of the caring masculinities framework and suggestions are provided for future research.
For a variety of sociopolitical, economic, scientific, and clinical reasons, considerable interest in the study of father-child relationships has emerged in the last decade. In the last few years, the focus has narrowed to concern about the effects of increased paternal involvement. Interest in, and concern about, the latter seems to be especially prominent among social service providers and clinicians. For this reason, and also because the voluminous literature on paternal influences has been scrutinized quite extensively, we will focus in this chapter on evidence concerning the effects of increased involvement. Much less will be said, mostly in summary fashion, about paternal influences more generally, although readers will be referred to recent reviews for further discussions of the literature.
Compared to older kinds of sample surveys, online platforms provide a fast and low-cost platform for factorial surveys, as well as a more demographically diverse alternative to student samples. Two distinct strategies have emerged for recruitment: using panels based on population-based samples versus recruiting people actively seeking to complete online tasks for money. The latter is much cheaper but prompts various concerns about data quality and generalizability. We compare results of three vignette experiments conducted using the leading online panel that uses a population-based paradigm (Knowledge Networks, now GfK) and the leading platform for crowdsource recruitment (Amazon Mechanical Turk). Our data show that, while demographic differences exist, most notably in age, the actual results of our experiments are very similar, especially once these demographic differences have been taken into account. Indicators of data quality were actually slightly better among the crowdsource subjects. Although more evidence is plainly needed, our results support the accumulating evidence for the promise of crowdsource recruitment for online experiments, including factorial surveys.
The Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) is a measure of the centrality, importance or salience of religious meanings in personality that has been applied yet in more than 100 studies in sociology of religion, psychology of religion and religious studies in 25 countries with in total more than 100,000 participants. It measures the general intensities of five theoretical defined core dimensions of religiosity. The dimensions of public practice, private practice, religious experience, ideology and the intellectual dimensions can together be considered as representative for the total of religious live. From a psychological perspective, the five core-dimensions can be seen as channels or modes in which personal religious constructs are shaped and activated. The activation of religious constructs in personality can be regarded as a valid measure of the degree of religiosity of an individual. The CRS thus derives from the five dimensional measures a combined measure of the centrality of religiosity which is suitable also for interreligious studies. The paper presents the theoretical basis and rationale of its construction with different versions of the CRS in 20 languages with norm values for 21 countries. Furthermore, the paper presents versions of different extension and describes specific modifications that were developed for studies with Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims.
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 approaches and findings concerning the sources and consequences of involvement, with emphasis on my research program. Finally, five potential contributions of paternal involvement research to the broader parenting field concerning the dimensions of parenting, what is optimal parenting, and the sources and consequences of parenting are suggested, as well as implications for intervention and social policy.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Abstract This article examines ‘domestic’ violence through a focus on men,
masculinity/masculinities and men’s violence to known women. More specifically
it analyses the implications of masculinity for policies and practices aimed at
reducing violence and the risk of violence by men against known women, including
programmes run by the Probation Service. On the basis of research rooted
and tested in probation practice, it argues that masculinity is generated through
relations between men, and that ‘domestic’ violence may be a means of regulating
those relations. Thus addressing relations between men is likely to be critical
to the effectiveness of relevant programmes.
Keywords ‘domestic’ violence, heroism, homosociality, masculinity, men,
violence to known women
In this article, the author argues that we need to conceptualize gender as a social structure, and by doing so, we can better analyze the ways in which gender is embedded in the individual, interactional, and institutional dimensions of our society. To conceptualize gender as a structure situates gender at the same level of general social significance as the economy and the polity. The author also argues that while concern with intersectionality must continue to be paramount, different structures of inequality have different constructions and perhaps different influential causal mechanisms at any given historical moment. We need to follow a both/and strategy to understand gender structure, race structure, and other structures of inequality as they currently operate while also systematically paying attention to how these axes of domination intersect. Finally, the author suggests we pay more attention to doing research and writing theory with explicit attention to how our work can indeed help transform as well as inform society.
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 that pie chart and scale measures of identity both are positively correlated with measures of involvement. Further, domain-level measures of identity are more frequently correlated with measures of involvement than role-level measures of identity are. Findings suggest that domain-level pie chart measures of identity may be a viable alternative to scale measures of identity. Recent research on fatherhood has employed multiple methodologies to assess several different aspects of fatherhood. The most frequently assessed aspect is paternal involvement or behavior (e.g.
In the most comprehensive US study to date about connections among child care experiences, family factors, and children's early development, 1100 children have been followed from birth through age 7. The study's intent is to describe family and child care/school contexts of children's development and examine associations between contextual variations and children's developmental outcomes in social-emotional, cognitive, and physical health domains. By age 3, over 90% of the children had experienced regular nonmaternal care, and over 50% were regularly spending over 30 hours/week in care. Economic factors, family characteristics, and maternal attitudes all influenced the amount and nature of early nonmaternal care. Observed quality of nonmaternal care consistently predicted social-emotional and cognitive-linguistic outcomes during the first 3 years of life. Amount of time spent in nonmaternal care predicted some social-emotional outcomes. Type and stability of nonmaternal care had limited predictive value. Family factors, including maternal sensitivity, quality of home environment, and income, were more consistent predictors of children's outcomes than any aspect of early nonmaternal care experiences. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Although there are a variety of treatment options available to men with prostate cancer, little is known about factors that contribute to their posttreatment physical well-being. In the present investigation, the authors posit that (a) the type of treatment elected by men with prostate cancer is likely to influence their self-assessed physical well-being, (b) men's conformity to the masculine norm of emotional control is likely to contribute to their posttreatment well-being, and (c) the interactive relationship between treatment type and emotional control may impact men's well-being. As hypothesized, results of the investigation suggested that emotional control and the two-way, emotional control by treatment type interaction significantly predicted well-being scores. The authors provide directions for future clinical research and treatment interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reports on the development of the Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI), which consists of 58 items grouped into 7 subscales: Avoidance of Femininity, Homophobia, Self-Reliance, Aggression, Achievement/Status, Attitudes Toward Sex, and Restrictive Emotionality. The MRNI was administered to 287 Ss (mostly undergraduate students). Data analysis included an assessment of internal consistency, confirmatory factor analysis, and analyses of variations in responses by sex, marital status, and age. Results indicate that the MRNI consists of 3 factors: Factor 1, consisting of 5 subscales, is relatively homogeneous and seems to tap aspects of male role norms that are currently changing; Factors 2 and 3, consisting of the Self-Reliance and Aggression subscales, respectively, seem to tap aspects of male role norms that remain stable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors examined the contributions of the minority stress model, traditional masculine gender roles, and perceived social norms in accounting for gay men's use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and risky sexual practices. Three hundred fifteen gay men recruited from listserv communities completed measures assessing internalized homophobia, stigma, antigay physical attack, masculinity, and perceptions of normative health behaviors, along with health risk behaviors of alcohol use, illicit drug use, smoking, and high-risk sexual behaviors. Pearson correlations supported several hypotheses; social norms and masculinity variables were significantly related to health risk behaviors. Four multiple regression analyses indicated that masculinity and perceptions of social norms predicted health risk behaviors. Additionally, a significant interaction was found between minority stress and perceptions of social norms. The clinical implications of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The purpose of this article is to review research on the construction of gender ideology and its consequences. The article begins with a summary of research focused on measuring gender ideology — individuals' levels of support for a division of paid work and family responsibilities that is based on the belief in gendered separate spheres. We describe the ways this concept has been operationalized in widely available data sources and provide a categorization schema for the items used to measure gender ideology. We also review the research predicting gender ideology, focusing on social and demographic characteristics while concurrently examining studies using cross-sectional, trend, and panel data. Finally, this article summarizes research focused on the consequences of gender ideology, both in families and family-related behaviors and in other areas of social life where beliefs about gender are relevant, such as the workplace. We conclude with implications for future research for measurement tools, predictors of gender ideology, and consequences of ideology in individuals' lives.
Based on propositions from identity theory, this study used a sample of 1,596 coresident couples from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine whether parents’ fathering role centrality standards and fathers’ status centrality at the time of their child’s birth were associated with mother and father reports of father involvement 1 and 3 years later. Mothers and fathers who rated fathering roles as more important reported greater father involvement at both Years 1 and 3; centrality of the father status was associated with father reports of involvement at both years, and mother-reported involvement at Year 3. Interactions between fathers’ and mothers’ role centrality standards, and between parents’ role centrality standards and father status centrality, were found for mother reports of involvement at Year 3. Implications for research, practice, and theory are discussed.
Times are changing for Americans in the workplace and at home. The US workforce not only looks different today than it did three decades ago as a result of increased participation by women — but it is also different in more subtle, less visible ways. In this chapter, we identify emerging trends showing that women are, for the first time, on a par with men in their desire to advance to jobs with more responsibility, while converging gender roles at work and at home have left men experiencing more work-family conflict than women.
Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) FoQ 2 Committee Leaders
Chris Bacon
Advertising Research Foundation, chris{at}thearf.org
Bill Cook
e-Strategic Advantage, billcook2{at}live.com
Bob Walker
Surveys & Forecasts, LLC, rww{at}safllc.com
The six-billion-dollar, 19-year-old enterprise of
With the exploding use of Internet surveys, research efforts and data quality are increasingly subject to the effects of respondents who do not give the required attention to survey questions and who speed through the survey, or who intentionally cheat with their answers. We investigate respondent integrity and data quality for samples drawn from a “Regular” online panel and from Amazon's MTurk. New metrics for assessing sample integrity and online data quality are introduced. Overall, MTurk respondents in both respondent groups took less time to answer questions. The non-USA MTurk group deviated most from correct answers in attention filter questions and had more duplicate IP addresses. In addition, the results from the three Internet sample sources are substantively different. The choice of an Internet survey sample vendor is critical, as it can impact sample composition, respondent integrity, data quality, data structure and substantive results.
Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as "deadbeat dads." Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly-without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship's demise. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life where the father-child bond is central and parental ties are peripheral. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than 100 fathers make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.
American fathers are a highly diverse group, but the breadwinning, live-in, biological dad prevails as the fatherhood ideal. Consequently, policymakers continue to emphasize marriage and residency over initiatives that might help foster healthy father-child relationships and creative co-parenting regardless of marital or residential status. In Nurturing Dads, William Marsiglio and Kevin Roy explore the ways new initiatives can address the social, cultural, and economic challenges men face in contemporary families and foster more meaningful engagement between many different kinds of fathers and their children. What makes a good father? The firsthand accounts in Nurturing Dads show that the answer to this question varies widely and in ways that counter the mainstream "provide and reside" model of fatherhood. Marsiglio and Roy document the personal experiences of more than 300 men from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and diverse settings, including fathers-to-be, young adult fathers, middleclass dads, stepfathers, men with multiple children in separate families, and fathers in correctional facilities. They find that most dads express the desire to have strong, close relationships with their children and to develop the nurturing skills to maintain these bonds. But they also find that disadvantaged fathers, including young dads and those in constrained financial and personal circumstances, confront myriad structural obstacles, such as poverty, inadequate education, and poor job opportunities. Nurturing Dads asserts that society should help fathers become more committed and attentive caregivers and that federal and state agencies, work sites, grassroots advocacy groups, and the media all have roles to play. Recent efforts to introduce state-initiated paternity leave should be coupled with social programs that encourage fathers to develop unconditional commitments to children, to co-parent with mothers, to establish partnerships with their children's other caregivers, and to develop parenting skills and resources before becoming fathers via activities like volunteering and mentoring kids. Ultimately, Marsiglio and Roy argue, such combined strategies would not only change the policy landscape to promote engaged fathering but also change the cultural landscape to view nurturance as a fundamental aspect of good fathering. Care is a human experience-not just a woman's responsibility-and this core idea behind Nurturing Dads holds important implications for how society supports its families and defines manhood. The book promotes the progressive notion that fathers should provide more than financial support and, in the process, bring about a better start in life for their children. Copyright © 2012 by the American Sociological Association. All rights reserved.
This research examines the influence of human capital and masculine identity on fathers’ verbal interactions with children. Random effects techniques were applied to the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study and addressed the importance of time-variant indicators of economic capital and relational capital alongside fathers’ visions of masculinity at the child’s birth. Results indicated that higher levels of human capital were positively associated with father involvement—though relational capital was more consequential for involvement than economic capital. Visions of masculinity served as a poor predictor of father involvement suggesting masculinities per se did not influence father involvement. Findings suggested program and policy initiatives designed to encourage co-parenting and healthy relationships with birth mothers might be more effective in bolstering involvement than educational or training programs.
In spite of the establishment of probability sampling methods since the 1930s, non-probability sampling methods have remained popular among many commercial and polling agents, and they have also survived the embarrassment from a few incorrect predictions in American presidential elections. The increase of costs and the decline of response rates for administering probability samples have led some survey researchers to search for a non-probability sampling method as an alternative to probability sampling. In this study we aim to test whether results from a quota sample, believed to be the non-probability sampling method that is the closest in representativeness to probability sampling, are statistically equivalent to those from a probability sample. Further, we pay special attention to the effects of the following two factors for understanding the difference between the two sampling methods: the survey's topic and the response rate. An experimental survey on social capital was conducted in a student society in Northeast England. The results suggest that the survey topic influences who responded and that the response rate was associated with the sample means as well. For these reasons, we do not think quota sampling should be taken as an acceptable alternative to probability sampling.
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 masculinity.” I have made these two chapters available on ResearchGate under those chapter titles. (Google Scholar also lists the 2010 book title as one of my publications.)
Based on intensive, qualitative interviews with 32 men, this study reports on the the meanings of time for fathers from intact families with young children (under the age of 6). Men's experience of time provides some insight into why they have been slow to increase their time commitment to family activities, even when their wives enter the labor force. The fathers in this study believed in the priority of spending time with their children but, at the same time, lamented that making time for family was costly, fixed in amount, and largely beyond their control to change due to the demands of their paid work. In order for men to have a different experience of time, changes are required at three levels: individual attitudes about time, control over time in the work place, and systemic realignments in parenting practices.
In the context of the gender revolution, contemporary norms of fatherhood emphasize men's involvement with their children in addition to their traditional role as financial provider. These "new fathers" are expected to be more equal partners in parenting, nurturing children, and performing both interactive and physical caregiving. However, the roles of provider and involved father may conflict: Whereas the "new father" role requires spending time with children, the "provider" role requires commitment to spending time on the job. Using two waves of the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1,139), this study examines the relationship between employment and father involvement and whether fathering attitudes moderate that relationship. Results suggest work hours are not strongly related to father involvement. Despite generally long work hours, a subgroup of "new fathers" appear better able to preserve time with children, likely by cutting back on, or incorporating their children into, their leisure time.
Based on propositions from identity theory, this study used a sample of 1,596 coresident couples from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine whether parents’ fathering role centrality standards and fathers’ status centrality at the time of their child’s birth were associated with mother and father reports of father involvement 1 and 3 years later. Mothers and fathers who rated fathering roles as more important reported greater father involvement at both Years 1 and 3; centrality of the father status was associated with father reports of involvement at both years, and mother-reported involvement at Year 3. Interactions between fathers’ and mothers’ role centrality standards, and between parents’ role centrality standards and father status centrality, were found for mother reports of involvement at Year 3. Implications for research, practice, and theory are discussed.
A space has emerged for theorizing “caring masculinities,” as the concept has increasingly become a focus of European critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM). In this article, I present a practice-based framework of the concept. I propose that caring masculinities are masculine identities that reject domination and its associated traits and embrace values of care such as positive emotion, interdependence, and relationality. I suggest that these caring masculinities constitute a critical form of men’s engagement and involvement in gender equality and offer the potential of sustained social change for men and gender relations. I draw on CSMM and feminist care theory to construct the framework proposed here. In doing so, I offer a feminist exploration of how masculinities might be reworked into identities of care rather than domination.
Framing this paper is the question: what research problem and hypotheses suggested by symbolic interaction theory give promise, if pursued, of significantly advancing the sociology of the family? The problem delineated revolves around the concepts of identity and commitment. After explication of a set of premises and needed refinements in concepts basic to symbolic interaction theory, a number of hypotheses are offered. These purport to account for the position of identities in a salience hierarchy and tie identity salience to role performance. Finally, it is noted that these hypotheses could profitably be studied in the research setting of responses to first pregnancy
Although a large number of studies have examined associations between paternal involvement and children's outcomes, most are based on a single source of data or fail to control for maternal involvement. We used data from the National Survey of Families and Households (n = 994) to test the hypothesis that positive father involvement is associated with fewer behavior problems in children. To avoid same-source bias, we used fathers' reports of involvement with children and mothers' reports of children's behavior problems. To determine if fathers make a unique contribution to their children's behavior, we controlled for mothers' reports of maternal involvement. Structural equation models revealed that positive paternal and maternal involvement were independently and significantly associated with children's behavior problems. Estimated effects were similar for biological fathers, stepfathers, White fathers, Black fathers, and Latino fathers.
Past research that asserts a fatherhood wage premium often ignores the heterogeneity of fathering contexts. I expect fatherhood to produce wage gains for men if it prompts them to alter their behavior in ways that increase labor-market productivity. Identity theory predicts a larger productivity-based fatherhood premium when ties of biology, coresidence with the child, and marriage to the child's mother reinforce one another, making fatherhood, and the role of financial provider in particular, salient, high in commitment, and clear. Employer discrimination against fathers in less normative family structures may also contribute to variation in the fatherhood premium. Using fixed-effects models and data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), I find that married, residential, biological fatherhood is associated with wage gains of about 4 percent, but unmarried residential fathers, nonresidential fathers, and stepfathers do not receive a fatherhood premium. Married residential fathers also receive no statistically significant wage premium when their wives work full-time. About 15 percent of the wage premium for married residential fathers can be explained by changes in human capital and job traits.
Our goal was to assess the contributions of identity
theory to fathering research by critically
reviewing the fathering literature that incorporated
concepts and assumptions from this theory
to frame their efforts. Overall, research
findings support the association between father
identity and fathering behavior, although differences
in the nuance of theoretical constructs
(status vs. role) in this association are less pronounced.
We identify several weaknesses in this
literature (e.g., variations in conceptualization
and operationalization of constructs that result
in conflicting results, confusion of status and
role-level conceptualization). We end with conclusions
about the continued utility of this theory
in informing this body of research.
Objective:
This report measures fathers' involvement with their children. Father involvement is measured by how often a man participated in a set of activities in the last 4 weeks with children who were living with him and with children who were living apart from him. Involvement is measured separately for children aged 0-4 years and children aged 5-18 years. Increased involvement of fathers in their children's lives has been associated with a range of positive outcomes for the children.
Methods:
The analyses presented in this report are based on a nationally representative sample of 10,403 men aged 15-44 years in the household population of the United States. The father-involvement measures are based on 2,200 fathers of children under age 5-1,790 who live with their children and 410 who live apart from their children, and on 3,166 fathers of children aged 5-18-2,091 who live with their children and 1,075 who live apart from their children.
Results:
Statistics are presented on the frequency with which fathers took part in a set of age-specific activities in their children's lives. Differences in percent distributions are found by whether the father lives with or apart from his children, and by his demographic characteristics. In general, fathers living with their children participated in their children's lives to a greater degree than fathers who live apart from their children. Differences in fathers' involvement with their children were also found by the father's age, marital or cohabiting status, education, and Hispanic origin and race.
This article explores men’s articulations and practices of gender through transition to first-time fatherhood. Using qualitative longitudinal data, men’s antenatal intentions and postnatal practices are explored in this study which replicates earlier research on motherhood. The contemporary context in the UK is one where paternity leave, discourses of caring masculinities and more public displays of fathering involvement appear to offer new possibilities for men. But data analysis shows that whilst opportunities to disrupt gender norms are initially imagined, longer term practices can confirm ‘patriarchal habits’. The findings illuminate gender being done and undone, at times simultaneously, as the exhaustion and hard work of new parenting is encountered. A retreat into normative behaviours can be a path of least resistance as experiences unfold in an arena where men are found to have available to them a wider repertoire of discursive storylines. Optimistically, some changes in fathering involvement are discernible.
The literature on father involvement suggests that the value men ascribe to the father role is important for understanding their involvement with their children, yet this theory has received only limited empirical attention. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,554), I examined the association between fathers? identity salience reported at their child?s birth and their involvement (accessibility, engagement, and responsibility) when their child was about 1, 3, and 5 years old, carefully considering the role played by fathers? residence status. I found that fathers? identity salience predicted future levels of engagement net of a large number of fathers? characteristics, and that fathers with high identity salience were more likely to reside with their child, which facilitated their involvement. These results suggest that programs designed to enhance the salience of the father role would be useful for teaching men to become more involved fathers.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Custodial fathers' engagement activities with their minor children are examined with data for heterosexual couples from the National Survey of Families and Households. Analyses focus on men who are currently living with a wife or nonlegal partner, and are conducted separately for fathers with children aged 0-4, 2-4, and 5-18. Fathers' and wives'/partners' level of education and fathers' work/scheduling hours were related to paternal involvement for selected models. However, analyses of these data, contrary to much of the previous research in this area, revealed that characteristics associated with wives'/partners' work scheduling status, number of hours worked, occupational prestige, percentage of couple income, and gender role attitudes were seldom, if ever, related to various models of fathers' engagement activities with their children. The strongest and most consistent predictors of paternal involvement with children 5-18 years of age were children's characteristics: age, number, biological status, and gender composition. Paternal involvement in leisure, playing and project activities, and private talks was positively related to having only male children living in the household, while fathers with only biological children were more likely to engage in playing and project activities and private talks with their children.
Identity theory was used to explore fathers' involvement with their children. Eighty-nine married couples with preschool children completed questionnaires and interviews providing information on how involved they were in child-rearing activities. Participants rated the centrality of their parent versus worker status and of the nurturing role. Results indicated that fathers did not differ on any involvement measures regardless of whether they rated the parent or worker status most central. However, fathers who considered the nurturing role highly central to their sense of self engaged in significantly more interaction and responsibility behaviors with their children and were significantly more involved overall than fathers low on nurturing role centrality. Specific behaviors and attitudes of mothers were significantly related to fathers' assessments of nurturing role centrality. Results hold important implications for the refinement of identity theory and for the development of parenting programs and public policy initiatives designed to increase father involvement.
This article examines attitudes related to feminism and gender equality by evaluating the trends in, and determinants of, women and men's attitudes from 1974 to 1998. Past accounts suggest two clusters of explanations based on interests and exposure. Using these, we examine opinions on abortion, sexual behavior, public sphere gender roles, and family responsibilities. We find that attitudes have continued to liberalize and converge with the exception of abortion attitudes. The determinants of feminist opinion vary across domains, but have been largely stable. While not identical, the predictors of men and women's opinions are similar. The results suggest the need for more attention to the mechanisms underlying the production of feminist opinions and theoretical integration of both interests and exposure in a dynamic process.
Using the baseline father sample of the Fragile Families