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Journal Article Propositions from identity theory suggest that interactional and affective commitment to a role identity affects the psychological centrality of that role identity. In turn, the centrality of one's role identity translates into role performance. This conceptual model was tested with a sample of 186 fathers in first marriages with at least one child 18 years or younger. The results showed that fathers who perceive their wives as evaluating them positively as fathers were more likely to report higher levels of involvement in child-related activities and place greater importance on the father…
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Journal Article The authors use an ecological framework and grounded theoretical analysis to explore the circumstances in which working-class and low-income custodial African American fathers gain custody of their children; their transition from part-time to full-time parents; and the role of support networks in enhancing or inhibiting these men's parenting. Twenty-four men from an impoverished Midwestern urban area participated in the study. The findings suggest that these men, and perhaps others sharing their demographic profiles, generally become parents by default and are often reluctant to take on a…
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Journal Article Although research increasingly focuses on non-resident biological fathers, little attention has been given to the role of other men in children s lives. The authors examine the factors associated with social father presence and their influence on preschoolers development. Findings indicate that the majority of children have a social father and that mother, child, and nonresident biological father characteristics are all related to social father presence. These associations differ depending on whether the social father is the mother s romantic partner or a male relative. The social father s…
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Journal Article In Western societies, mothering and fathering are generally conceptualized as distinct social roles, marriage being considered as the institution which provides the best framework for child-rearing (nuclear family model). Yet it is important that health care practitioners recognize that children can be successfully raised in very diverse types of family organizations, including extended female-headed families. Although at first sight the extended family model appears to be lacking in male models and therefore seems to be defective, this article asserts that functional extended matrifocal…
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Journal Article This article documents the changes in men's experience of living with their own children. Data are drawn from seven Current Population Surveys (1965-1995) to identify trends in the likelihood of living with children, cohort differences in the experience of living with many children or with preschool age children, the timing of living with children, and variations in patterns by race and level of education. The data indicate that men's experience of living with children declined dramatically across cohorts. Residency with children decreased by 66 percent for men aged 20 to 24 and by 57 percent…
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Journal Article This study documents the opinions of twenty low-income fathers about their participation in a Responsible Fatherhood program in a large urban area. The program offered life skills training, job readiness and placement assistance, mental health counseling and other services to help fathers become involved in their children's lives and to comply with child support orders. Formal services were provided for six months, with opportunities for follow-up maintenance groups. The fathers who participated in the study were at various levels in the program, from entry to ongoing support. Four focus…
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Journal Article This study examined the association between fathers' alcoholism and other risk factors such as parental depression, family conflict, infant temperament, and parent-infant attachment. The quality of parent-infant interactions was hypothesized to be a proximal mediator of the associations among alcoholism and other risk factors and attachment. The participants were 223 families (104 nonalcoholic families and 119 alcoholic families) with 12-month-old infants recruited through birth records. Infants in families with two parents with alcohol problem had significantly higher rates of insecure…
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Journal Article This journal issue focuses on fatherhood and addressing the needs of fathers in social work practice. It begins by discussing the dangers facing fatherhood in the United States, and identifying fathers whose parenting roles could be at-risk. The need for a special approach to reach fathers is emphasized, and a holistic approach is described that that builds on fathers' strengths, is culturally sensitive, considers many system levels of intervention, and promotes a broad base of support for fatherhood. Social movements supporting fatherhood are summarized, and pertinent fatherhood literature…
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Journal Article Recognizing that most poor families are single-parent families, the federal welfare reform law of 1996 emphasized the responsibility of both parents to support their children. In addition to strengthening the child support enforcement system, the law included several provisions designed to decrease childbearing outside of marriage and to promote two-parent families. This article focuses on the important role that fathers play in children's lives and how public policies have affected childbearing and father involvement. Key observations are: Compared with children living with both biological…
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Journal Article This paper argues that the determination of legal parenthood should fundamentally be about identity; that is, it should be seen as providing an answer to the question: to which family does this child belong? The paper approaches the issue by, first, noting that the determination of legal parenthood has become one of the most contentious issues in family, and that this has ironically happened because of the combination of greater certainty in the determination of biological paternity, and greater instability in family relationships. The historic strategy of using the stigma against…
