Brief: Fathers Care: A Review of the Literature

The NCOFF Brief Series summarizes literature reviews that were presented during the Fathers and Families Roundtable Series. This series brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to examine issues surrounding the NCOFF Core Learnings, or findings thought to be essential in working with fathers. This brief describes the Fathers Care literature review, which was written by James Earl Davis of the University of Delaware and William Eric Perkins of the University of Pennsylvania. NCOFF receives core funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with special project funding from the Ford and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundations.

Key Findings

• Fathers' participation in childcare activities has increased significantly in recent years, but fathers still spend less time caring for their children than do mothers. Most fathers participate in some level of care; however, the nature, quantity, and quality of care varies widely.

   

• As women have been entering the workforce in increasing numbers, there has been a burgeoning of interest in the role played by fathers in their children's development and well-being. Increasing attention has been focused on examining fathers' ability to nurture their children and care for their daily physical and emotional needs.

   

• Factors associated with children and family arrangements, such as the gender and age of children, have been found to influence fathers' involvement.

   

• Narrowly-defined sex roles that relegate childcare exclusively to the domain of women are a major barrier to father involvement.

   

• Most literature on father participation is organized around the father's relationship with the mother. In general, the literature reveals that with the exception of single-parent fathers, fathers' participation in childcare is most constant among married men who share households with their children and least constant among young, unwed fathers who do not reside with their children.

   

• Most of the research on fathers' care of their children continues to focus on highly educated, middle-class, White, intact families. Research on fathers of color tends to focus on poor, nonresident fathers, rather than on middle-class fathers from intact families. The current paucity of research on fathers of color limits our understanding of the ways fathers from different cultures relate to their children.

  Recommendations for Research

   

• Development of a national fatherhood and parenting curriculum for adults should be one of the major foci of new research and policy initiatives.

   

• Studies should examine the impact of various family arrangements on fathers who have become primary caretakers by default and on their children.

   

• Researchers should expand their focus to consider the nature of care provided by fathers; currently, most research is concerned with the extent of father involvement (usually measured in number of hours per week), with little attention paid to the kinds and quality of childcare activities in which fathers are engaged.

   

• More research should focus on fathers of color, lower income fathers, and working class fathers in order to better understand the differences and commonalities that exist among various groups of fathers.

   

• Researchers should examine how men have come to understand their roles as fathers and how this understanding can be utilized to increase father involvement. In addition, studies must offer concrete suggestions for policymakers on how to remedy the tension between work and home equitably.

  Recommendations for Practice

   

• Father education should become part of the middle-school and high-school curricula and should encourage discussion of sex-role expectations and conflicts; curricula should represent fathers from all socioeconomic and ethnic groups.

   

• Locally organized mentoring networks that connect new and young fathers with older, more secure and caring fathers should be developed; these mentoring programs may be established through local sites of the National Practitioners Network on Fathers and Families.

  Recommendations for Policy

   

• Policies should be developed that encourage national and local childcare providers to increase their expectations of fathers' involvement in the care of children in their centers.

   

• Fathering education and training should become part of local and state childcare licensing guidelines and certification criteria.

  Fathers' Care: A Review of the Literature

  Fathers' involvement in the care of children has increased; however, there is still little known about the nature of their care or its antecedents. Care includes physical attention such as feeding and bathing and other interactions with children such as reading and playing. Fathers tend to engage more in play activities with their children than in caretaking activities.

  Generally fathers are more involved in the care of older, biological children. Some research suggests that fathers are more involved with sons than with daughters; more educated fathers tend to engage in childcare more readily and more often and to spend more time with children in education-related activities, such as reading. Fathers' lack of involvement in caretaking activities should not be interpreted as incompetence in this area. To the contrary, fathers are often equally able to interpret a child's behavior and respond appropriately to the child's needs. Fathers may have greater potential as caretakers than is reflected in their actual daily interactions with their children.

  Several studies have examined the effects of employment on fathers' engagement in childcare. Some data suggest that both employed and unemployed men think of childrearing as "women's work." Some researchers have found that unemployed men spend more time with their children, while others have found that joblessness did not increase fathers' involvement in childcare, implying that caretaking is not simply a function of time available to the father. In general, fathers' involvement in childcare and other aspects of parenting has suffered from narrow conceptions of manhood in general and fatherhood in particular. Numerous studies have found evidence that the more traditional the sex-role ideology of the household, the less domestic labor a father performs.

  Mothers' employment is also examined as a factor in determining men's participation in household labor. Coverman (1985) introduced three hypotheses to account for husbands' participation in domestic work: (1) the more a husband's income and other resources outweigh his wife's, the less domestic labor he performs; (2) the more traditional the husband's sex-role ideology, the less domestic labor he performs; and (3) the more domestic task demands on a husband, the greater his participation. One study found the most support for the third hypothesis and also concluded that "younger men who have children, employed spouses, and jobs that do not require long work hours are most likely to be involved in housework and childcare activities." A number of other studies have shown that men at least begin to increase their family work when their wives are employed. While the extent to which fathers participate in childcare is generally thought to reflect how much they participate in general household responsibilities, some research suggests that men avoid housework while increasing their participation in childcare.

  References:

  Cordell, Parke, and Swain, 1980; Coverman, 1985; Gadsden and Hall, 1995; Gerson, 1993; Harris and Morgan, 1991; Jones, 1985; Marsiglio, 1991; Marsiglio, 1995.

  Categories of Fathers

  Fathering may differ according to fathers' relationships to the mothers of their children. Four groups or categories of fathers are often described in the literature.

  Married, Co-Habitating Fathers. In two-parent, married, co-habitating families, mothers tend to retain primary responsibility for the care of children. Although fathers' participation in these families is increasing, most of their involvement centers on play activities. Fathers in two-parent households are almost always more heavily involved if they have a son; that is, they are more nurturant, closer, and more supportive of sons than of daughters. Further, having a brother living in the house increases girls' chances of experiencing involvement from their fathers. Another common finding is that children in families in which fathers share the caretaking tend to hold less stereotypical concepts of parental roles.

  Divorced or Separated Fathers. In general, nonresident fathers provide little in terms of childcare. Paternal involvement is typically limited to play activities and entertainment, e.g. movies and sports events during visits. Moreover, the involvement of noncustodial fathers after the divorce declines over time.

  Single Fathers With Custody of Children. An analysis of data from federal and state agencies has shattered five myths about single fathers: (1) that there are few single fathers, (2) that most single fathers have remarried, (3) that many single fathers have been widowed, (4) that custodial fathers are fairly affluent, and (5) that single, custodial fathers typically receive custody of older boys. Single fathers are more likely to be Black, younger than 30, and have fewer years of schooling than other fathers. Single fathers often experience role strain and confusion resulting from adjustment to a single-parenting role because they have been socialized to expect a secondary role in childrearing; this is particularly true for young fathers.

  Young Unwed Fathers. Only recently has research been directed toward young unwed fathers, and much of it focuses on program and policy interventions targeting teenage pregnancy and delinquency. Most research substantiates the belief that young fathers have very limited involvement with their children compared to other men and are least likely to provide child support and childcare. However, there is some evidence that these young men are not completely negligent and have some meaningful involvement with and attachment to their children. For the most part, this involvement tends to be limited to play and recreational activities and becomes more infrequent as the child grows older. This decline in involvement may be related more to the young father's relationship with the child's mother than to father-child relations per se>.

  References:

  Achatz and MacAllum, 1994; Bolton, 1987; Cancican, 1989; Furstenberg and Cherlin, 1991; Furstenberg and Harris, 1993; Furstenberg, Morgan, and Allison, 1987; Gersick, 1979; Greif, 1985; Harris and Morgan, 1991; Johnson, 1995; Lerman and Ooms, 1993; Marsiglio, 1991; Meyer and Garasky, 1993; Parke, Power, and Fisher, 1980; Seltzer, 1991; Furstenberg and Cherlin, 1991; Starrels, 1994; Watson, 1992.

  Fathers About Whom There Is Little Research

  The final section of the review focuses on the experiences of three relatively unstudied groups of fathers: (1) African American fathers, (2) Puerto Rican fathers, and (3) gay fathers. Most of the research on African American fathers indicates that race is not a significant variable in fathers' care and involvement. Black fathers and White fathers appear to approach childcare in very similar ways, participating in limited caretaking activities, thus leaving the bulk of the work to mothers. There is some evidence, however, that Black fathers engage their children quite differently. Marsiglio (1991) found that Black fathers are less likely than White fathers to read to older children but more likely than White fathers to play with them. Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine's (1992) study of lower- and middle-class African American fathers' involvement with preschool children found that these fathers are more likely to share housework and childcare than are White men. Further, there is evidence that the greater their economic security, the more involved African American men are with their children. These findings reject the notion of detached, inaccessible Black fathers.

  Isaacs and Leon (1988) found that noncustodial Black fathers visit their children less often than White fathers but also found that frequency of visitation significantly predicted mother's self-reliance, extended family support, and father's residential proximity. These findings demonstrate the role that serial kinship continues to play in African American families.

  Studies on Puerto Rican fathers are particularly scarce. One important source of information is the study conducted by Roopnarine and Ahmeduzzaman (1993), which examined Puerto Rican fathers' involvement with their preschool children. The authors of this study found that men's commitment to promoting the general well-being of their families is associated with their involvement with their children.

  Studies of gay parents indicate that there is no relationship between a father's sexual orientation and his ability to care for his children. Researchers estimate that there are six million gay husbands and fathers in the United States who are involved in a variety of childcare arrangements. Homosexual fathers felt they had to be more proficient at parenting than heterosexual fathers perhaps because they wanted to disprove negative stereotypes. In most instances, they were more "authoritative" as opposed to "authoritarian" than were heterosexual men.

  The authors of this literature review conclude that the scarcity of research on fathers from different backgrounds limits our understanding of fathers' care to a restricted group of fathers, i.e., White, educated, middle-class fathers from intact families. By expanding research to encompass the wide variety of fathers involved in the care of children, we will enrich our overall understanding of fatherhood as well as our knowledge of fathering among families of color and nontraditional families.

  References: Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine, 1992; Bigner and Jacobsen, 1989; Bozett, 1989; Hossain and Roopnarine, 1993; Isaacs and Leon 1988; Marsiglio 1991; McAdoo, 1986; Miller, 1987; Roopnarine and Ahmeduzzaman, 1993; Schulenburg, 1985.

   

  References

  Achatz, M. & MacAllum, C. A. (1994). Young unwed fathers: Report from the field. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.

  Ahmeduzzaman, M. & Roopnarine, J. (1992). Sociodemographic factors, functioning style, social support, and fathers' involvement with preschoolers in African-American families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 699-707.

  Bigner, J.J. & Jacobsen, R.B. (1989). Parenting behaviors of homosexual and heterosexual fathers. Journal of Homosexuality, 18, 173-186.

  Bolton, F. G. (1987). The father in the adolescent pregnancy at risk for child maltreatment. Helpmate or hindrance? Journal of Family Violence, 2, 67-80.

  Bozett, F.W. (1989). Gay fathers: A review of the literature. Journal of Homosexuality, 18, 137-162.

  Cancican, F. M. (1989). Gender politics: Love and power in the private and public spheres. In A. S. Skolnick and J. H. Skolnick (Eds.), Family in transition, (pp. 219-230). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.

  Cordell, A., Parke, R. D., & Sawin, D.R. (1980). Fathers' views on fatherhood with special reference to infancy. Family Relations, 29, 331-338.

  Coverman, S. (1985). Explaining husbands' participation in domestic labor. The Sociological Quarterly, 26, 81-97.

  Furstenberg, F., Morgan, S., & Allison, P. (1987). Paternal participation and children's well-being after marital dissolution. American Sociological Review, 52, 695-701.

  Furstenberg, F., & Cherlin, A. (1991). Divided families: What happens to children when parents part. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  Furstenberg, F. & Harris, K. M. (1993). When and why fathers matter: Impacts of father involvement on the children of adolescent mothers. In R. Lerman & T. Ooms (Eds.), Young unwed fathers: Changing roles and emerging policies, (pp. 117-138). Philadelphia: Temple University.

  Gadsden, V., & Hall, M. (1995). Intergenerational learning: A review of the literature. Philadelphia, PA: National Center on Fathers and Families.

  Gersick, K. (1979). Fathers by choice: Divorced men who receive custody of their children. In A. Levinger & O.C. Moles (Eds.), Divorce and separation, (pp. 374-397). New York: Basic Books.

  Gerson, K. (1993). No man's land: Men's changing commitment to family and work. New York: Basic Books.

  Grief, G. (1985). Single fathers rearing children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 185-191.

  Harris, K. M., & Morgan, S. P. (1991). Fathers, sons, and daughters: Differential paternal involvement in parenting. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 431-444.

  Hossain, Z., & Roopnarine, J. L. (1993). Division of household labor and childcare in dual-earner African American families with infants. Sex Roles, 29, 571-583.

  Isaacs, M. & Leon, G. (1988). Race, marital dissolution and visitation: An examination of adaptive family strategies, (pp. 17-31). The Haworth Press.

  Johnson, W. E. (1995). Paternal identity among urban adolescent males. African American Research Perspectives, 2, 82-86.

  Jones, C. (1985). Father-infant relationships in the first year of life. In S.M. Hanson & F.W. Bozett (Eds.), Dimensions of fatherhood, (pp. 92-114). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

  Lerman, R. I. & Ooms, T. J. (1993). Introduction: Evolution of unwed fatherhood as a policy issue. In R. Lerman & T. Ooms (Eds.), Young unwed fathers: Changing roles and emerging policies, (pp. 1-23). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

  Marsiglio, W. (1991). Paternal engagement activities with minor children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 973-986.

  Marsiglio, W. (Ed.). (1995). Fatherhood: Contemporary theory, research and social policy. Research on men and masculinities, Vol. 7. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  McAdoo, J. (1986). Black fathers' relationships with their preschool children and the children's development of ethnic identity. In R. A. Lewis & R. E. Salt (Eds.), Men in families, (pp. 169-180). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

  Meyer D. R. & Garasky, S. (1993). Custodial fathers: Myths, realities, and child support policy. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 73-89.

  Miller, B. (1987). Counseling gay husbands and fathers. In F.W. Bozett (Ed.), Gay and lesbian parenting, (pp. 199-227). New York: Praeger.

  Parke, R., Power, T., and Fisher, T. (1980). The adolescent father's impact on the mother and child. Journal of Social Issues, 36, 88-106.

  Roopnarine, J., & Ahmeduzzaman, M. (1993). Puerto Rican fathers' involvement with their preschool-age children. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 15, 96-107.

  Schulenberg, J. (1985). Gay parenting. New York: Doubleday.

  Seltzer, J. A. (1991). Relationships between fathers and children who live apart: The father's role after separation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 79-101.

  Starrels, M. (1994). Gender differences in parent-child relations. Journal of Family Issues, 15, 148-165.

  Watson, B. (1992). The young unwed fathers project. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.