Distant Patriarchs or Expressive Dads? The Discourse and Practice of Fathering in Conservative Protestant Families

Abstract

Despite the burgeoning research literature on paternal involvement, the relationship between religion and fatherhood has received remarkably little attention from empirical researchers. Our investigation illuminates this understudied dimension of fathering by examining how conservative Protestant gender ideologies impact paternal involvement in evangelical households. Our study begins with an examination of insider documents—nemely, gender and family advice manuals—written by conservative Protestant luminaries. One group of conservative Protestant advice authors argues that paternal involvement and masculine role modeling in the home is crucial to the proper formation of children's distinctive gender identities, while a rival coterie of authors advocates ungendered spousal roles and shared parenting responsibilities. We then turn to data from wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households to gauge the distinctiveness of parenting practices among conservative Protestant fathers. We find that conservative Protestant fathers are considerably more likely than their nonevangelical counterparts to engage in paternal supervision and affective parenting. Such findings underscore the complexity of fathering in conservative Protestant households and illuminate several fruitful directions for future research on the religious dimensions of paternal involvement.