Primary-Caregiving Fathers in Intact Families

Abstract

In the past two decades fathers have been “discovered” by both child development researchers and the mass media. There is now a voluminous literature in professional journals on various aspects of fathering. In magazines, newspapers, and television programs, stories abound about the “new father” and his role in the home. In contrast to a focus on father-absent families as in earlier decades, the emphasis today is on father-present families. This change implies not that studies and stories of single-parent homes have disappeared, but that there has been a major augmentation of interest in the two-parent family and, particularly, in the father’s role beyond that of “breadwinner” and source of support for the mother.