Behavior Of Fathers Research Articles

More than heroes and villains: pre-service teacher beliefs about principals

New teachers enter schools with already established beliefs about principals.This paper reports on the nature and primary influences on what a group of Hong Kong pre-service teacher participants believe about principals. The nature of beliefs reflect underlying personal constructs that relate to interpersonal communication and management. Influences include past school principals, school leaders and parents. Beliefs were attained using a modified personal construct interview and analyses of participant stories. Findings highlight a close association between the leadership/management style of the principal whom participants would like to be and mothers, and the interpersonal behaviour of fathers and the principal whom participants would not like to be . The authors argue that reforms are needed in the course design of teacher education, teacher induction and programmes of professional development for principals. These reforms must address the influence personal history has on an individual's thinking about teaching, interpersonal communication and leadership - a reform process that begins with teacher educators and principals reframing their beliefs and associated practices.

Variation in steroid hormones associated with infant care behaviour and experience in male marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii)

We describe temporal patterns of change in paternal behaviour and urinary concentrations of the steroid hormones testosterone (T) and oestradiol (E2) in male black tufted-ear marmosets, Callithrix kuhlii, relative to the birth of their young, and test predictions of the hypotheses that (1) high levels of T are incompatible with paternal care and (2) levels of T and E2vary with a father's prior experience in his family group. After young were born, levels of urinary T and E2remained near prepartum concentrations and rates at which fathers carried infants were below peak levels until the approximate time that postpartum mating ordinarily occurs, suggesting a possible trade-off between readiness to mate and paternal behaviour in C.kuhlii. Infant-carrying behaviour of fathers occurred at its highest rate 3–4 weeks after parturition and coincided with significant declines in urinary levels of T and E2, providing preliminary support for the hypothesis that these hormones are antagonistic to paternal behaviour. Urinary T and E2declined among fathers regardless of whether their young survived to weaning or died at birth, indicating that variation in these hormones after parturition occurs even in the absence of continued stimuli from infants. When adjusted for declines ordinarily associated with aging, urinary T tended to be lower among fathers with a great deal of prior experience caring for young compared with fathers having little or no experience, suggesting that either experience affects T levels of fathers, or that T levels influence fathers' chances of successfully rearing infants. Overall, our results suggest that in maleC.kuhlii , T, and possibly E2, play an important role in balancing the expression of paternal care with that of other reproductive behaviours.

The Influence of Economic Strain, Coping with Roles, and Parental Control on the Parenting of Custodial Single Mothers and Custodial Single Fathers

The purpose of the study was to develop and test a conceptual model, based on microstructural theory, that explained how sex of parent, economic strain, role coping, and parental control combined to predict the parenting behaviors of divorced custodial mothers and fathers. The sample consisted of 30 single mothers and 30 single fathers with custody of at least one child 6 to 10 years of age. The data were collected using standardized questionnaires that were administered during a two-hour interview in the respondents' homes. Results of a path analysis revealed that the higher economic strain of custodial mothers contributed to impaired role-coping strategies and loss of parental control, which ultimately interfered with parenting. These findings explain why low income has a pervasive negative effect on family functioning. Implications for family practice and policy are discussed.

The Influence of Perceived Parental Guidance Patterns on Children's Media Use: Gender Differences and Media Displacement

A survey of 70 to 11 year olds showed that restrictive guidance leads to a reduction of media consumption, whereas other forms of guidance do not. Restriction of the use of one medium may lead to an increase of another medium offering a similar gratification. Children perceive differences between the guidance behavior of fathers and mothers. In this study parental guidance (measured as verbal cues) had an effect only on the media consumption of girls.

Intergenerational Comparisons of Paternal Korean Child Rearing Practices and Attitudes

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore possible antecedents of paternal child rearing in middle‐class, two‐parent, Korean families. Design. This study first addressed the intergenerational similarities and differences in child rearing practices and attitudes of fifty‐seven pairs of Korean grandfathers and fathers who were each interviewed individually with the Sears Interview Schedule. This study also examined the extent of the importance of fathers’ educational level, job satisfaction, marital relationship, and childhood relationships with own parents, for predicting fathering practices and attitudes. Results. Fathers reported disciplinary practices, such as strictness with parental rules/discipline and permissiveness for child aggression toward others, similar to those of their own fathers. Fathers reported significantly more nurturance and acceptance/flexibility compared with grandfathers. Paternal job satisfaction and relationship with own mother as well as educational attainment predicted fathering behaviors with respect to child sexuality and parental rules. Conclusions. A compensatory hypothesis, cohort hypothesis, and the modeling theory were each helpful for understanding fathering similarities and differences between generations in a Korean context.

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Since the 70 years approximately 50 000 children have been born in the Federal Republic of Germany after artificial insemination by donor. The most studies of substantial collectives describe an inconspicious mental and emotional development of the children. However, due to examinations of Special cases, negative effects on the development of the children are expected as a result of the behaviour of social fathers to keep the insemination secret and to turn away from them. In a follow-up study six years after the treatment of insemination 22 successful couples of parents of originally 57 couples (before insemination) could be reexamined. They rated their children by a detailed interview, as well as by a variant of the repertory grid technique, which permits an estimation of object relations. Under an idiographic aspect, the use of the repertory grid technique made it possible to learn the individual meaning of the children to the respective couple. As a group examination it allowed generalizable Statements to judge the children in relation to the self-image of the parents. The major part of the parents judged their children as "close" to their seif and their self-ideal. Any indication of retreat by social fathers could not be given.

Vietnamese Amerasians: The relationship between biological father, psychological distress, and self-destructive behavior

Vietnamese Amerasians are children who were fathered by U.S. serviceman and civilians during the Vietnam War. Although several studies have been conducted with this population, none have addressed the issue of the biological American fathers and its effect on mental health. This study examines the cognitions and feelings of Vietnamese Amerasians (N = 169) towards their biological fathers and the effect of this on psychological distress and self-destructive behavior. The findings of the study showed that Vietnamese Amerasians' cognitions about their biological American father were significant predictors of both psychological distress and self-destructive behavior. Ethnic and gender differences were found. Implications of findings are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Patterns of Paternity

This is a study of 250 young adults' perceptions of their father's parenting using a probability model. The sample was from an urban university and a rural university in the upper Midwest. The survey utilized Likert scales for a range of variables, including: physically present to physically absent, dangerous to safe, emotionally present to emotionally absent, etc. The survey also included open-ended questions for more qualitative information. Results showed that most young adults perceived their fathers as being a very positive force in their lives, although seven-25 percent perceived at least one major aspect of their father's behavior as negative.

Depressed mood and marital conflict: Relations to maternal and paternal intrusiveness with one-year-old infants

This study examined how depressed mood and marital conflict affect mothers' and fathers' intrusive behavior with their infants, and how the relationships among these variables differ by interactive context. Sixty-two families with 12-month-old infants (31 girls) participated. Mothers and fathers were each observed with their infant in a 15-minute free-play session and an open-ended teaching task session. Parents also completed self-reports of depressed mood and marital conflict. Regression analyses revealed that mothers' appraisal of marital conflict mediated the effect that their depressed mood had on their intrusive parenting during the teaching task. In contrast, depressed mood was directly related to less intrusiveness for both mothers and fathers in the free-play session. Differences in how depressed mood and marital conflict affect parenting behavior of mothers and fathers are discussed, and the role of context in better understanding how depressed mood and marital conflict impact parents of infants is highlighted.

Costs of infant-carrying in the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus).

Infant-carrying behavior among callitrichids seems to be a costly activity. Costs have been related to the physical efforts of carrying the weight of very heavy infants and to the resulting reduction in foraging efficiency. However, the costs of carrying in terms of the physical consequences for carriers have not previously been assessed. In this study, we have regarded weight loss in infant carriers as a measure of costs. We studied five families of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) during the first 9 weeks following the birth of infants. Captive-breeding conditions were required so that body weight could be measured frequently. To avoid inflicting undue stress on the subject animals, we used a noninvasive method for weighing the tamarins. Differences in carrying contribution were found amongst fathers and male and female helpers, with female helpers contributing less. We have found that carrying infants in the cotton-top tamarins is an activity that produces a weight loss. Fathers and male helpers go through a maximal body weight loss. While carrying, the tamarins also decrease food intake. However, no relationship was found between contribution to carrying and feeding time or in energetic intake during feeding observations. Thus, it seems that a direct relation doesn't exist between the observations of feeding and weight loss. Fathers increase their contribution to carrying during mothers' periovulatory periods. In this period, male helpers and especially fathers go through a maximal body weight loss. We found body weight losses of up to 11.3% in one subadult male and 9.1% in a father during the fifth week. No changes occurred in food intake in fathers or other male helpers during this period. During periovulatory periods, mothers carried less frequently but did increase their food intake. They gained weight from the second week after birth onward, especially during the periovulatory period. It seems that the infant-carrying behavior of fathers and male helpers may contribute to the improvement of the mothers' physical condition after birth and therefore may support a consecutive pregnancy.

Costs of infant‐carrying in the cotton‐top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus)

Infant-carrying behavior among callitrichids seems to be a costly activity. Costs have been related to the physical efforts of carrying the weight of very heavy infants and to the resulting reduction in foraging efficiency. However, the costs of carrying in terms of the physical consequences for carriers have not previously been assessed. In this study, we have regarded weight loss in infant carriers as a measure of costs. We studied five families of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) during the first 9 weeks following the birth of infants. Captive-breeding conditions were required so that body weight could be measured frequently. To avoid inflicting undue stress on the subject animals, we used a noninvasive method for weighing the tamarins. Differences in carrying contribution were found amongst fathers and male and female helpers, with female helpers contributing less. We have found that carrying infants in the cotton-top tamarins is an activity that produces a weight loss. Fathers and male helpers go through a maximal body weight loss. While carrying, the tamarins also decrease food intake. However, no relationship was found between contribution to carrying and feeding time or in energetic intake during feeding observations. Thus, it seems that a direct relation doesn't exist between the observations of feeding and weight loss. Fathers increase their contribution to carrying during mothers' periovulatory periods. In this period, male helpers and especially fathers go through a maximal body weight loss. We found body weight losses of up to 11.3% in one subadult male and 9.1percnt; in a father during the fifth week. No changes occurred in food intake in fathers or other male helpers during this period. During periovulatory periods, mothers carried less frequently but did increase their food intake. They gained weight from the second week after birth onward, especially during the periovulatory period. It seems that the infant-carrying behavior of fathers and male helpers may contribute to the improvement of the mothers' physical condition after birth and therefore may support a consecutive pregnancy. Am. J. Primatol. 48:99–111, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Becoming a Father: Marital Perceptions and Behaviors of Fathers during Pregnancy

Becoming a Father: Marital Perceptions and Behaviors of Fathers during Pregnancy

The Inclusion of Fathers In Family Therapy: A Research Based Perspective

This paper summarizes the results of research on the role of fathers in families and family therapy with particular reference to preparation for fatherhood, father involvement in family life as a protective factor, fathers' deviant behaviour as a risk factor, fathers' communication and coping styles, fatherhood and different types of marriages, and the effects of the workplace on fathers' behaviour within the family. Available research suggests that, with respect to problem formation, the behaviour of fathers may serve as either a risk factor or as a protective factor. With respect to problem resolution, fathers may be a powerful therapeutic resource or seriously compromise effectiveness of family therapy. The implications of research for clinical practice are discussed.

Parental Narcissism and the Disengagement of the Non-Custodial Father After Divorce

This paper argues that dominant narcissistic tendencies may keep certain non-custodial fathers from maintaining stable relationships with their children after divorce. It identifies the common characteristics and behaviors of the narcissistic non-custodial father to show the special difficulties he faces in the divorce process. Its main contention, made on the basis of the literature and with the help of two case descriptions, is that divorce and loss of custody pose a special threat to the narcissist's weak self and that the narcissistic father's post-divorce litigation and disengagement both stem from his driving need to maintain the “grandiose self” that protects his vulnerable and fragile core. Furthermore, the paper suggests that the family therapy framework cannot meet the needs of the narcissistic non-custodial father in the post divorce period. It urges that family care professionals be taught to recognize the common behaviors of narcissistic non-custodial fathers in relation to both their children and the helping professionals they consult and be made aware of the strong counter-transference feelings that such clients may evoke in them. It argues, too, that the focus of the treatment be moved to the mother and, especially, the children.

Parent-child interactions and child outcomes as related to gender of alcoholic parent.

Parents and children from alcoholic and non-alcoholic families (N = 137) were compared in regard to quality of interactions (using the Marital Interaction Coding System), child outcomes (using the Child Behavior Checklist), and the possible moderating effects of parenting behavior on child outcomes. Alcoholic families were subdivided by gender (father-alcoholic, mother-alcoholic, both parents alcoholic) to assess for the effect that gender of alcoholic parent has on parent-child interactions and child outcomes. Results indicated that dual and mother-only alcoholic families exhibited the most impaired interactions, although child problem behavior was not significantly different across the three groups containing one or two alcoholic parents. Furthermore, father's behavior (both alcoholic fathers and those married to an alcoholic), as compared to mother's behavior, most clearly moderated child outcomes. The possible protective effect of having a non-alcoholic mother was also indicated. Results are discussed in regard to the negative and positive effects that parents from alcoholic households can have on children.

Context and Development in Family Problem Solving with Preadolescent Children

This study analyzed correlates of social problem solving in 63 2-parent families with a preadolescent child during structured discussions in the home. The longitudinal design assessed families when the preadolescent was about 9.5 years old and again 2 years later. Links between problem solving and features of the immediate ecological context were examined. There was a substantial decline in the quality of family problem solving during preadolescence associated with changes in the participation and affective behavior of fathers and preadolescents. Although problem solving was not less effective on autonomy topics, it was markedly worse when parents, rather than the preadolescent, selected the topic for discussion. Preadolescent topic selection triggered a pattern of productive participation and affective behavior in both parents and preadolescents. The results clarify the nature of ambivalent parent-child relations just prior to puberty by specifying changes in family problem solving which correspond with preadolescent autonomy striving.

Use of Educational Materials to Modify Stressful Behaviors in Post-Divorce Parenting

A 32-page educational booklet was mailed to half of all parents filing for divorce in one urban domestic relations court over a If-week period. A total of 358 primarily lower-middle class intervention and wait-list control parents were interviewed by telephone approximately three months post-filing. Mothers in the treatment group reported greater reduction of loyalty conflict behaviors and increased encouragement of child-fathcr involvement. No differences were obscrved between intervention and control for either mothers' willingness to share responsibility or in rate of conveyance to children of interparental conflict and personal distress. No differenccs were observed for father behaviors. Children exhibiting greater internalizing and externalizing behaviors on the Child Bchavior Checklist (Parents) had mothers who reported experiencing greater interpersonal conflict and personal distress, and more often spoke of their difficulties to their children. A one-year follow-up revealed that intervention paren...

Supporting Fathers and Supported Mothers in Families with Disruptive Boys: Who are they?

What are the personal characteristics of supported mothers and supporting fathers, in the context of families having disruptive boys? The supportive and unsupportive behaviors of fathers towards mothers (N = 44) were rated by observers in standardized situations. Characteristics of both fathers and mothers were used to predict support: age, education, IQ, reported parental care during childhood, symptoms of distress and marital satisfaction. The joint characteristics of both spouses were better predictors than fathers' or mothers' characteristics alone. Unexpectedly more support and less stress correlated with more unfavorable characteristics of the father compared to the mother for the same marital dyad. Both spouses' reports on parental care were highly predictive of fathers' supportive and unsupportive behaviors towards mothers, whereas higher intellectual abilities of fathers predicted unsupportive behaviors. Results are discussed in relation to marital relations and differences between behavioral versus reported assessments of spouse support.

Reinventing Grief Work: Virginia Woolf's Feminist Representations of Mourning in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse

Freud, in his studies of hysterics, and contemporary nerve specialists George Savage and Silas Weir Mitchell, in case studies, treat bereaved women as mentally unbalanced. They assume causal link between grief and madness without any analysis or explicit justification. Because women had traditionally been primary mourners, they became primary patients of rest cures and talking cures. As one of Savage's patients and as subject of much biographical writing, Virginia Woolf embodies effects of this easy correlation between madness and grief. In Woolf's case, issue becomes crystallized in specific moment: why was family physician called in to treat thirteen-year-old Virginia Stephen after her mother died? That moment marks break with Victorian mourning ritual, and makes vivid transition from social grief practices to medical and psychological therapies. Her own writings, both autobiographical and fictional, offer critique of this transition and describe post-Freudian form of grief work. In Mrs. Dalloway Woolf tells cautionary tale of fatal results of feminization and medicalization of grief, but offers no viable alternative. In To Lighthouse she removes mourning from realms of femininity and medicine, and provides positive model for grief work. As is well documented, her mother's death triggered Virginia's first breakdown; her father's death when she was twenty-two precipitated severe and suicide attempt. Recent theorists consider eating and sleep disorders, hallucinations, anger, and depression to be nonpathological manifestations of grief.(1) Bereavement which prompts suicide attempt is pathological, but short of that, what constitutes disordered grief? This question becomes particularly difficult to answer when we compare reactions of Virginia and Leslie Stephen to Julia's death. According to Quentin Bell, both experienced their bereavement as kind of imitation death, but while Leslie's was comprehensible in terms of Victorian mourning ritual, his daughter's was not. For long time he abandoned himself to grief; his life, like his writing paper, was confined within deep black border (1:40). Virginia's breakdown was a great interval of nothingness, kind of positive death which cannot be described and of which Virginia herself probably knew little (1:44). In Bell's words, Leslie broke utterly after Julia's death, but he did not suffer breakdown. There is fine but definite line between broke down and breakdown, between what can be described in terms of social conventions and what cannot. In Reminiscences Woolf compares her father's grief unfavorably to her own and that of her sisters and brothers. In her analysis it is Leslie's grief that is transgressive. She felt that Oriental gloom which her Victorian father imposed on household was excessive: his groans [and] passionate lamentations . . . passed normal limits of sorrow (Moments of Being 40). She characterizes his expression of grief as both foreign and feminine, as inappropriate; he is like a Hebrew prophet (40) and the Queen in Shakespeare (94) in his self-dramatization. But Woolf's notion of the normal limits of sorrow is very different from her father's Victorian idea. Leslie Stephen was distraught widower, living in conventionally darkened house, visited by female relatives and friends who offered sympathy and comfort. The trappings of Oriental gloom were trappings of Victorian mourning ritual. Woolf's insistence on strangeness of her father's behavior manifests her complete rejection of nineteenth-century modes of grief as emotionally oppressive, excessive, and perhaps even pathological. The profound difference between Leslie's and Virginia's bereavements was both gendered and generational. Woolf's rejection of her father's Victorian bereavement is characteristic of her generation's wholesale rejection of things Victorian, but to her family and to many of her critics Virginia's grief was disease; Leslie's was normal. …

No Man's Land: Men's Changing Commitments to Family and Work

No Man's Land: Men's Changing Commitments to Family and Work. Kathleen Gerson. New York: Basic. 1993. 355 pp. ISBN 0-465-06316-0. $25 cloth. Men, Work, and Family. Jane C. Hood (Ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 1993. 294 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0-8039-3890-X (cloth). $44 cloth, $19.95 paper. American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era. E. Anthony Rotundo. New York: Basic. 1993. 364 pp. ISBN 0-465-01409-7. $25 cloth. Growing Up Male: The Psychology of Masculinity. B. Mark Schoenberg. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. 1993. 144 pp. ISBN 0-89789-3441. $49.95 cloth. How Fathers Care for the Next Generation: A Four-Decade Study. John Snarey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. 1993. 394 pp. ISBN 0-674-40940-X. $35 cloth. Men, masculinity, and fathers are hot topics in the social sciences, as any casual perusal of academic (and popular) bookshelves will demonstrate. But it's not just the quantity of books that is striking. The emerging diversity, depth, and level of scholarship exemplify the intellectual growth of this important field of study. In this review, we discuss five new scholarly books that focus in part or fully on men in families, and highlight how scholarship has matured in this area. Yet, despite the maturation, there is room for further development. Thus, we also include our personal concerns with current scholarship and hopes for future work on men in families. John Snarey's book, How Fathers Care for the Next Generation, is one of the finest examples of how studies of men in families have progressed. Snarey draws from a four-generation, four-decade study of men to assert that good fathering ... really does matter. It matters over a long time, over a life time, and even over generations (p. 356). Snarey, a developmental psychologist, firmly grounds his research on fathering in Erikson's theory of human development. This book is now the finest empirical test and the strongest support for Erikson's concept of generativity--caring for the next generation. With both rigorous quantitative methods and a number of in-depth, intergenerational case studies, Snarey documents that generative fathering significantly affects children's future well-being. Snarey found links between both sons' and daughters' educational and occupational mobility (the fathers in the sample were working-class men) and various measures of their fathers' involvement in their lives in early childhood and in adolescence. (Unfortunately, familial and relational outcome measures for adult children were unavailable in Snarey's study, thus limiting the scope of his work.) In addition, generative fathering also increased fathers' own well-being at midlife in terms of occupational success and marital happiness. Furthermore, more generative fathering behavior was related to fathers' psychosocial generativity beyond the family sphere at midlife, supporting Erikson's idea that parental experience is an important foundation for healthy development at midlife. The involved fathering that Snarey measured fits within the scope of traditional male parenting rather than the less gender-stereotyped parenting often called for today. Snarey's research should encourage more researchers to study men and fathering with developmental lenses in addition to the sociological lenses that have provided the focus for so long (Hawkins, 1993) . Both the intergenerational, longitudinal design of Snarey's study and the rich theoretical tools he used to frame his data are evidence of significant maturation in the study of men and fathers. E. Anthony Rotundo's book, American Manhood, also shows how current scholarship is maturing. Rotundo, a social historian, gives us a vivid portrait of how our cultural conceptions of manhood and masculinity have evolved over the last 250 years. Together with Griswold's (1993) history of fatherhood in 19th-and 20th-century America, scholars now can place contemporary conversations on men, masculinity, and fathers within a well-documented historical context, a much needed and valuable achievement. …