Men's Parenting Research Articles

Effects of the 2001 draft suspension in Spain on educational attainment

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, multiple European countries abolished compulsive military service to opt for a professional military. These reforms may have positive or negative effects on young men's educational attainment. On one hand, these individuals may have more time to pursue their education without the interruption caused by compulsive military service. On the other, if young men were using their education as a way to delay or prevent compulsive military service, then they may pursue less education in the absence of such an incentive. In this study, we ask how the 2001 reform to abolish compulsive military service in Spain affected educational attainment of young men. Using a difference-in-differences approach along time and gender, we find that there was a significant increase in university education and a significant decrease in secondary education after the reform. Next, we use a triple difference model along time, gender and a binary variable indicating whether both of the young man's parents were low educated in order to analyze the potential heterogenous effects of the reform depending on the education level of an individual. We find that an average young man born after 1982 was 7.6% more likely to obtain university education and 9.7% less likely to obtain secondary education after the reform. Finally, we control for time, year, and province of birth fixed effects to mitigate omitted variable bias. Our results remain similar except that the positive effect of the reform on university education becomes marginally significant.

Lived experiences of matrilocal husbands in Filipino marriage patterns: a phenomenological inquiry

Marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife. Hence, determining a community's rules or rules of residence in marriage has long been established as an essential requirement in understanding the social system. Moreover, in-residence practices are the first family pattern to exhibit change and cause subsequent change; thus, they warrant attention. Meanwhile, when couples marry, they usually live in or near the home of the man's parents. However, sometimes, this wasn't practiced because of the preeminence of the bride's family. Hence, unlike the more common patrilocal marriage, the groom resides with the bride's parents. A phenomenological qualitative study was utilized to understand the lived experiences of matrilocal husbands in Filipino marriage patterns. The researcher identified four major themes from the transcripts using Colaizzi's phenomenological data analysis procedure. Reasons for becoming a matrilocal husband are primarily based on the socioeconomic status of the couple. The participants expressed that there were moments of self-adjustment and set-aside decisions. They expressed a need to socialize, particularly with his in-laws. This study can be used for policy-making, specifically for the local government unit, to extend activities to cater to the personal, social, and psychological impacts of being a matrilocal husband. It can also be integrated into gender and society courses in college.

Commentary: The roles of mothers versus fathers in intergenerational family risk - a commentary on Rothenberg etal. (2023).

Basic research studies in the past 2 decades have established that conduct problems and antisocial behavior are associated across generations within families. The Fast Track study represents a major prevention effort with children showing higher levels of conduct problems in childhood, and the Rothenberg etal. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2022) study sheds light on whether this intervention has beneficial effects on the family of procreation. In this commentary, we consider the implications of the major finding that such effects were found for women but not for men. We discuss evidence that men's parenting behavior is influenced by the parenting behavior and overall risk of their women partners, and thus preventive interventions in childhood may have beneficial influences on fathers through mothers.

The procreative identities of men in same‐sex relationships choosing surrogacy: A new theoretical understanding

AbstractThe growing visibility of same‐sex two‐parent families and the increased use of surrogacy have expanded LGBT parenting scholarship to include experiences of gay and other men in same‐sex relationships. Yet, even with the growth of research over the past decade on gay and other sexual minority men's parenting experiences, such studies are still undertheorized. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize an enhanced family theory model that addresses the evolution of the procreative identities of men in same‐sex relationships who decide to have children via surrogacy. This framework will identify the unique issues and factors that support same‐sex partnered men's (a) procreative consciousness; (b) procreative responsibility; and (c) procreative transitioning, including barriers that may exert a long‐term impact on fathers in same‐sex relationships. As scholarship on fatherhood among gay, bisexual, and other men expands, the development of a family studies model that examines surrogacy trajectories in the context of men's same‐sex relationships, from considerations of procreation to post‐birth experiences, can enhance family studies theory and research.

A Study on Traditional Marriage Based on Customary Law of the Lach People and It’s Changes in the Modern Life

Marriage always plays an important part of one's life, of each family and of the whole society. That is not an exception for the Lach people - a group of local residents of the Co ho ethnic group in the Central Highland, Vietnam. Marriage ceremonies in this group have been "institutionalized" by Nri (Customary Law) - rules adjusted, accepted by or based on the customs and practice of people in a society. Through customary law, it appears that the traditional marriage of the Lach people has many unique features such as the custom of challenging wedding gifts, marrying the family member(s) of the deceased husband, asking man's parents for permission to marry, staying with wife's family, etc. Nevertheless, due to the significant changes of society in recent years, the customary law in marriage of the Lach people has been changing considerably as a result.

MDMA-related deaths: About 3 cases

MDMA is currently regaining popularity, especially in festive context. In this context, MDMA is usually consumed [1] with other psychostimulants, including cocaine, to increase level of vigilance, and/or [2] with cannabis and alcohol, in order to prolong the feeling of well-being, and/or with sedatives [3] , especially benzodiazepines, in order to manage side effect [1] . Currently, the degree of purity together with the MDMA content of Ectasy resold on the clandestine market increases [2] . Although fatalities stills considered rare [1] , the authors report three cases of death related to massive MDMA uptake in the south of France during the summer of 2018. Case 1: 29-year-old man found dead in his swimming pool after a party; the initial diagnosis was drowning. Cases 2 and 3: a 17-year-old man (case 2) and his girlfriend (case 3), aged 18, are found dead in their studio by the young man's parents, last contact dated from the night before. Autopsies, performed the day after the discovery in all three cases, showed only diffuse polyvisceral congestion, and no sign of drowning in case 1. For cases 1 and 2, usual toxicological samples, including fluorinated peripheral blood were send to the laboratory (for case 1, a pool water sample was taken). In case 3, analyzes were performed in urine and lung exsudate as no blood sample was available. Screenings (including NPS) were performed using LC-HRMS. Alcohols were analyzed by HS-GC-FID, illicit drugs by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS. For the case 1, strontium was measured in blood and pool water sample using ICP-MS. Analyzes show the following results ( Table 1 ). In all three cases, death was attributed to MDMA (the drowning diagnosis was ruled out in case 1). The blood levels found in MDMA users after usual single oral dose (125 mg) are generally between 20 and 250 μg/L. Concentrations in MDMA-related deaths range from 478 to 53,900 μg/L for MDMA alone and from 40 to 41,000 μg/L in cases of polydrug use [3] . In the context of a recent upsurge in MDMA consumption, three cases confirm that health monitoring stills necessary to promote information, prevention, risk reduction and learning of the effects management for potential users and health professionals.

Religious Variability in the Relationship Between Masculinity and Father Involvement

AbstractWhile traditional masculinity and fathering behaviors are seemingly associated, few studies have considered the conditions under which masculine norms may influence fathers’ behavior. Religiosity is an important factor to consider, given its association with both the endorsement of traditional gender attitudes and father involvement. This paper addresses the independent effects of traditional masculine norms and religiosity on fathering behaviors and considers whether religiosity moderates the relationship between masculinity and men's parenting behaviors. Using a national sample of fathers with children aged 2–17 in the United States, the results suggest that masculinity is negatively associated with father involvement, while religiosity is positively associated with father involvement. Yet, both highly masculine and highly religious fathers are more likely to engage in harsh discipline. Moreover, results suggest that religiosity attenuates the negative relationship between masculinity and active father involvement, while exacerbating the positive relationship between masculinity and harsh punishment.

Fathers' cortisol and testosterone in the days around infants' births predict later paternal involvement

Human paternal behavior is multidimensional, and extant research has yet to delineate how hormone patterns may be related to different dimensions of fathering. Further, although studies vary in their measurement of hormones (i.e., basal or reactivity), it remains unclear whether basal and/or reactivity measures are predictive of different aspects of men's parenting. We examined whether men's testosterone and cortisol predicted fathers' involvement in childcare and play with infants and whether fathers' testosterone and cortisol changed during fathers' first interaction with their newborn. Participants were 298 fathers whose partners gave birth in a UNICEF-designated “baby-friendly” hospital, which encourages fathers to hold their newborns 1 h after birth, after mothers engage in skin-to-skin holding. Salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured before and after fathers' first holding of their newborns. Basal and short-term changes in cortisol and testosterone were analyzed. Fathers were contacted 2–4 months following discharge to complete questionnaires about childcare involvement. Fathers' cortisol decreased during the time they held their newborns on the birthing unit. Fathers' basal testosterone in the immediate postnatal period predicted their greater involvement in childcare. Both basal and reactivity cortisol predicted fathers' greater involvement in childcare and play. Results suggest that reduced basal testosterone is linked with enhanced paternal indirect and direct parenting effort months later, and that higher basal cortisol and increases in cortisol in response to newborn interaction are predictive of greater paternal involvement in childcare and play, also months later. Findings are discussed in the context of predominating theoretical models on parental neuroendocrinology.

Sexual orientation and future parenthood in a 2011-2013 nationally representative United States sample.

Previous researchers have found evidence for differences in parenting goals between lesbian and gay people and their heterosexual peers. However, no previous research has quantified the parenting goals of bisexual people or evaluated parenting goals as a function of sexual partner gender. In addition, political and social climates for sexual minority people had improved rapidly since the last representative data on lesbian and gay peoples' plans for parenthood were collected. We analyzed data from 3,941 childless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual participants from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG; United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2014), a nationally representative sample of United States residents aged 15 to 44 years. We found that statistically significant, within-gender sexual orientation differences in parenting plans persist, despite social and legal changes. Consistent with hypotheses, bisexual men's parenting desires and intentions were similar to those of their heterosexual male peers and different from those of their gay male peers, while bisexual women's reports were more mixed. Also consistent with hypotheses, the gender of the most recent sexual partner was a strong predictor of parenting goals. We discuss implications for mental and reproductive health-care providers, attorneys, social workers, and others who interact with sexual minority adults. (PsycINFO Database Record

Expanding “Irish Family” Repertoires: Exploring Gay Men's Experiences as Parents in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACTThis article explores gay men's parenting experiences and practices in order to seek insight into how gay men accept or challenge heterosexual family norms and how “family” is understood in the Irish context. It is based on small-scale qualitative research (interviews) with seven gay fathers. Despite the limited routes to parenthood for gay men in Ireland, the research findings indicate that the participants enjoy parenting and that they are motivated in their parenting practices. The gay fathers in this study are participative parents who have made significant decisions in their lives in order to prioritize their children's welfare. The diversity of family constellations and care arrangements that surround gay fathering in Ireland can expand family and care repertoires beyond the traditional biparent heterosexual norm. Gay fathers in Ireland appear to enjoy some security at the private familial level and in the responses from their families and communities, but they are keenly aware that nontraditional families are given less status in Irish society. Unlike other jurisdictions, gay parenting is not articulated by the gay fathers in this research as a rights-based argument. Instead, these Irish gay fathers are de facto activists who seek to “humanize” gay parenting.

Are interventions supporting separated parents father inclusive? Insights and challenges from a review of programme implementation and impact

AbstractThis paper reviews divorce‐related parenting programmes, assessing the extent to which fathers are included and whether father inclusion influences outcomes. The paper also discusses limitations of the research evidence and implications for future intervention and evaluation design. Thirteen programmes met the criteria in the review period 2005–2012 but only four had been evaluated using randomized control trials or with independent measures from mothers and fathers. Analysis of these four programmes shows modest evidence of reduced couple‐conflict, improved coparenting and some evidence of improved child outcomes. Key issues raised are the need for improving the quantity and quality of demographic data about fathers; the importance of incorporating analysis by gender of parent into evaluation design and the value of developing and routinely using father‐related indicators to measure programme impact on men's parenting, fathering and co‐parental relationships.

The effect of unpredictable early childhood environments on parenting in adulthood.

Life history theory suggests that individual differences in parenting are partially rooted in environmental conditions experienced early in life. Whereas certain conditions should promote increased investment in parenting, unpredictable and/or harsh environments should promote decreased investment in parenting, especially in men. We tested this hypothesis in 3 studies. In Study 1a, we conducted analyses on 112 parents taking part in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA), all of whom have been continuously studied starting before they were born. Parenting orientations were assessed at age 32 via an interview. Findings showed that experiencing more unpredictability at ages 0-4 (i.e., frequent changes in parental employment status, cohabitation status, and residence) prospectively forecasted more negative parenting orientations among men, but not women. This effect was serially mediated by lower early maternal supportive presence measured at ages 0-4 and insecure attachment assessed at ages 19 and 26. In Study 1b, we replicated these findings on 96 parents from the MLSRA using behavioral observations of their parental supportive presence. In Study 2, we replicated the effect of early-life unpredictability on men's parenting orientations with a sample of 435 parents. This effect was mediated by adult attachment anxiety and avoidance. Across all studies, greater early-life harshness (low socioeconomic status [SES]) did not predict adult parenting outcomes. These findings suggest that greater early-life unpredictability may be conveyed to children through less supportive parenting, which results in insecure attachment representations in adulthood. Among men, this process culminates in less positive adult parenting orientations and less supportive parenting.

The Transmission of Parenting from Fathers to Sons

SYNOPSIS Objective . Researchers address the extent to which parenting practices of fathers and mothers are associated with their sons' parenting behaviors as young adults, and whether adolescent behavior explains this association. Design . Data come from 409 young men interviewed in the 2006 Young Adult study of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results . Men whose fathers were positively involved with them when growing up report more positive parenting of their own children, a direct effect. Less harsh mothering and more positive fathering are associated with reduced adolescent behavior problems, and positive mothering is associated with positive adjustment of these young men as adolescents. However, neither adolescent problem behavior nor positive adjustment is associated with young men's fathering of their own children, and thus does not explain the association between the fathering young men received and their own fathering behavior. Conclusions . Men's parenting of their sons can have a long-term direct effect on how their sons parent their own children. Although parenting is associated with both positive and negative behaviors of sons during adolescence, these adolescent behaviors are not directly linked to later parenting behavior when sons have their own children. More research is needed to examine mediation mechanisms for the intergenerational transmission of parenting.

Maternal Instincts, Biological Clocks, and Soccer Moms: Gay Men's Parenting and Family Narratives

Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework of symbolic interaction and queer theory, I analyze how forty‐one mostly white middleclass gay men accomplish their parenting and family identities. Findings reveal how gay active and prospective parents are influenced by the normative family ideal and implicate themselves in dominant discourses about (hetero)sexuality, gender, family, and parenting. Data suggest that in order for gay men to understand themselves as parents, many identify with female‐familial roles and frame their parenting experiences in maternal terms, using such terms as maternal instincts, biological clocks, and soccer moms. I argue that these patterns emerge because these men inhabit a rather liminal space that lacks any definitive models or guidelines. These men make sense of their liminality by framing their identities and experiences within established gendered and heterosexual parenting scripts, resulting in a narrative hybrid of heterosexual men's family and parenting trajectories and discourses about women, femininity, and mothering.

Distances between couples and the man's and woman's parents

AbstractUsing data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, we investigate the influence of characteristics of the male and female partner in couples and their parents on the distance between the residential location of the couple and of both partners' parents. We find that couples live closer to the man's parents than to the woman's parents. We conclude that the socio‐economic position of the man is more dominant in the location choice of couples than that of the woman, but that when the couple has young children, the family ties of the woman seem to gain importance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Qualitative Insights and Methodological Challenges: Next Steps in Research on Low-Income Fathering

For decades, researchers have struggled to assess the characteristics and lived experiences of low-income men on the margins of their families. Recent initiatives, such as the Fatherhood Research Initiative, the DADS project, and related multi-site evaluations, have resulted in promising longitudinal data on low-income men's parenting behavior and subsequent effects on their children's development and well-being. However, limitations that linger in this research urge consideration of new approaches to the study of low-income fatherhood. In this chapter we identify four areas for critical consideration in research on low-income fathers and their children. We explore the range of qualitative tools that are available to address these challenges and discuss potential methodological innovations, including mixed methodological and multidisciplinary approaches in the study of low-income fathering.

Legitimising Rainbow Families Using Partnerships For Change

(2007). Legitimising Rainbow Families Using Partnerships For Change. Australian Feminist Law Journal: Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 163-174.

Adolescent Fathers' Parenting Stress, Social Support, and Involvement with Infants

The present study examined the relationship between concurrent measures of adolescent fathers' parenting stress, social support, and fathers' care‐giving involvement with the 3‐month‐old infant, controlling for fathers' prenatal involvement. The study sample consisted of 50 teenage father–mother dyads. Findings from multivariate regression revealed that fathers' parenting stress was significantly and negatively related to fathers' care giving as perceived by both fathers and mothers. The relationship between support for father involvement provided by the young man's parents and father reported care‐giving involvement approached significance. Social support from both teenagers' parents buffered the negative influence of parenting stress on fathers' involvement with the baby. Policy and intervention implications are discussed.

DIFFERENT CLASSES, DIFFERENT FATHERS?

This paper discusses how social class and different economic conditions influence men's parenting. The paper is based on a qualitative study of 30 Swedish couples who live together with their biological children. The study shows that, despite the generosity of the Swedish welfare state and family subsidies, both internal and external economic conditions affect the way men construct their fatherhood. This was shown most clearly in the couples’ discussions around parental leave where parents under economic pressure often distributed the leave in a gender-traditional way. It was also apparent how traditional class patterns and structures still have a strong influence on today's parenthood. Fathers in working-class households often saw fatherhood as creating meaning in their lives and saw the process of becoming a parent as an explicit aspiration to establish something ‘natural’, well known and predictable. Fathers in middle-class households, on the other hand, considered fatherhood as something new, a reflexive project or an opportunity to develop their identity and to get to know new sides of themselves. In practice, these different ways of creating meaning in fatherhood are illustrated by the finding that working-class fathers tend to take up fewer parental leave days and uphold more traditional patterns of family life than fathers in middle-class households.

Men's violence, men's parenting and gender politics in Sweden

The aim of the article is to open up for further discussion and empirical research the relation of men's violence to men as parents. Drawing upon previous research on men's violence against women, it is suggested that a man's relationship with his partner and relationships with his children can be conceptualized as arenas linked to an overall process of gender constitution. Also discussed is how Swedish policy creates a context for men's identity work and practices as parents that is enabling with regard to men's access to children, but restraining with regard to action against men's violence post-separation/divorce.