A Critical Exploration of Biological and Social Fathering Among Afro‐Caribbean Fathers

Abstract

ObjectiveThis research explores fathers' construction of fathering to expand knowledge on the behavioral, cognitive, and affective domains of father involvement, focusing on middle childhood in ethnic minority families.BackgroundFathers' contributions to children's development and socialization have received increasing attention since the 1970s. Although exploration of ethnic minority fathers has increased, the literature on ethnic and minority fathers is limited because insight into fathers living outside North America continues to be understudied.MethodThis study employed a qualitative methodology from a social constructivist perspective and a bioecological model to contextualize fathering in Afro‐Jamaican families. Phenomenological thematic analysis (PTA) was used, focusing on 24 semistructured interviews from five biological and 19 biological and social Afro‐Jamaican fathers.ResultsUsing Palkovitz's (1997) conceptualization of fathering, including behavioral, affective, and cognitive domains, phenomenological thematic analysis was extended to include the spiritual domain. Furthermore, fathers reported being engaged with their biological and social children in similar ways.ConclusionThese findings highlight the need for researchers to explore both the universal and culturalized aspects of fathering in cultural contexts.ImplicationsFathers should be supported through social policies and program intervention to encourage fathers to be involved in children's lives in multiple ways.

Intersectionality and fatherhood: Theorizing non‐hegemonic fatherhoods

“…This interest gave birth to different conceptual frameworks and led to the progressive inclusion of non-traditional father populations in the research agenda (Green et al, 2019;Chuang et al, 2018;Green & Chuang, 2020;Roopnarine & Yildirim, 2019). However, non-hegemonic, marginalized father groups have not received the same amount of attention (Roopnarine, 2015) and main theoretical development still remained focused on "white, American, middle-class men in monogamous marriages" (Inhorn et al, 2014. p. 2).…”