Fathers’ Role Model Perceptions

Abstract

Qualitative interview data are used to explore fathers’( N = 24) perceptions of their own fathers and others as influential parental role models and associations between fathers’ role model perceptions and their involvement with their own children. In fathers’ descriptions of their parental role models, three themes emerged: types of models that fathers identified as role models for them as parents, affective evaluations the fathers ascribed to the models, and content that the fathers perceived learning from the models. Highly involved fathers were more likely to cite peer parents than to specifically cite their own fathers as influential role models for them and infrequently cited their spouses as models. Low-involvement fathers more often attributed positive affective evaluations to their models than did highly involved fathers.

Fathers and child welfare services in Norway: self-concept and fathering practice

“…These fathers' experiences and thoughts around the importance of role models is not distinctive only for fathers involved with the CWS. Several authors (Masciadrelli et al 2006; LaRossa 2012) has reported similar experiences among fathers in general. What is interesting to explore, as explained in the next two sections, is how these experiences and conceptions affects their self-concept in the context of CWS involvement, when they are challenged in their role as fathers, with several having their competence as care givers questioned.…”

Fatherhood Harmony: Polyphony, Movement, and Subjectivity

“…There are many additional contexts that affect fatherhood, several of which have been mentioned in the literature: These include government (Brannen & Moss, 1998;Haas et al, 2002;Hamer, 1997;Hewlett, 2000), religion and spirituality (Caughy et al, 2001;Dollahite, 1998;Furrow, 1998;Gavanas, 2004;Hamer, 1997;Palkovitz & Palm, 1998;Silverstein, Auerbach, Griece, & Dunkel, 1999), recreation, leisure, or sports (Coakley, 2006;Gavanas, 2004;LaRossa, 2005a;Shaw & Dawson, 2001;Smith, 2004;, education (David, Ball, Davies, & Reay, 2003;Doucet, 2004;Hamer, 1997;Warren & Tyagi, 2003), health and health care (Garfield, Clark-Kauffman, & Davis, 2006;Hewlett, 2000), community organizations (e.g., Blum & Vandewater, 1993), labor markets (Brannen & Moss, 1998), housing (Caughy et al, 2001;Hewlett, 2000), the criminal justice system (Clarke et al, 2005;Dyer, 2005;Nurse, 2001;Roy, 2005), the media (Sunderland, 2006;LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, & Wynn, 2000), and peer groups (Masciadrelli, Pleck, & Steuve, 2006). Each of these can constrain or facilitate various forms and meanings of fatherhood, and each can do it directly by influencing the father or the child or indirectly by influencing other people or situations around the father or the child.…”

Subjects Between Legacies: How Fathers Construct the Relation Between Their Childhood Past, the Present of Parenting, and Their Child(ren)’s Future

“…The other dimension of fathers’ dual position in the relation parent/child can be seen in fathers’ intentions to provide a model to their children constructed, as noted above, ‘from the values of the present’ (Daly, 1993: 525). Contemporary norms of parenting and of caring, participative fatherhood constitute a break with an authoritarian model, prompting fathers to draw on the example of peer fathers (Masciadrelli et al, 2006), mothers, partners, and others. Daly (1993) writes that fathers construct ‘fragmented models’ rather than emulate ‘the father mentor’, reflecting fathers’ rejection of ‘an inherited model of fatherhood that is rooted in the past’ (p. 526).…”

“…In this context, many contemporary fathers judge their own father’s model not fully adequate to their aspirations for themselves, their partners, and their children (Williams, 2008). They turn to others, such as partners, mothers, and peers, to find guidance for the practice of involved fatherhood (Daly, 1993; Masciadrelli et al, 2006).…”