Identity Theory as a Guide to Understanding Fathers' Involvement With Their Children

Abstract

Identity theory was used to explore fathers' involvement with their children. Eighty-nine married couples with preschool children completed questionnaires and interviews providing information on how involved they were in child-rearing activities. Participants rated the centrality of their parent versus worker status and of the nurturing role. Results indicated that fathers did not differ on any involvement measures regardless of whether they rated the parent or worker status most central. However, fathers who considered the nurturing role highly central to their sense of self engaged in significantly more interaction and responsibility behaviors with their children and were significantly more involved overall than fathers low on nurturing role centrality. Specific behaviors and attitudes of mothers were significantly related to fathers' assessments of nurturing role centrality. Results hold important implications for the refinement of identity theory and for the development of parenting programs and public policy initiatives designed to increase father involvement.

The Importance of Fatherhood to U.S. Married and Cohabiting Men

“…Fatherhood should also be examined in relation to motherhood, particularly because the couple context seems to shape the importance of fatherhood for men (Cook et al, 2005;Henley & Pasley, 2005;Rane & McBride, 2000) and because meanings of motherhood have also shifted in the last several decades. Although women are often depicted as making "hard choices" between work and motherhood (Blair-Loy, 2001;Gerson, 1985;Williams, 2000), McQuillan et al (2008) find that women place a high value on both, just as men do.…”

“…), typically using a penny sort (Rane & McBride, 2000) or pie chart (Habib & Lancaster, 2006) methodology. Research on fathering has generally found that centrality is more important than salience in explaining fathering behavior (Henley & Pasley, 2005;Rane & McBride, 2000).…”

“…On the other hand, the call for men's greater parental involvement is rooted in an egalitarian view of marital relations and family life. In fact, the available evidence suggests that men's greater engagement in parenting activities is the result of a world view shared (or constructed) by both partners: If wives believe men should be nurturing, men rate this dimension as more central to the father identity and are more involved with their children (Cook et al, 2005;Fox, 2009;Rane & McBride, 2000).…”

“…Because the salience, centrality, and importance of fatherhood have been shown to exert a significant influence on fathers' involvement with their children (DeGarmo, 2010;Fox & Bruce, 2001;Pasley, Futris, & Skinner, 2002;Rane & McBride, 2000), a more complete understanding of the influences on the importance of fatherhood in men's lives should lead to policies and practices which will facilitate men's greater involvement in parenting.…”

Le rôle du père au sein du partenariat parental

“…De plus, l'im pli ca tion pa ter nelle peut pren dre la forme d'ac ti vi tés tra di tion nel les (par exemple, nour rir l'en fant, changer sa cou che) ou de par ti ci pa tion au jeu (Ra din, 1994). Fi na le ment, elle peut être con cep tua li sée d'un point de vue intra-psychique comme une va leur que le père y ac corde (Bei tel et Parke, 1998) ou quand la pa ternité fait par tie de l'iden tité d'un homme (Rane et McBride, 2000). Et comme l'im pli ca tion pa ren tale, quelle que soit sa dé fi ni tion, est plus sus cep ti ble de va rier pour les pè res tant en quan tité qu'en qua lité (Parke, 1996), il est es sen tiel d'en avoir une pers pec tive mul ti di men sion nelle, au-delà des mo dè les tra di tion nels fé mi nins, lorsqu'on con si dère leur rôle dans ce par te na riat.…”