Abstract
Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children's development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father–child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies on parenting and children's development. The first aim of this monograph was to provide a brief update on the current state of research on fathering and to lay out a developmental ecological systems perspective as a conceptual framework for understanding the different spaces fathers inhabit in their children's lives. Because there is wide variability in fathers’ roles, the ecological systems perspective situates fathers, mothers, children, and other caregivers within an evolving network of interrelated social relationships in which children and their parents change over time and space (e.g., residence). The second aim was to present examples of empirical studies conducted by members of the international working group that highlighted different methods, data collection, and statistical analyses used to capture the variability in father–child relationships. The monograph ends with a commentary that elaborates on the ecological systems framework with a discussion of the broader macrosystem and social-contextual influences that impinge on fathers and their children. The collection of articles contributes to research on father–child relationships by advancing theory and presenting varied methods and analysis strategies that assist in understanding the father–child relationship and its impact on child development.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 7-160 |
| Number of pages | 154 |
| Journal | Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to the funding from the Society for Research in Child Development and to the scholars of the International Working Group on Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Children's Development. This research was funded by NIH grants (NIH HD084476 and NIH HD060124). The New Parents Project was funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant CAREER 0746548, awarded to Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan), with additional support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grant 1K01HD056238, awarded to Claire M. Kamp Dush), and The Ohio State University's Institute for Population Research (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant R24HD058484) and program in Human Development and Family Science. This research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD042607, K02HD047423) to Volling. We are grateful to the families and research staff of the Family Transitions Study. This work was supported by the Jacobs Foundation (AZ: 2013-1049) and awarded to Lieselotte Ahnert as head of CENOF (the Central European Network on Fatherhood with headquarters at the University of Vienna). We thank Barbara Supper who recruited the families, coordinated the data collection, and guided the student teams. This project was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Children and Families (Grant No. 90PR0006).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Society for Research in Child Development