Fathering in an Urban Setting: A Qualitative Analysis of Interviews with Detroit Fathers Preparing to Parent a New Baby
New data from the CDC suggests that undereducated fathers are less likely than their more educated counterparts to cohabitate with their children and less likely to participate in routine parenting activities. Increased education confers potential benefits to fathers via exposure to child rearing knowledge, skill building experiences, and access to positive father role models. A lack of education, in contrast, disadvantages fathers in these respects. Early interventions can help undereducated fathers gain these important parenting skills. However, very little research has investigated the particular challenges fathers face when preparing to parent their young children. The current study aims to inform the design of early interventions to target the particular needs of disadvantaged fathers.
Methods: This study employs qualitative data from a larger investigation examining the effects of psychosocial risk and resilience factors on the bio-psycho-social functioning of Detroit parents expecting a new baby. Interviews were conducted with 15 low-income, urban, expectant fathers in Detroit, and a thematic analysis was conducted, drawing on principles of grounded theory. Through an iterative process of identifying and reviewing themes in the narratives, final codes were developed for data analysis. Each transcript was subsequently reviewed by the first author and two research assistants independently and the data were analyzed using NVIVO software.
Results: Three themes emerged as prominent in the data.
1. Child Age and Fathering: Men could imagine parenting older children, but viewed early childhood as a period during which mothering was primary and their role with their child was less important.
2. Discipline & Structure: Men emphasized the importance of discipline and structure in child rearing and their wish to help their children learn to behave in ways that they deemed important to success. Again, they mainly spoke with reference to older children.
3. Support in Fathering: Many men described relying on their female partner and/or their own parent (typically their mother) for parenting support.
Implications: The three themes to emerge from fathers’ accounts of the parenting challenges that they face suggest specific targets of intervention for low-income, urban fathers. Interventions that help fathers understand the importance of their role during early childhood and provide them with skills to parent their young children may have powerful effects on father and child outcomes. In particular, fathers and children may benefit from efforts to help fathers understand the importance of structure in early childhood and learn developmentally-sensitive approaches to discipline. Men’s frequent reliance on their partner and/or parent(s) for parenting support suggests that interventions that engage men along with their partners and/or parents may be especially effective in supporting positive early parenting.