Beyond Paying and Playing: Examining the Leisure Preferences of Black Nonresident Fathers

Background and Purpose:
Much of the social work literature examining Black nonresident fatherhood has used a deficit perspective to explore fathers’ impacts on child wellbeing. A strengths-based approach is needed to ensure a well-rounded literature that includes foci on the experiences, outcomes, and needs of nonresident fathers. As such, this work should center factors that contribute to fathers’ mental and physical health. Recent public health scholarship suggests there is a symbiotic relationship between fathers’ health and their parenting practices (Caldwell et al., 2019). Examining fathers’ preferences for leisure may provide some insight into this relationship. Leisure is defined as “voluntary non-work activities that are engaged in for enjoyment” (Fancourt et al., 2021, p.330). Outside of social work, scholars have found observational and causal support for engagement in leisure as a promotive factor for mental and physical health. While scholars in leisure studies have examined the connection between fathering and leisure (Kay, 2006), popular notions of what populations are deserving of leisure have largely excluded Black nonresident fathers from this area of study. The current study examines the leisure preferences of this subgroup of fathers.

Method:
Twenty-eight self-identified, Black, nonresident fathers, participated in either a focus group or semi-structured individual interview about their parenting experiences and overall health and wellbeing. Fathers were recruited in local child support offices, barbershops, gyms, fatherhood programs, community agencies and via sponsored ads on Facebook. The focus groups and interviews were video and/or audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two project team members attended each focus group or interview, serving as the facilitator or note taker. Data were coded and analyzed by two team members, one Black woman and one White woman. The Multi-level Leisure Mechanisms Framework (2021) was selected to guide our interpretation of the data. Based on this framework, we conducted a directed content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005).

Results:
Fathers’ self-reported preferences for leisure were categorized within four realms: (1) Psychological processes included those that may have immediate effects on fathers’ affective state, such as reports of listening to music, going to the beach, or playing instruments; (2) Biological processes included activities that may have activated the endocrine, immune, or central nervous system such as reports of playing basketball, going for walks, or general engagement in exercise; (3) Social processes included leisure activities that supported social relationships such as reports of playing with children, spending time talking with other family members or volunteering; and (4) Behavioral processes which included spending time doing activities meant to enhance or develop personal habits such as reading, attending therapy, or
writing.

Conclusions and Implications:
Historically, the implementation of vagrancy laws in the U.S. made engagement in or discussion of leisure a taboo subject in relation to Black men. The findings of the current study suggest that Black fathers value and engage in multiple forms of leisure. The reported activities across the four realms have implications for the health outcomes of fathers and their children. Implications for strength-based social work practice and research with Black fathers will be discussed.