The aim of this study is to describe and to interpret how fathers are concieved by their children. Various aspects of the male parent and the relationship between the child and his or her father are beeing investigated from the childs point of view. Forming an understanding of the fathers significance from the childs perspective is of particular importance for the study. This perspective is being formulated from a position that looks upon the childs socialization and the identityshaping processes as primarily a matter of "what children do with what is done to children".The empirical data in the study was obtained by interviewing one hundred children, seven and ten year old girls and boys, partly from Umeå and partly from some small villages a few swedish miles away from the town. The semistructured interviews were made with children from five different schools and from eighteen different school-classes.Data show that a vast majority describe a fairly close relationship to a father with clearly anti-patriarchal characteristics. The middle-class father is seen as a more family-oriented parent, more equal to his spouse than the working-class father who is more likely of beeing described in traditional terms. Some gender-related patterns are shown that concerns different orientations towards the father. While the boys tend to view their fathers in direct relation to themselves - him and me - the girls are more likely to describe their male parents as familyfathers and from a perspective that sees him as a partner to the mother.From the characterization the children made of their fathers from the family-drawings, four different cateogories, representing various perspectives on the father, were identified: The Positive, the Ambigous, the Disappointed and the Neutral.The symbolic interactionism, based on the works of George H. Mead, is argued to be a fruitful theoretical framework for understanding the socializationprocess in which the childs concepts of its father are being shaped. From a perspective on the cultural modernization and its impacts on parenting and the relationship between fathers and children, it is also claimed that there are reasons to beleive that the tendencies of release from a traditional determination not only put new burdons on parents and children in modern society, but also provide a widening of possibilities and a powerful potential for forming more "normalized", non-authoritarian and non-oppressive, interaction-based relations betweenchildren and their fathers. / digitalisering@umu

This study explores Indian culture in second-generation Indian American families. For the most part, this generation was not socialized to Indian culture in India, which raises the question, how do parents maintain and teach culture to their third-generation children? To answer this question, I interviewed 18 second-generation Indian American couples who had at least one child. Rather than focus on how assimilated or Americanized the families were, I examine the maintenance of Indian culture. Instead of envisioning culture as a binary between “Indian” and “American,” second-generation parents often experience “Indianness” and “Americanness” as interwoven in ways that were not always easily articulated. I also explore the co-ethnic matrimonial process of my participants to reveal the salience of Indian-American identity in their lives. A common experience among my participants was the tendency of mainstream American non- Indians to question Indian-Americans about India and Indian culture. My participants frequently were called upon to be “cultural ambassadors” to curious non-Indians. Religion served as a primary conduit for teaching Indian culture to third-generation children. Moreover, religion and ethnic identity were often conflated. Mothers and fathers share the responsibility of teaching religion to third-generation children. However, mothers tend to be the cultural keepers of the more visible cultural objects and experiences, such as, food, clothing, and language. Fathers were more likely to contribute to childcare than housework. The fathers in my study believe they father in a different social context than their fathers did. By negotiating Indian and American culture, fathers parent in a way that capitalizes on what they perceive as the “best of both worlds.” Links to the local and transnational community were critical to maintaining ties to other co-ethnics and raising children within the culture. Furthermore, most of the parents in my study said they would prefer that their children eventually marry co-ethnics in order to maintain the link to the Indian-American community. Ultimately, I found that Indian culture endures across first- and second-generation Indian Americans. However, “culture” is not a fixed or monolithic object; families continue to modify traditions to meet their emotional and cultural needs.

Japanese fathers residing abroad have not been given much attention in Japanese scholarship. In this study, I examine how Japanese fathers in the United States negotiate between Japanese and American cultural expectations regarding fatherhood. Relying on a symbolic interactionist perspective, and through qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with 24 Japanese fathers who live in the United States for business, I focus on the men's culture, conduct, and self-identification. My interviews suggest that Japanese fathers who temporarily stay in the United States usually adhere to Japanese culture and, accordingly, live up to Japanese expectations of fatherhood. Thus, paternal modifications influenced by expectations from close associates are due not to their embracing American fatherhood, but rather to their "situational adjustment." Ultimately, this is a study of cognitive boundaries and of how people decide to internalize cultural expectations different than their own.

LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, and Wynn (2000, 2001) conducted a content analysis of 495 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in the United States from 1945 to 1999 in order to determine whether the culture of fatherhood and gender disparities in the media had changed over the past half-century. Drawing on their research, I conducted a similar kind of analysis of 246 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in Japan from 1950 to 2004. By comparing and contrasting the results in the two studies, I show how comic portrayals of families have changed in Japan and in the United States, and demonstrate the value of analyzing comic strips in cross-national research.

This study highlights the problematic situation fathers encounter when they require help and support in a custodial dispute. Previous research shows the emergence of a new, more involved father. In the light of this earlier research, this study will show a father that is willing to fight for his rights to be a present and engaged parent in the case of a separation from the mother. The aim was to analyze the subjective perceptions of five fathers in custodial dispute. This analysis did not only show how they perceive their role as a father and their masculinity but also the way they feel about the help they got from social services and other institutions. The fathers show feelings of subordination and discrimination of their parenthood compared to the one of the mother’s; as a result of the treatment they got from social services and other institutions.

Three purposes of this study are (1) to explore the general pattern of Turkish fathers&rsquo / and their own fathers&rsquo / involvement level, (2) to investigated the possible effect of perceived own father involvement level on fathers own involvement level to their 0-8 year-old children&rsquo / s lives (2) to examine the determinants of fathers&rsquo / involvement into their 0-8 year old children. The participants in this study were 528 biological-resident fathers, who live in different districts of Ankara, the central city of Turkey. All of these fathers have at least one child who is between the ages of 0 and 8. The data of this study were collected through three different scales, Fatherhood Scale ( Dick, 2000), Inventory of Father Involvement ( Hawkins et al.,2002) and Suppose Support Scale (Yildirim,2004). In addition to these scales a demographic information form was also sent to fathers. The data were examined through a statistical analysis program. The results of descriptive analysis illustrated that fathers of both generation mostly engage in activities related to their provider role and their least engagement occurs in activities related with availability. MANOVA results indicated that there is a mean differences among three groups of fathers in the IFI 1 (Mother support and teaching) and IFI 3 (Availability) variable. On the other hand, Multiple Linear Regression Analysis indicated that only fathers&rsquo / age, their age of being father and their perceptions about how their suppose support them are significant predictors of fathers&rsquo / involvement level in their 0-8 year-old children&rsquo / s lives. Results of this study suggest the following implications. First, fathers, mothers or even children should be educated about the importance of paternal involvement. Second, in the current study two scales related with father involvement were adapted to Turkish culture. These two scales can be used in further research. Third, since different factor structures have been yielded through EFA from original factor structure, this study supported the idea that father involvement and fatherhood is a cultural issue. Although cultural issues were considered during adaptation process, since scales about father involvement were developed in Western cultures, evaluations about fathers&rsquo / involvement were done according to Western criteria. This study can encourage researchers to develop a cultural conceptualization of fatherhood and father involvement.

<p>Många studier om föräldraskap är mest fokuserade på mammors upplevelser av graviditet och förlossning. Även om mammorna föder barnen och är i behov av mer vård än papporna, är det två personer som blir föräldrar. Pappor behöver också uppmärksamhet och kunskap för att bli bra föräldrar. Svenska barnmorskor och sjuksköterskor saknar ibland kunskap om mäns upplevelser av graviditet och förlossning. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa blivande/nyblivna pappors upplevelser av barnmorskors/sjuksköterskors bemötande. En litteraturstudie valdes för denna studie. 14 artiklar analyserades och de svarade på studiens syfte. I resultatet framkommer två teman, att bli bekräftad och att få ett stöd och att vara ett stöd, med tillhörande sex underteman. Pappor verkar vara de bortglömda föräldrarna. Många pappor känner att de är utelämnade och känner sig ofta oförberedda på själva förlossningen. Det framkommer även att de pappor som får extra förberedelser känner sig mer säkra under förlossningen och nyföddhetsperioden.</p>

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-214).

LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, and Wynn (2000, 2001) conducted a content analysis of 495 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in the United States from 1945 to 1999 in order to determine whether the culture of fatherhood and gender disparities in the media had changed over the past half-century. Drawing on their research, I conducted a similar kind of analysis of 246 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in Japan from 1950 to 2004. By comparing and contrasting the results in the two studies, I show how comic portrayals of families have changed in Japan and in the United States, and demonstrate the value of analyzing comic strips in cross-national research.

In this study, I interviewed 57 low-income urban fathers about how they distribute resources between children, how they define responsible fatherhood and how they negotiate state surveillance. First, using queuing theory, I find that these fathers do not distribute their resources of time and money equally but instead give more of their resources to a smaller number of children in order to maximize their impact. I identify nine criteria that men use to prioritize among their children: timing of life course interruptions, distance, formal child support, desirability of the pregnancy, restraining orders, other resources available to the child, age of the child, gender of the child, and the child's reaching out behavior. Second, instead of financial provision or daily care, these men define a responsible father as someone who: acknowledges paternity to the child, mother, and his local community; spends sufficient time with the child to be at least a mentor or "Big Brother" figure; monitors the child's home; meets the child's basic financial needs before spending money on luxuries for himself; minimizes absences in the child's life; and voluntarily distances himself from the child when it is in the child's best interest. I analyze these findings in light of the common definition of responsible fatherhood and suggest several possible theoretical explanations to explain the divergence from this definition. Third, I find that low-income men experience surveillance through three state institutions: child support enforcement, the criminal justice system, and child protective services. They resisted this surveillance primarily by becoming invisible and dropping "off the radar." Men justified their resistance in five ways: they had their own material needs, they did not want the child, they did not want to separate from their child's mother, compliance was unnecessary, or they were incompetent to comply. I analyze these findings in light of Foucault's theory of state social control which contrasts state responses to leprosy and the plague.