Research suggest that Black couples tend to marry later, with less frequency, have marriages that do not last as long, and are more prone to divorce than other racial categories. However, religion may play an important role to counteract the negative marriage trends among Black heterosexual couples. As a growing subfield of family psychology this study examines the influence of religion on marital sanctification and relational spirituality among 33 Black married couples (N = 66). In-depth qualitative interviews with Black married couples were analyzed to see how religion informed and shaped perceptions of marital sanctification as well as unique relational domains of relational spirituality. Major findings indicate that religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, and communities helped to form a perceptual framework that marriage was holy and sacred. Findings about marital sanctification suggested that religious couples may view their marriage as sacred or holy in four distinct ways: a) God-given; b) God-ordained; c) God-created; and, d) God-inspired. These perceptions of marriage a sacred institution seemed to influence four relational domains of relational spirituality by: a) creating a religiously-inspired goal-oriented perspective for partner or mate selection; b) encouraging a sense of sacred permanence to the relationship; c) fostering a willingness to sacrifice for one's relationship; and, d) evoking a pattern of religious and spiritual relational maintenance within the context of marriage. Marital sanctification was associated with increase in relational spirituality. Likewise, relational spirituality seemed to perpetuate an increase in marital sanctification. Thus, suggesting the potential for positive bi-directionality between marital sanctification and relational spirituality that may foster increased marital satisfaction, quality, and commitment and may also serve as a potential buffer against divorce among Black religious couples. Additional subthemes of marital sanctification and relational spirituality were also discussed as well as limitations of this study and suggestions for future research.Contemporary societal and media portrayals of Black masculinity and fatherhood often give a limited, or potentially negative view of manhood, and/or parenthood among Black males. Black American males are often represented and lauded as sports stars and rappers or marginalized as gangsters and deadbeat dads. The present study seeks to expand the paradigm of Black masculinity and fatherhood and provide a potentially positive, more expansive view of Black males in the success frame of religion and family life. In depth qualitative interview data was analyzed from a subsection of the American Families of Faith Dataset involving 33 religious Black couples (N = 66) from different religious backgrounds (Muslim and Christian) across the United States. Major findings identified two psychological processes that seemed to suggest a religious and family-oriented success frame for defining masculinity and manliness. Participants described undergoing a process of personal spiritual growth and maturity in which individuals left behind the "street life" mentality, in favor of becoming a "Godly man." This process was positively connected with the process of religious or spiritual masculine-identity transformation in which manhood was defined in terms of being relational with God and family, rather than the "bachelor mindset" or "single life" which suggested a relationally isolated view of masculinity. Implications, applications, limitations, and future directions for research were also discussed.

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Le projet migratoire est, dans bien des cas, axé sur la sphère familiale. Or, la réalité des familles immigrantes se distingue de celles des familles natives du Québec. L’intégration dans la société d’accueil comporte son lot de défis pouvant fragiliser le système familial. Bien que des services soient mis en place pour soutenir l’intégration des immigrants ou immigrantes (francisation, recherche d’emploi, etc.), les parents immigrants ont également besoin d’être soutenus dans l’adaptation de leur rôle parental en contexte d’immigration. L’Initiative Espace Parents a été développée dans cette optique. Parmi les activités offertes dans le cadre de cette Initiative se trouvent les ateliers ponctuels sur la valorisation de l’engagement paternel, d’une part, et sur les ressources de soutien pour la famille, d’autre part. Ce présent mémoire vise à évaluer, de façon formative, la première mise à l’essai de ces deux ateliers en étudiant la conformité, leur appréciation par les animateurs et animatrices et les parents, ainsi que leurs effets perçus chez les parents. Pour ce faire, des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives sont mobilisées. Elles établissent le faible niveau de conformité des deux ateliers ponctuels par les écarts présents entre la planification initiale et leur animation. Pour l’appréciation, les parents indiquent avoir apprécié les ateliers pour les thèmes abordés et les qualités des animateurs et animatrices. Les animateurs et animatrices ont moins apprécié les ateliers par leur difficulté à les animer selon la formation reçue. Les parents rapportent enfin des effets positifs des ateliers au niveau de leurs connaissances, attitudes ou comportements. Les différents résultats obtenus permettent de mettre de l’avant des recommandations en vue de la pérennisation des ateliers. / The migration project is, in many cases, focused on the family sphere. However, the reality of immigrant families differs from that of families born in Quebec. Integrating into the host society has its share of challenges that can weaken the family unit. Although some services are in place to support the integration of immigrants (francization, job search, etc.), immigrant parents need support in adapting their parental role in the context of immigration. That's why the Initiative Espace Parent was developed. Two specific workshops are part of these initiatives: one is on valuing paternal involvement, and the other is based on the explanation of the support resources for the family. The goal of this master’s thesis is to evaluate the compliance of the first trial of these two workshops, the appreciation of the workshop by the animators and by the parents, as well as perceived effects on parents. To achieve this evaluation, qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The results indicate a low compliance between the way that the workshops were planned and the way that they were carried out. On another note, parents express their appreciation for themes addressed in the workshops and the qualities of the facilitators. However, the facilitators mention to less appreciate the workshops due to the difficulty to animate them with the training received. Parents also report positive perceived effects of the workshops on their knowledge, attitude, or behavior. These results provide recommendations for the future implementation of the workshops.

This research, presents a qualitative study of six Latter-day Saint fathers of children with special needs. In-depth interviews were used to examine the demands and resources fathers draw upon in meeting the needs of their child(ren), the application of the conceptual ethic of fathering as generative work and crisis/stress theory, as well as an analysis of how fathers incorporated their religious beliefs, faith, and practices into fathering their special needs children. Narrative accounts are used to illustrate the results. These results are then applied to an integrated conceptual framework and clinical applications are made.

BACKGROUND: Father absence or uninvolvement is a growing problem worldwide, which not only negatively influences child development, but also the masculine identity formation of boy children. South Africa is one of the countries that has high levels of father absence, yet there has been scant research which particularly focuses on the perceptions, experiences and psycho-social challenges experienced by young men with absent fathers. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the perceived influence of father absence or uninvolvement on Xhosa young men who have transitioned from adolescence to manhood. The first objective was to explore the perceptions, experiences and the psycho-social challenges of Xhosa young men in Khayelitsha, Western Cape who have transitioned from adolescence to manhood without present or involved fathers. The second objective was to explore Xhosa male elders' perceptions of the experiences and challenges of Xhosa young men who culturally transition from adolescence to manhood without present or involved fathers. The third objective was to identify the support needs of Xhosa young men before, during and after transitioning from adolescence to manhood in the absence of a present or involved biological father. METHODOLOGY: Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory as a conceptual framework, the study employed a qualitative approach to investigate factors that shape and influence experiences of Xhosa young men with absent or uninvolved fathers at individual, family, community and societal levels. Semi-structured in-depth individual interviews were conducted using interview guides covering various topics: family life; conceptualisation of manhood and fatherhood; father absence in Xhosa communities and its causes and impacts; the value of social fathers as well as the possible preventative interventions at different levels of the society to promote father presence or involvement and mitigate the impact of father absence. All interviews took place at different venues offered by community organisations in Khayelitsha (Ilitha Park, Site B and Nkanini) in the Western Cape province. They were conducted in isiXhosa, audio-recorded, transcribed and translated into English for analysis. Data analysis was conducted using thematic analysis utilising the NVivo 12 software package. During transcription, three researchers read the transcripts and developed an initial coding framework which was then used to code the rest of the data, making adjustments as necessary. The data were categorised thematically paying attention to dominant themes that addressed the research questions, while being open to additional themes arising in the data, and this process occurred until no new themes emerged. ETHICAL APPROVAL: The ethical approval of this study was provided by the UCT Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC 654/2018). RESULTS: The interviews were conducted with 22 Xhosa young men with absent or uninvolved fathers (ages 18-22) and five Xhosa male elders (ages 55-73). Due to the sensitivity of the topic initiation, a vignette was used to avoid directness. The main perceptions, experiences and psychosocial challenges of Xhosa young men who have transitioned from adolescence to manhood without present or involved fathers, were synthesised as follows: (i) The meaning given to cultural male circumcision by young men and elders were its individual family benefits. (ii) The challenges of Xhosa patriarchy, a father's role, and his absence, and paternal connection needs during initiation: planning, masculine guidance and protection, emotional and cultural support. (iii) The significance of the fatherly role and implications of father absence before and beyond initiation: the traditional and modern role. (iv) Barriers to father presence or uninvolvement: financial constraints, maternal gate-keeping and mother's negative attitudes. Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, the support needs of Xhosa young men without present or involved fathers before, during and after transitioning from adolescence to manhood were identified as follows: (i) At the microsystem level, single mothers and maternal families of Xhosa young men need to be open regarding father absence, acknowledge the pain it causes and avoid maternal gatekeeping and paternal identity concealment. However, they also need to receive psycho-social support in order to be able to link the young men with social fathers, especially around initiation. (ii) At the mesosystem level, the social institutions such as churches, schools and sports clubs should have awareness regarding father absence or uninvolvement as a social problem in order to be sensitive towards the emotional needs of children with absent or uninvolved fathers. (iii) At the exosystem level, there is a need for fathers' environments (such as family, friends and the workplace) to encourage and foster lifestyles that promote father presence or involvement. (iv)At the macrosystem level, the media should raise awareness of father absence, and there must be policies and programmes that promote egalitarian parenting. (v) At the chronosystem level, there is a need to embrace and practice the modern fatherhood role which requires the father to be warm, spend quality time and have strong communication with his children. CONCLUSION: Cultural initiation is a crucial time for emotional and cultural growth which largely contributes to the development of manhood identity; it benefits the person on an individual and family level. However, this study notes that initiation comes with advantages and disadvantages for the Xhosa young men. It is a vehicle for growth, but also serves as a reminder of the vacant paternal role during this culturally significant process, especially in the midst of maternal gate-keeping and paternal identity concealment issues. Furthermore, in the course of their lives, the young men also experience loss related to not being exposed to the various positive roles a father would play, including the roles of disciplinarian, provider and the nurturer. Even though social fathers and strong maternal kin support could help Xhosa young men to cope better, the void of the biological father remains unfilled, especially around the period of initiation due to the emotional, cultural and financial implications of the ritual. This study shows that the young men could experience depression, be suicidal, have anger and resort to substance use when not supported. There is thus a need for multi-dimensional interventions to address these issues. These should start with psycho-educational support for maternal families to empower them to be supportive towards the emotional and cultural needs of the young men as the families do not always possess the necessary skills to support a child in this predicament. Absent fathers also need to be engaged in order to understand the reasons leading to their disengagement, and to sensitise them regarding the consequences of their absence for them to better understand the permanence of fatherhood. Advocacy is needed to make the wider society aware of the support needs of Xhosa young men who go through initiation in the absence of a father. Finally, the strategies that seem to yield positive results in managing father absence need to be strengthened, namely: strong maternal family support, social fathering, counselling and mentorship.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo geral investigar a experiência de pais de crianças pequenas, ao longo do período de isolamento social imposto para contenção da pandemia da COVID-19, e suas repercussões na conjugalidade. Considerando que o período de transição para a parentalidade é definido pela literatura de família e casal como especialmente carregado de desafios para a família nuclear e ampliada, e que os estudos sobre a ótica paterna se encontram em menor número quando comparados aos estudos sobre a díade mãe-bebê, foram entrevistados 10 pais primíparos, das cidades do Rio de Janeiro e de São Paulo, brancos, heterossexuais, pertencentes às camadas médias da população. As entrevistas foram gravadas, transcritas e submetidas ao método de análise de conteúdo, na modalidade categorial temática. As análises foram realizadas sob a perspectiva sistêmica de família e casal articulada a conceitos psicanalíticos. Os resultados mostraram que o isolamento social decorrente da pandemia foi percebido como positivo para o exercício da paternidade de pais de crianças pequenas, uma vez que aumentou o tempo de disponibilidade de interação pai-filho. Já em relação ao casal conjugal, os resultados mostraram que o isolamento social decorrente da pandemia foi percebido como um fator de estresse sobreposto aos desafios já inerentes ao período. / [en] This paper s general objective is to investigate the experiences of fathers of small children during the isolation period imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the repercussion of this period in conjugality. Considering the couples and family literature defines the transition period to parenthood as a particularly defying one to both nuclear and expanded families, and that studies focusing on the fathers experience are vastly outnumbered by those studying the mother child relationship, 10 subjects of first born children from Rio de Janeiro who are white, heterosexual and middle class, were interviewed for this paper. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and submitted to the thematic categorial content analysis method. The analysis were conducted within the systemic family and couple perspective articulated with psychoanalytical concepts. The results showed that the social isolation imposed by the pandemic was perceived as being positive for fatherhood, as subjects had more time available to interact with their children. In regards to the couples relationship, the results show that the isolation imposed by the pandemic was perceived as being an added stress factor to the already difficult period for the subjects.

For many mothers and fathers, parenting books are the conduit to information on child development from to the scholarly and scientific communities. This study examined popular American parenting books from 1983–1998 to determine the types of fatherhood role expectations and perceptions regarding fathers that are being communicated to expectant and new parents. A telephone interview process was used to obtain a non-biased sample of the most popular parenting books in the nation. Three bookstores, hospitals, obstetric offices, and pediatric offices from each of 11 regions of the United States were selected for a total of 132 interviews which resulted in a 190 book nominations. The What to Expect series of books, written by Eisenberg, Murkoff, & Hathaway, received the most nominations. There were 40 votes for What to Expect When You're Expecting , 39 for What to Expect the First Year and 20 nominations for What to Expect the Toddler Years . The American Academy of Pediatrics book, Caring for Your Baby and Young Child received 15. Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care received ten votes and Burton Schmitt's Your Child's Health was nominated nine times. Ten others books received two or more nominations and were included in the sample. Results showed that fathers were noticeably absent from the pages of the parenting manuals. On average, the books devoted approximately 3.5% of the text and 7.5% of the illustrations to father-related issues. For this naturalistic study, grounded theory was used to examine the illustrations and text pertaining to fathers. The salient themes from the text indicate that parenting manual authors seem to marginalize the father's importance in the family: (a) Fathers play a subordinate role in parenting; (b) Fathers' family role family is unclear and confusing; (c) Fathers' involvement in the family is portrayed as increasing while simultaneously not increasing; (d) Fathers depicted as family providers whose family involvement is voluntary; and, (e) Fathers portrayed as inadequate, jealous, reluctant, and rejected. This investigation concluded that the parenting book illustrations were largely positive, in contrast to the more negative portrayal of fathers in the text.

Цель исследования – определение понятия и специфики отцовского родительского труда, выявление и анализ ценностных установок и ориентаций молодых людей на будущий родительский труд, а также разработка рекомендаций по их формированию и развитию. Основными методами исследования стали теоретический анализ, онлайн-опрос, нарративное интервью, сравнительный и описательный анализ, корреляционный анализ. Научная новизна исследования заключается в идентификации категории «отцовский родительский труд» и описании установок молодых людей на будущий родительский труд, а также в разработке методики исследования установок молодых людей на будущий родительский труд. Практическая значимость исследования заключается в разработке рекомендаций для органов государственной власти, нацеленных на продвижение идей ответственного отцовства. / The purpose of the study is to define the concept and specifics of paternal parental labour, identify and analyze the values and orientations of young people for future parental labour, as well as develop recommendations for their formation and development. The main research methods were theoretical analysis, online survey, narrative interview, comparative and descriptive analysis, correlation analysis. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the identification of the category "paternal parental labour" and the description of the attitudes of young people to future parental labour, as well as in the development of a methodology for studying the attitudes of young people to future parental labour. The practical significance of this research is to develop recommendations for public authorities, aimed at promotion of responsible fatherhood.