The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact the primary caregiving role had on men's perceptions of leisure. The Assessment of Leisure and Recreation Involvement (Ragheb, 2002) was used to examine men's leisure. Twenty-five stay-at-home dad groups were solicited via e-mail; 81 men submitted usable responses to an online survey. Respondents considered themselves the primary caregiver for children in the household and at least one child was younger than 12. Descriptive data were collected about the experience of being a primary caregiving father, demographics, and how the caregiving role affects the men's perceptions of leisure. Caregiving fathers in the sample resembled the perceptions of many primary caregiving mothers. Perhaps the "caregiving" role, rather than gender, is a more distinct variable explaining perceptions of leisure by parents.

Around 14,000 men in New Zealand are the primary caregiver for their children, yet little recent research has focused on this phenomenon. Seventy fathers were recruited from the community, consisting of 35 primary-caregiving fathers, and 35 secondary-caregiving fathers. Participants completed a variety of measures which gathered data about their developmental history, personal characteristics, marital relationship, work and economic factors, social network factors, and child characteristics. Results indicated that primary-caregiving fathers earned significantly less income than secondary-caregiving fathers; were significantly more likely to identify with non-Pakeha ethnicity, and were significantly more likely to have no educational qualifications than secondary-caregiving fathers. Primary-caregiving fathers also rated their relationship with their mother as having significantly more care. Primary-caregiving status was predicted by older age of fathers, and increased parenting self-efficacy. Implications of the results are discussed, as are strengths and limitations of the study, as well as future directions for research.

This study explores fatherhood in contemporary Canadian society by drawing on the experiences of nine full-time care-giving fathers in Vancouver, Canada. Using a social constructionist epistemology, the study explored how fathers who are primary caregivers to their young children construct masculinity, how they enact primary care-giving, and how they can be better supported within communities. Fathers were recruited through posters in community centres and through snowball sampling and volunteered to participate in interviews lasting between one and three hours. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed using pragmatic thematic analysis. Three key themes were constructed to represent the fathers’ self-reported experiences: fathers’ enactment of primary care-giving; fathers’ constructions of masculinity within dominant discourses of masculinity and care; and father’s support needs. Findings suggest that for these primary care-giving fathers, care-giving is active and adventurous, and egalitarian beliefs and roles regarding child care and domestic responsibility predominate within their co-parenting relationship. Traditional Euro-western masculine ideology tends to give way to a “hybrid” ideology that emphasizes affection, emotional intelligence, and caring for one’s family as a whole. Fathers indicated a preference for supports that are self-sought such as the internet and support from partners, and informal supports such as community events and time with peers to structured supports provided by community programs. Fathers who reported benefits from formal community programs offered insight into father-friendly practices. Stigma about primary care-giving by fathers was a significant theme constructed from the data. Implications for community programs for families and primary care-giving fathers in particular are discussed. / Graduate