ABSTRACT In the past, the majority of infant caregiving has been done by mothers or other female care-givers (Bailey, 1994; Hossain, Field, Pickens, Malphurs, & Del Valle, 1997). Yet, most fathers (91%) were involved with the mother at the time of the babies' birth (Gottman, Gottman & Shapiro, 2010). Fathers who had "close physical contact" interacted more with their infants (Park & Swain, 1977). In addition, fathers who saw infant caregiving activities demonstrated mirrored these behaviors with their own infants (Parke, Hymel, Power, & Tinsely, 1980; Harrison et al., 1996). Fathers who were present and active in the lives of their children provided support contributing to the emotional development of their children by being emotionally and physically available and engaged (Parke, 1996; Parke & Brott, 1999). Infant massage increased parental competency, frequency, and quality of caregiving activities by fathers with their infants (Cullen et al., 2000; Scholz & Samuels, 1992). This study aimed to explore the experiences, attitudes, and perspectives of fathers massaging their infants. Five fathers and five infants participated in an exploratory pilot case study to determine what, if any, perceived benefits existed or accrued for fathers who massaged their infants. In this three week study fathers provided infant massage to their infants every night before bedtime and recorded their activities in diaries. Initial and final interviews and videorecordings captured the fathers massaging their infants, their attitudes and perceptions of their experiences. This data was analyzed using Atlas.ti and qualitative process coding. The findings were that father's enjoyed massaging their infants and believed that their infants enjoyed being massaged. Fathers reported: they desired opportunities to spend time with their infants; feelings of contributing to their infants' comfort; competence and confidence in their interactions with their infants; and provided the mothers temporary relief from their child care activities. Additionally, the data demonstrated the attachment constructs of awareness, emotional expression, engagement cues, motivation, relationship, sensitivity supporting attachment theory as an appropriate theoretical framework to study the father child dyad. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2013. / September 16, 2013. / Atlas.ti, Attachment theory, Father, Fathering, Infant Massage, Qualitative / Includes bibliographical references. / Marsha Rehm, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mary Frances Hanline, University Representative; Wayne Denton, Committee Member; Ming Cui, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_185120 |
| Contributors | Keller, Mary Kay (authoraut), Rehm, Marsha (professor directing dissertation), Hanline, Mary Frances (university representative), Denton, Wayne (committee member), Cui, Ming (committee member), Department of Family and Child Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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