Men in the mirror: A qualitative examination of low-income men's perceptions of their childhood relationships with their fathers

Abstract

This study presents analysis of in-depth, qualitative interviews with 25 low-income, urban Latino and African-American fathers of 5- to 7-year-olds conducted by the researchers from 2003 to 2005. Participants are a subsample drawn from a larger pool of fathers from New York City (NYC) who were part of the Fathers and Newborn Study (FANS), a strand of the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study, with the goal of examining men's perceptions of their childhood relationships with their fathers and their views on how these experiences affected their parenting. Interviews were examined for thematic content using grounded theory techniques. Findings revealed that the vast majority of men felt their fathers had been disengaged in their lives, with only one-third reporting having seen their fathers at least a few times a week or more over the course of childhood. Men whose fathers were accessible over the course of childhood often described their fathers as hardworking and talked of appreciating their fathers' efforts to spend time with them in the context of their work commitments. Not surprisingly, men who did not see their fathers consistently generally expressed feelings of pain, resentment or detachment toward their fathers' lack of accessibility and engagement. Of these men, over half of them reportedly established supportive relationships with a father-figure (grandfather, uncle, older brother or step-father), who they perceived as their ‘real’ fathers. Two-thirds of all men interviewed expressed the desire to parent their children differently from their fathers by being accessible and engaged with them or by being positive role models. Results suggest that men perceive their relationships with their fathers as a central influence on their fathering and that experiences in childhood are linked to father involvement.

Keywords:

• fathers childhood relationships
• intergenerational transmission of parenting
• predictors of father involvement
• men's childhood experiences with fathers

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge our colleagues in the Early Head Start Father Studies Work Group, who are our partners in the commitment to better understand the roles of fathers in young children's lives. The Early Head Start Father Studies Work Group members represent the national Early Head Start evaluation contractor (Mathematica Policy Research and Columbia University), the funding agencies (the Ford Foundation; the Administration on Children, Youth and Families; and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in DHHS), the local research universities participating in the Early Head Start Research Consortium, and program directors from the Early Head Start programs participating in the national evaluation.