The virility-fertility tradeoff: effects of fatherhood on (precarious) masculinity, sexual esteem, and sexual depression

ABSTRACT

The stress, exhaustion, and negative impacts on sexual relationships associated with parenthood are well documented, but father’s perceptions of these changes are underexplored. Since sexuality and physicality are cornerstones of traditional/hegemonic masculine norms, changes in these domains resulting from fatherhood may produce concerns about masculinity maintenance and loss of masculine status. However, fatherhood provides clear evidence of a man’s sexual capability and virility – highly valued masculine traits. Therefore, fatherhood could theoretically make perceptions of masculinity more stable. The present study compared fathers and non-fathers on perceptions of masculinity and sexuality, and explored potential predictors of sexual esteem versus sexual depression during fatherhood. A sample of primarily heterosexual, White North American fathers and non-fathers participated in an online survey (N = 564) including measures of sexual esteem, sexual depression, and precarious manhood belief. Fathers were also asked to report their perceptions surrounding parenthood. Fathers endorsed precarious manhood beliefs less than non-fathers, and reported higher levels of both sexual esteem and sexual depression. Among fathers, a high personal sex drive predicted sexual esteem, while parental stress, low partner sex drive, and low self-perceived masculinity after parenthood predicted fathers’ sexual depression.

KEYWORDS:

• Reproduction
• self-concept
• sexuality
• manhood
• sexual well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2366863

Notes

1. Research Ethics Board #2020-22.

2. Given IRB requirements, surveys were anonymous, with all potentially identifying participant information disabled and information regarding recruitment locations not gathered. Thus, information regarding participant acquisition is unknown, however, the online sampling sites utilised tend to be comprised primarily of North American residents.

3. Data will be made available upon request.

4. ANCOVA analyses were conducted on fathers compared to non-fathers with the addition of age as a covariate. Violations to assumptions of independence and homogeneity of regression slopes were found, necessitating the removal of this covariate from analyses.

5. Given violations to tests of homogeneity of variance for all three exploratory analyses, t-tests report results for variances not assumed.