Fathers’ narratives on support and agency: a case study of fathers in a Finnish child welfare NGO

Abstract

In Finland, one of the Nordic countries, shared parenting is widely supported through, e.g. family policies and legislation. This is also evident in daily parental practices, as fathers’ share in childcare has increased notably since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, this is not the whole picture of Finnish and Nordic fatherhood: practitioners in child welfare also encounter many fathers with various problems in parenting and life management. In this article, we examine the narratives of fathers who have sought and received support from a Finnish nationwide child welfare NGO. Our research question is: What types of narratives on seeking and receiving support and on their agency do fathers produce? The narrative analysis is based on interview data with 16 fathers (aged 24–50 years) from diverse backgrounds. We identified four narratives: the hero (increasing agency), the victim (decreasing agency), the outsider (stable agency) and the fortunate (stable agency). In spite of the fact that fathers are typically perceived as creators of welfare problems in child welfare, we conclude that they also have the need and desire to be seen and heard as human beings with sensitive and personally organized help.

Keywords:

• Child welfare
• family studies
• narrative analysis
• agency
• fatherhood

Notes

1. In Finland, our case example of a Nordic welfare state, child welfare services are understood broadly; they refer on the one hand to universal welfare benefits and services available to all families with children, and on the other to child- and family-specific child welfare work implemented on the municipal level and by, e.g. NGOs. The most typical reasons for the need of the latter are family members’ mental health issues or problems with alcohol or substance abuse.

2. The FMCHS was established in 1945, primarily to help young mothers in difficult life situations. For several decades it has operated as general child welfare NGO, working and supporting all family members irrespective of age or gender. Finnish name of the FMCHS does not include the gender of the parent.