1-084 - Modern fathers and their children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Interest in fathering has seen a dramatic increase in recent decades, alongside an expanding body of research exploring the role of the father within the family. Despite the growing visibility of diverse family forms, fathers in ‘non-traditional’ family settings are largely overlooked, e.g. gay fathers, single fathers and primary caregiving fathers. Little is known about the quality of parent-child relationships or child adjustment in ‘modern father’ families, and there is a scarcity of research which includes children as informants on their family lives.

The papers presented in this symposium use data from different family forms to explore family functioning in ‘modern father’ families. Together, the papers inform our understanding of the role of the father and the impact of gender on both a person’s experience of parenting and child adjustment. This exploration is particularly timely given the current political context in which some prospective ‘non-traditional’ fathers are finding their access to different family-building options becoming increasingly restricted.

The first paper examines the psychological adjustment of adopted children in early adolescence in gay father families, compared to those in lesbian mother and heterosexual couple families. Paper two presents findings on parent and child adjustment, and father-child relationship quality in stay-at-home father families in comparison to stay-at-home mother and dual-earner heterosexual couple families. The third paper examines the experiences and adaptation of fathers as they transition from residential to non-residential fathering, and explores barriers to non-residential fathering. Paper four investigates parent-child relationship quality and child adjustment in families with a transgender parent.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

Individual Presentations

• Child adjustment in adoptive gay father families: a follow-up at early adolescence - Presenting Author: Anja McConnachie, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Nadia Ayed, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Vasanti Jadva, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Lamb, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Fiona Tasker, Birkbeck, University of London; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

• ‘Daddy, are you Mummy or Daddy?’: Parent and child adjustment in UK stay-at-home father families - Presenting Author: Catherine Maria Jones, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

• Non-residential fathering in modern families - Presenting Author: Imanuel Ben-Israel, Nottingham Trent University; Non-Presenting Author: Kate Ellis-Davies, Nottingham Trent Univerisity & University of Cambridge

• “It was kind of a non-issue”: Parent-child relationships and child adjustment in trans parent families - Presenting Author: Susan Imrie, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Sophie Zadeh, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge