Poster #138 - Fathers’ perceptions of their parenting roles: Evidence from a large, contemporary, population-based cohort

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Fathers’ roles have changed markedly: moving away from traditional ‘provider’ and ‘disciplinarian’ roles, fathers are increasingly involved in family life, and in more diverse ways. Despite these changes, we know very little about how contemporary fathers view their role, the aspects of parenting that are most important to fathers, and whether these role perceptions differ as a function of key individual and social factors. The majority of research into fathers’ role perceptions has been qualitative, using small, highly selective samples. Here we present data from 4121 fathers who were part of the Who Are Today’s Dads (WATD) study. WATD participants are fathers or father figures of children participating in Growing Up in New Zealand: a large pre-birth population cohort study. Fathers were contacted when children were age six, and asked to complete an online survey about their work, health and relationships. The primary outcome measure for this analysis was the final survey question, asking for fathers’ free-text response: ‘What is the most important part of your role in [your Growing Up study child’s] life?’ Dependant variables were: level of contact with (study) child; employment status; work hours; work-life balance; income; experience of financial hardship; area deprivation (NZDep 2013; Atkinson, Salmond & Crampton, 2014); education; ethnicity; age; self-reported general health (Bowling, 2005); self-report of a mental health condition; psychological distress (as measured by the K6; Kessler, Andrews, Colpe, Hiripi, Mroczek, Normand, Walters & Zaslavsky, 2002); and whether fathers’ own experiences of being parented growing up. Data was also linked with the Growing Up dataset to obtain relevant child variables of child gender and sibling status. A coding system was adapted from previous work during the antenatal phase when Growing Up cohort parents were asked to describe their ‘hopes and dreams’ for their future child (Reese, Peterson, Waldie, Schmidt, Bandara, Atatoa Carr, Grant, Pryor & Morton, 2016). Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, parental aspirations were coded for references to physiological, safety, belonging, individual esteem, self-actualization and self-transcendence needs. Preliminary introspection of a sub sample of responses indicated that these needs were strongly reflected in fathers’ parenting role descriptions. An additional code labelled ‘presence’ was also created to reflect fathers’ emphasis on (non-specific) stability and accessibility (e.g., “just being there”, “watching him grow”). Fathers’ responses were parsed into idea units and coded. To correct for verbosity, independent variables were considered as dichotomous (i.e., 0 = no responses for that category; or 1 = one or multiple responses for that category). Univariate logistic regressions examined associations of socio-demographic, work, health and child dependant variables with father’s role perceptions (accessibility, physiological, safety, belongingness/love, esteem, self-actualisation and self-transcendence needs). Multivariable logistic regressions were then conducted with dependant variables that had been significant at the univariate level. Results indicated interesting patterns of father and child variables associated with each of the father role categories that were consistent with theory and existing research (see attached summary). Findings have implications for understanding how contemporary fathers view their role as parents, and will inform future research to support fathering.

Authors

• Amy Louise Bird, University of Wollongong
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Underwood, Research Fellow
  Non-Presenting Author

• Saniya Singh, PhD student
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elaine Reese, Professor
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elisabeth Duursma, University of Wollongong
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Morton, Associate Professor
  Non-Presenting Author