By the year 2000, one out of four American children will be living in female-headed single parent households with limited or no contact with their fathers. Lack of paternal involvement jeopardizes the well-being of all family members. The overall purpose of the research portion of the proposed project is to broaden the understanding of the male experience of expectant and new fatherhood for men deemed at risk in their transition to parenthood. In conjunction with knowledge of the more typical experience of expectant and new fatherhood (Jordan, 1989), this information will subsequently serve as the theoretical basis for intervention strategies to promote and support paternal behavior and involved fatherhood.
The specific aims of the research portion of the proposed project are to: (a) describe the experience of expectant and new fatherhood for each of four groups of men at risk in their transition to parenthood: mates of adolescent mothers, fathers of low birth weight infants, adoptive fathers, and fathers separated from their families due to employment, (b) compare the experiences of expectant and new fatherhood for each of the four groups of men at risk in their transition to parenthood with one another, (c) compare the experiences of expectant and new fatherhood of men at risk in the transition to parenthood with the more typical experience of expectant and new fatherhood revealed in a previous study (Jordan, 1989), (d) describe mothers' expectations of their more typical and at risk mates over the perinatal period and mothers' expectations of their mates' enactment of the paternal role, and (e) develop a theoretically based nursing care protocol for promoting and supporting involved fatherhood over the perinatal period. The proposed research project is a longitudinal field design utilizing grounded theory methodology. Data will be gathered from approximately 40 at risk fathers and 10 mothers over the perinatal period and analyzed using the technique of constant comparative analysis. The overall purpose of the career development portion of the proposed projects is to enhance the investigator's development as an independent researcher and scholar.
The specific aims of the training portion of the project are to: (a) examine current knowledge in the area of men's studies and the psychology of men, (b) expand the investigator's knowledge of research methods and data analysis for utilization in intervention studies, (c) develop and test instrumentation to measure paternal experience over the perinatal period, and, (d) design a clinical trial to test the nursing care protocol to promote and support paternal behavior over the perinatal period. To achieve these aims the investigator will work with well known experts in the areas of men's studies, research design and methods, data analysis, history and philosophy of science, instrument development and testing, and development and evaluation of clinical trials.
