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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this paper by Gershenson was to examine the relationship between adolescent mothers and significant men to the family. The author's goal was to describe the range and types of participation in the family life of different groups of men and the mother's feelings about these contributions.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental, cross sectional in depth interview design was employed. Respondents were 30 primiparous caucasian women who gave birth before their twentieth birthdays and whose children were between the ages of 12 and 27 months. The sample was recruited from a variety of sources including hospitals, schools, private pediatricians, social service agencies, and word of mouth. The sample was highly heterogenous in terms of demographic variables and experiences surrounding pregnancy and motherhood. The mothers were born and currently living in large and small cities, old and new suburbs, and rural villages. They described themselves as being from predominately European descent and from a mixture of Christian and non-Christian denominations. The SES of their families of origin was also highly variable with parental occupations ranging from upper echelon managers and entrepreneurs to unskilled labor and clerical workers. None of the women had been raised on AFDC. Half of the women had been raised by their biological parents; the other half were raised in families of other configurations. At the time of the interview, the median age was 19 years (range 17 to 21), and at the birth of their children, the median age was 17 years (range 16 to 19). Taped interviews were conducted in the respondents homes' during two sessions of two hours each. Both open-ended and short-answer questions were asked, covering a variety of topics including child rearing practices, family support, and support from the social network. Only data pertaining to fatherhood are reported.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
As the rate of births to white adolescents declined, the cultural norms that guided the young parents' responses to childbearing altered. Traditionally, pregnant adolescents would marry, but the varieties of arrangements have increased to include the possibilities of parents, stepparents, siblings, boyfriend, husband, or friend--thus providing a variety of possible males who could serve as fathers to the child. Four major groups of fathers were discussed: current husbands, former boyfriend or ex-husband, current boyfriends, and the babies' maternal or stepgrandfathers. Nine of the respondents were living with husbands, ranging in age from 18-32 and education from non-high school graduate to post-high school technical training. Finances were relatively secure. The relationships between the women and their husbands were characterized by a general level of satisfaction of the mother with the fathers' relationship with the children, their contribution to the household, and other issues relating to the children. The women's own relationships with the husbands included some feelings of distance, although physical violence was rarely reported. Only 1 of 9 biological fathers who no longer had a relationship with the mother had regular contact with the mother (because of child support), but he did not see the child. Other fathers had irregular contact and some had no desire to acknowledge the child at all. Mothers also desired little contact but desired financial assistance. Of the respondents that lived with the babies' biological fathers, six were separated or divorced from their husbands, and three more were separated from men with whom they had cohabitated but never married. The fathers, ranging in age from 18-29, were largely high school dropouts with only two having a diploma or GED and were irregular workers which with the respondents. The relationships the mothers had with these men were characterized by problems with the men's drinking compounding parental problems, many reports of physical abuse, and the men's possessiveness. None of these men, however, were reported as abusing the children. Eight of the fathers had contact with the mothers but the type and extent varied considerably from calls perceived as harassment to a genuine desire to participate in childrearing. Of the 17 mothers who were not married to or dating the biological fathers of the children, nine had steady boyfriends whom they had been seeing for at least three months. These men had all developed relationships with the children; they ranged in age from 18-25, mostly completed high school, were employed, and were described as loving, kind, intelligent, and generous though they were not over-idealized. It was important to these mothers that their boyfriends take an interest in their children, although the amount of caregiving varied ranging from being intimately involved to being special visitors; none were heavily involved in financial support. Three of these couples were engaged, four were planning to move in together in the near future. At the time of the interview, 12 of the mothers were living in households headed by their fathers or stepfathers. These men ranged from 40-51, had variable education from elementary school to college, and varied occupations. They overwhelmingly provided shelter and food for the child and mother, but none was the sole source of economic support. The mothers/stepmothers of the mothers were also living with them. Division of household chores followed traditional gender role divisions in general. Grandfathers were seen as loving their grandchildren, following traditional gender role expectations with the children, and sharing babysitting with wives to give the mother time off. Mothers reported disagreements with grandfathers over discipline and, in general, reported three different kinds of relationships with their fathers: constant fighting, distance, or closeness.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author recommended that two important questions about the cultural definition of "fathering" be addressed: what relationships do persons culturally defined as fathers bear to the child and what individuals perform the duties culturally defined as the belonging to the father? In general, the author suggested that the definition of "father" both within white culture and cross-culturally needs further research.
EVALUATION:
With the change in family structure, studies in families should change as well. This study represents an important effort to expand the notion of "father" to the roles that men, fathers or not, can play in "fathering" children. Much groundwork for further research has been laid here; further efforts can go in many directions in describing male roles in the family as well as investigating how these roles impact the children within the family unit. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Juvenile Mother
KW - Juvenile Parent
KW - Parent Child Relations
KW - Juvenile Father
KW - Father Absence
KW - Father Involvement
KW - Family Environment
KW - Family Relations
KW - Caucasian Female
KW - Caucasian Juvenile
KW - Single Parent Family |