11/15/2016
FATHER; BREADWINNER TO BUDDY
| WRITTEN BY: SANA SADIA
(PH.D FELLOW)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Several studies revealed significantly that if the father is involved
in child care, child has better outcomes in later life. The purpose of
this article is to analyze this eternal interaction and draw attention
to the state of current researches in this regard.
Beyond the traditional role of fathers, they can do much more for
their children through the quality and quantity of care and
attention. As per scientific evidences, father interaction in infancy
has a powerful influence on every child’s functioning. In this
article, a richer appreciation to the silent role in care taking and
effectiveness of this relation is elaborated. It is concluded that
involved fathers bring positive benefits to their children that no
other person is as likely to bring. It is also intended to do review of
the literature and integrate researches on father involvement into a
framework that emphasizes the synergistic relationship between
the two.
A central aim of this article is to highlight the ways in which
different dimensions of father’s involvement lead to positive
outcomes on child’s personality and development throughout the
lifespan. And also is to consider limitations of past researches on
fathers’ involvement and to raise questions that would guide future
efforts in this area.
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INTRODUCTION:
“A father is a male parent who founds a line or family.”
According to Collin’s English Dictionary,
In a traditional family, the male gender has a lot of importance. He is the head of the family and
all decisions are to be finalized with his permission. He is supposed to be the bread-earner of the
family and hence, is given more importance in terms of respect, prestige, honor, etc. Food is
served to him first and all rules that have been formed by him have to be followed. In the same
way, all activities within the family are carried out with his permission. In a joint family, this
position is held by the oldest male member of the family, usually, the father of the husband;
whether he earns or not, he is given the most respect, followed by his elder son. This superiority
goes down to the son or sons in the family.
For the purposes of this article the definition of ‘father’ includes biological fathers as well as
father figures. In defining aspects of ‘father involvement’ the conceptualization proposed by
Lamb and his co-researchers is used in terms 1.accessibility-father’s presence and availability, 2.
engagement—direct contact, such as play, reading, outings or care-giving activities and
3.responsibility—participation in decisions on childcare, health visits and other practical issues,
such as choosing clothes, diapers and sleeping arrangements for the infant.
A generation or two ago, father’s were often shadowy figures who disappeared at dawn and returned at
dusk. Their role in the family was often assigned to breadwinner and disciplinarian. Although financial
support to the family is part of the responsibility aspect, but providing financial support only was
not considered as a measure of father involvement. Fathers have shifted their level of
involvement over the last 20 years but only in a slow, gradual manner.
In countries like Pakistan, the mother is considered as primary caregiver and mostly fathers are
not very much involved in child care until child reaches the age of 5 or start schooling. The
importance of father involvement is not much studied in our setting. People are not very much
aware about the importance of father care in early years that enhance child’s better outcomes in
later life.
From the review most of the research indicating that father can play an important role in child
development during early years. Father interaction, involvement and quality and quantity of time
and care will promote better child outcomes and school achievement and also when fathers are
significant part of their children‘s life from birth the children score higher on intelligence tests
than children whose fathers are less involved.Fathers play an important role in a child’s life,
more or less in the same way, as a mother. Fathers can be nurturing too. The role of the father,
apart from providing the materialistic necessities for the children, is to be around. For the son, a
father is someone to look up to and identify, whereas, for the daughter, a father is a loving and
caring person. For both the children and the mother, the father is a source of security and
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protection. In modern families, fathers play a larger role in house work and especially in the
upbringing of the kids.
Is the Father’s role limited to breadwinner?
Two to three centuries ago, fathers’ roles were primarily to serve as breadwinners and the
conveyers of moral values and religious education to their children. However, with the advent of
industrialization and urbanization and as factories emerged as major sources of employment,
fathers became distanced from the household and their families. Growing rates of abandonment
and illegitimacy led to the development of welfare programs to assist widowed or unmarried
women in supporting their children.
In more recent decades, the changing economic role of women has greatly impacted the role of
fathers. Between 1948 and 2001, the percentage of working age women employed or looking for
work nearly doubled–from less than 33 percent to more than 60 percent. Their increase in
financial power made paternal financial support less necessary for some families. In tandem with
the growing autonomy of women, related trends such as declining fertility, increasing rates of
divorce and remarriage, and childbirth outside of marriage have resulted in a transition from
traditional to multiple undefined roles for many fathers. Today’s fathers have started to take on
roles vastly different from fathers of previous generations.
Fathers apart from their basic role as breadwinners, they are participating directly in child care
they spend some time with their children by taking them out or playing with them. In the sociocultural context the high level of male involvement especially in caretaking outside the house can
be seen as coping mechanism with tradition of female seclusion (John & Aslam, 1995). Fathers
are involved in their children‘s lives in a multitude of ways that go beyond the traditional roles of
economic provider and playmate. In our context father has traditional role that is only the
economic provider specially in rural areas most of the time they used to start work at daily wages
or involve in agricultural work to earn money for the family to get two or three times meal.
Researchers are now calling for an expansion of research to address aspects of father
involvement that assess both quality and quantity and that examine direct and indirect forms of
father involvement in children‘s lives.
All the major religions of the world define the roles for men and women clearly and separately.
Yet within each of these religions there are significant differences in interpretation, presenting us
with a continuum in terms of how strictly these definitions are adhered to in modern times. Thus
it is not possible to say that "in all Muslim countries the belief is that...", or "in all Catholic
countries men are expected to...." Rather it is important to understand how religion interacts with
other variables in a given culture to have an impact on the relationship that fathers are likely to
have with their children. For example, Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country, and in
Northern Pakistan there is strict adherence to differentiation of sex roles. In fact, for the most
part, women are sequestered in the home and are not seen on the streets. Women are not allowed
to interact with males outside of their family. While many would view this as negative in terms
of women's rights, it has one potentially very positive outcome. Men have to be involved in their
children's lives. Women cannot take the child to visit the doctor. They cannot take the child to
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school. The father is the interface for the child between the home and world. To play this role the
father needs to have an understanding of the child's needs and take appropriate steps to support
the child's development. A parent education program in this part of the world would certainly
need to focus on providing the father with appropriate child development information and
support him in his role as caregiver.
Effectiveness of warmth in parenting
Outcomes on child
Father engagement reduces the frequency of behavioral problems in boys and psycho-logical
problems in young women; it also enhances cognitive development while decreasing criminality
and economic disadvantage in low Socio.Economic.Status families. How father involvement
could be operationalized to serve as a basis for social policies and interventions is still unclear.
There are many ways for fathers to be positively involved with their children and besides vast
individual variations there are also cultural and social norms that influence fathering. The first
five years are a critical time to develop healthy patterns and family interactions, as early father
involvement leads to sustained involvement over the course of the child’s life, but, historically,
family resource centers and programs have had a blind spot when it comes to involving fathers.
Research confirms that when fathers become more involved in parenting - and in working with
mothers as co-parents and partners - you get healthier families and healthier children.
The benefits for children include increases in academic, emotional and social competence and
reduction in delayed development, poor standard of living, smoking, criminality, truancy,
promiscuity, depression and anxiety. Equally important, positive father involvement decreases
the incidence of child abuse and neglect. Engaged fathers experience better overall health,
greater work satisfaction, and higher self-esteem. For mothers, the positive outcomes of father
involvement include lower stress, less depression, and lower levels of impoverishment. Both
partners experience greater satisfaction with the couple relationship, the quality of which directly
affects the quality of a father’s involvement with his child, regardless of whether the parents are
married, separated, divorced, or have never been married.
Fatherhood today
Historically, the father-ideal has gone through different phases; from moral teacher and
disciplinarian, through breadwinner and later gender-role model and ‘buddy’, to the new
nurturing, co-parenting father .Qualitative interviews with fathers from several different
countries show that the discourse of modern, nurturing fatherhood appears to influence the
interviewed men’s ways of thinking about their roles as fathers, with wanting to ‘be there’ for
their children as the major concern .Reflecting this social trend, the American Academy of
Paediatrics (AAP) Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health recently
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stated that actively enhancing men’s roles in their children’s care and development is an
important aspect of pediatric work .
Today, it's common to see a dad at the park with his kids or pushing a stroller down the street. All in all,
fathers are more actively participating in parenting their kids on every level
CONCLUSION:
To develop a good and healthy relationship within the family, especially with kids, fathers need
to first of all support and care for the mothers as mothers are the primary source of house support
and management. Participating in shared activities is also an important element in the
development of a strong relationship between father and child. A new study by Baylor
University researchers puts participation in shared activities at the top of the list of pivotal
moments in the father-child relationship. The study included 43 fathers and 43 children who
were asked to identify a crucial moment of change in their relationship. The most frequently
mentioned turning point, for both fathers and children, was participating in a shared activity.
Furthermore, fathers need to develop common interests in order to develop a strong bonding with
their children. If the father wishes his children to be like him, he will have to go down to their
level and be like them first. Children need to gain all their trust in their father for them to be able
to form a relationship with him.
Fathers also need to listen and advise their children. Once the trust is developed, fathers need to
be ready to listen to their children as children will speak and share the happenings and problems
in their lives. Fathers should be ready to face the problems growing kids bring in front of them
and to be able to advise them in such a manner that the child does not get into trouble, nor feels
that his/her father knows nothing.
To conclude, fathers play an equally important role in their children’s lives as mothers do. Their
involvement affects physical, social, financial, and emotional well-being of the child. A
sensitive, caring, considerate father can bring up children who are healthy, happy, and properly
developed in every manner, whereas, a neglecting, ignoring, rude, careless father would be
depriving the children of their basic rights, including that of a loving parent.
Many times the way fathers communicate, participate and get involved with their children affect
how children grow. The presence of a father provides the child with a feeling of security and
protection, which children are unable to feel with their mothers. Shared activities between fathers
and their children help in the development of understanding between father and children.
Whereas, communication increases the trust level of children on their father.
Children tend to identify with same gender parents and expect love, care and affection from the
opposite gender parent. In this way, the importance of a father is high for children of both the
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genders; one who needs to learn social and economic skills, whereas, other looks for love and
affection. Hence, the role of a father in a family is highly important.
In summary, the modern day father can contribute to his children’s health and well-being by maintaining
a healthy relationship with the other parent even in cases of divorce; providing emotional and financial
support, appropriate monitoring and discipline; and most importantly by remaining a permanent and
loving presence in their lives
RECOMMENDATIONS:
There is an urgent need to move beyond either simple descriptions of father-offspring interaction
or noting simple links between father-child interaction and child’s outcomes.
It is suggested that studies that detail the processes or mechanisms through which father’s
achievements and their effects are sorely needed. The raising questions need to address,
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Are the effects achieved directly through interaction with their children or indirectly
through changes in maternal attitudes and behaviors?
What emotional and cognitive processes are implicated in mediating between father
behavior and child outcomes?
More studies are needed to explore the role of a biological bond between the father figure and
the child on the effects of paternal involvement. Professionals who work with young children
and their families are recommended to enquire about and actively encourage fathers’ engagement
with their children from an early age. This review provides enough support to urge professionals
to improve circumstances for involved fathering.
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