A case in point is the Aka, a foraging group in the Central African Republic. In rare cases, exceptions also exist where fathers are more involved than mothers in specific aspects of caregiving. Paternal involvement ranges from men assuming roles as helpers to being highly engaged in the socio-affective and cognitive aspects of their children’s daily lives. Yet in most cultures around the world men still see their primary role as economic providers and this undergirds a good deal of their responsibilities in families and drives the quantity and quality of their involvement with children. Further, levels of paternal involvement are invariably influenced by economic status, residential patterns, hegemonic models of masculinity, how men were fathered themselves, and the nature of the pair-bond. 3 As all of the authors point out, fathers offer protection, provide material resources, and engage in the direct and indirect care of children. Of course paternal involvement varies by context and in terms of patterns of behaviours that have evolved in response to the demands of the local ecology. At the same, some non-resident fathers may find unique ways to provide in-kind resources and stay in touch with their children. Fathers may be physically around but are not emotionally available to children. Just as paternal presence should not be equated with psychological presence, non-residential fatherhood does not exclude men from becoming involved with their children. Variations in Paternal Investment and Involvement At the moment, the contribution of fathers to childhood development relative to these other figures in these dynamic caregiving systems is not clearly delineated and we continue to examine the significance of paternal involvement relative to patterns of mothering most of the time. Far from seamless, some of these non-parental figures work in a complementary manner with fathers in extended living arrangements, as alternative caregivers in nonresidential father living situations, and as surrogate caregivers when fathers migrate to other geographic locations for employment reasons to meet the economic needs of family members. For instance, Chaudhary et al., Ball and Moselle, and Makusha and Richter highlight the roles of multiple caregivers in the context of horizontal and vertical relationships within systems of extended living arrangements that are culturally sanctioned and convey the importance of non-parental socialization agents in young children’s lives. 6 Moreover, fathers and mothers join forces with diverse other individuals (siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, other male adults) in several cultural communities in attempts to meet the varying needs of children. 3,4,5 That is, men become fathers in diverse mating and marital systems with possible conceptual separation between parenting and partner roles in some cultural communities. To this end, there are cultural pathways to fathering wherein men place emphases on different socialization goals and practices across communities to achieve common ends-the health and wellbeing of families and children.Īlthough much of the fathering research base is confined to European and European-heritage families and the dyadic, co-parenting model, what is evident is that across cultural communities, fatherhood and fathering occur in diverse family constellations with different residential patterns and levels of pair-bond commitment. These roles and responsibilities co-occur with other life events (e.g., economic challenges, discrimination, oppression, cultural transplantation) and are often driven by internal scripts or ethno-theories about masculinity/manhood that are contested and changing. The authors discuss local and particular aspects of fathering and the evolving nature of how men embrace their diverse roles in families. 1,2 These essays chronicle the different ways in which men are involved in children’s lives and the implications of varying levels of paternal involvement for childhood development across a few cultural communities. Technology in early childhood educationĪs emphasis on cultural, cross-cultural, and indigenous perspectives on family socialization processes gain traction in the psychological sciences, there has been greater interest in research on father-child relationships across cultural communities.Stress and pregnancy (prenatal and perinatal).Integrated early childhood development services.Importance of early childhood development.Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).Child care – Early childhood education and care. Behaviour Education Health Pregnancy Family Programs
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