Paternal Identity, Maternal Gatekeeping, and Father Involvement.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine whether mothers' beliefs about the role of the father may contribute to mothers influencing the quantity of father involvement in their children's lives. Participants were 30 two-parent families with children between the ages of 2 and 3 years. A combination of self-report and interview data were collected from both mothers and fathers. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that fathers' perceived investments in their parental roles and actual levels of paternal involvement are moderated by mothers' beliefs about the role of the father. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research on parenting identity and maternal gatekeeping as well as the development of parenting programs for fathers. Key Words: father involvement, maternal gatekeeping, mothers, paternal identity. Background and Significance Although children's social, emotional, and academic outcomes have long been of primary interest to researchers, studies on the influence of parenting have focused historically on the quality and quantity of maternal care. Fathers were identified traditionally as the "breadwinners" of the family, whereas mothers were primarily responsible for caregiving. Thus, the traditional family structure has not always encouraged fathers to become involved parents. Consequently, many early conceptualizations of father involvement centered on the idea of "deficit" or "inadequate" fathering (Hawkins & Dollahite, 1997). However, in recent years, American society has begun to see a shift in the expectations for parental roles. Some evidence indicates that this historical change in the "culture of fatherhood" (Larossa, 1988) may also be reflected in the conduct of modern fathers. More specifically, fathers are slowly beginning to increase the amount of time they spend caring for their children, and fathers today are more visibly involved with their children than were fathers of past generations (Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004). Accompanying this shift has been an increase in research attempting to measure, conceptualize, and explain father involvement. Although the exact effects of increased father involvement on family dynamics remains to be seen, the emerging evidence suggests that fathers' increased caregiving of children often has positive outcomes for families (Pleck & Masciadrelli). Conceptualizations of Father Involvement It is important to acknowledge that father involvement is multifaceted and thus can be defined and conceptualized in multiple ways (e.g., Day & Lamb, 2004; Hawkins & Dollahite, 1997). For example, scholars have examined a wide range of facets of father involvement from a variety of perspectives including cognitive and affective aspects (Palkovitz, 1997), generative fathering (Hawkins & Dollahite), social constructionist (Marsiglio, Amato, Day, & Lamb, 2000), and social capital perspectives (Amato, 1998). In addition, there has been a recent call for increased attention to the quality of fathers' involvement with their children as well as the quantity of involvement within the father involvement literature (Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004; Hawkins & Dollahite). Lamb and his colleagues (Lamb, Pleck, Charnov, & Levine, 1987) have proposed a three-part model of paternal involvement that encompasses the various forms of participation that fathers may take in their children's lives. The categories consist of (a) interaction-the father interacting one-on-one with his child, (b) accessibility-the father being physically and or psychologically available to his child, and (c) responsibility-the father assuming responsibility for his child's welfare and care. This model has been influential in guiding much of the early research on father involvement and continues to be an important basis for scholarship on paternal roles (Pleck & Stueve, 2001). We utilize the Lamb et al. …