Full-Time, Part-Time Full-Time, and Part-Time Fathers: Father Identities Following Divorce

This grounded theory study examined how 20 newly divorced, nonresidential fathers manage their fatherhood identities. The theory created from this study proposes that fathers' perceptions of (a) father-child relationships, (b) how their children's fiscal needs are met, and (c) barriers to their physical interactions with their children influence their fatherhood identities. In spite of all fathers identifying themselves as involved, three types of fathers emerged: full-time fathers, part-time full-time fathers, and part-time fathers. The findings suggest that men's conceptualizations of father involvement are influenced by their postdivorce experiences with nonresidential fatherhood.Key Words: divorce andcustody, divorced fathers, grounded theory, qualitative family research.Current expectations are that fathers will be highly involved with their children; fathers are expected to be breadwinners, role models, nurturers, and providers of child care (Lamb, 2000; Marks & Palkovitz, 2004). Lamb (1987) defined father involvement as a combination of accessibility (i.e., availability to children), engagement (i.e., direct interaction with children), and responsibility (i.e., taking care of children's financial, health, and emotional needs). Many fathers have risen to the challenge and have increased their accessibility to, engagement with, and responsibility for their children in an attempt to meet these changed expectations. This increase in father involvement, particularly accessibility and engagement, however, appears to apply to married fathers only. For example, married fathers have doubled the amount of time spent doing child-care activities (Amato, Meyers, & Emery, 2009). On the other hand, in the years following divorce, many fathers who no longer live with their children (nonresidential) see their children sporadically, and their accessibility and engagement tends to decrease over time (Braver, 1998). Although the percentage of nonresidential fathers who saw their children at least once per week in 2002 was double the 1 976 percentage, currently 78% of fathers have some contact with their children within 2-3 years after divorce; 31% of these fathers have weekly contact with their children (Amato et al., 2009).Although some nonresident fathers disengage, many maintain strong ties with their children following divorce (Amato & Sobolewski, 2004), yet the characteristics of these ties are not well understood. Scholars have studied the transition from nonparent to father (e.g., Coltrane & Parke, 1998; Marsiglio, Day, & Lamb, 2000), but few have shown interest in examining how men manage their new roles as divorced, nonresidential fathers or in how they define those identities (Catlett & McKenry, 2004). Some researchers have turned to qualitative designs to capture the contexts that influence nonresidential fathers' roles (Bloomer, Sipe, & Ruedt, 2002; Catlett & McKenry, 2004; DeGarmo, 2010; Olmstead, Futris, & Pasley, 2009). Some nonresidential fathers had a difficult time fulfilling their breadwinner roles, which caused them to have difficulty seeing their children because their former partners would not allow fathers to see their children if they did not regularly pay support (Bloomer et al., 2002). Catlett and McKenry used feminist theory to guide in-depth interviews with 20 divorced nonresidential fathers in their exploration of how aspects of divorce (e.g., court orders, custody arrangements, former spouses) influenced fathers' roles. DeGarmo (2010) found that fathers who had salient and central father identities tended to see their children more often and more consistently than fathers with lower salient and central identities. Others have found that fathers employ a variety of roles (e.g., provider, role model, disciplinarian, teacher) that they believe help them parent their children after divorce (Olmstead et al., 2009).Although recent studies have added depth to our understanding of the influences on divorced nonresidential father involvement (e. …