Fathering Infants

The following material has been excerpted from Dr. Wade Horn’s article “Fathering Infants” (2000). At that time, Dr. Horn served as President of The National Fatherhood Initiative, located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. Horn currently serves as the Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The review of the literature on fathers and infants clearly indicates that: 1) fathers can—and frequently do— become as attached to their infants as mothers do; 2) fathers are neither uninterested nor inept in interaction with their newborns; 3) fathers and mothers differ in the ways they tend to parent infants, and, as a result, infants tend to respond differentially to fathers and mothers; 4) the quality of the marital relationship affects the quality of the mother-child interactions, the quality of father-child interactions, and the quality of the child’s development; and 5) active father involvement with his infant is predictive of better development outcomes for the child.

Still, many questions remain unanswered. First, too few studies have examined the broader social-cultural contexts within which fathers fulfill or fail to fulfill their role as social fathers. As a result, we have an inadequate understanding of the factors within the families, communities, workplaces, social institutions, and the broader culture that support or undermine fathering for different groups of fathers in different circumstances.

Second, because most studies of fathers and their infants have been conducted with white, middle-class families, we have only a limited understanding of differences that may exist between fathers from different ethnic groups. For example, do middle-class African-American and Hispanic fathers interact similarly with their infants as white, middle-class fathers? If there are differences, are these differences more a matter of ethnicity or social class? This kind of information would seem to be particularly helpful when designing outreach, skills building, and support programs targeted to fathers of different ethnic and
socioeconomic backgrounds. More work also needs to be done to identify subgroups of fathers, rather than merely studying individual fathering behaviors, and correlating father sub-groups with relevant socio-cultural factors and developmental outcomes for children.

Third, although it is clear that increasingly, numbers of fathers are abandoning their role as social fathers, it is unclear why this is happening. Some posit that it is the loss of a clear fatherhood ideal (Blankenhorn 1996). Others stress economic factors (Mincy& Pouncy 1996). Still others emphasize the retreat from marriage as a cultural ideal (Popenoe 1997). Exactly which of these factors, or combination of factors, is operative for which fathers and under what circumstances is unknown.

Finally, we are only beginning to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and initiatives designed to increase the positive involvement of fathers with their infants. Little is known about what types of approaches are most effective with which groups of fathers and under what circumstances. Hence, much of the activity in this area is being driven more by supposition than empirical data. There is a pressing need to bring these activities under increasing scientific scrutiny so that we have a better knowledge base concerning which types of intervention programs work best for whom and under what circumstances.

Nevertheless, what we do know is that fathers matter to their infants and that they matter a whole lot more than has been assumed by some for much of this century. Unfortunately, this knowledge comes at a time when increasing numbers of infants can no longer count on their fathers being there throughout their childhood. The challenge is to continue to accumulate knowledge about the unique ways that fathers contribute to infant development, while at the same time persuading more fathers to actually make those contributions.

REFERENCES

     Blankenhorn, D. 1995. Fatherless America: Confronting our most urgent social problem. New York: Basic Books.

     Mincy, R.V., & Pouncy, H. 1996. October. There must be fifty ways to start a family: Social policy and the fragile families of low-income, non-custodial fathers. Paper presented at a symposium of the Center of the American Experiment, Minneapolis, MN.

     Popenoe, D. 1996. Life without father: Compelling new evidence that fatherhood and marriage are indispensable for the good of children and society. New York: The Free Press.