Invisible Fathers Influence
Chip off the old block: Fathers’ influence on sons’ attitudes toward marriage
Charlie H Williams III
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Chip Off the Old Block: Fathers’ Influence on Sons’ Attitudes toward Marriage Historically, when discussing the relationships between parents and their children the research has emphasized relationships between mothers and their children, specifically focusing on issues such as teen pregnancy and single motherhood. There has been little to no research on parent-child relationships emphasizing single fathers and their children or single fatherhood in the African American community. The little research that has been attempted always focused on the “invisible” father …show more content…
figure in the African American community. Invisible fathers are fathers who have almost no contact with their children, either by choice, incarceration, or due to social pressures. It seems that if there were programs to educate new or young fathers, then maybe the issue of invisible fathers would be alleviated. Robbers (2009) examined the effectiveness of the Caring Equation, a parenting program for adolescent teen fathers. This study was longitudinal in nature and lasted about 4 years. A pre-test and a series of post-tests were given to measure the adolescent fathers’ involvement during various activities. The post-tests were given at 6 months, 12 months, and then two year intervals to measure the amount of time the fathers had to spend with their children and what had been learned so far in the program. The sample consisted of 310 young fathers; 80% were Hispanic American, 12% were African American, 7% were European American, and 1% were from other races. Robbers (2009) found that the ages of the fathers played a large role on how involved they were in their children lives and the amount of support given. Typically the younger the fathers were, the more involved they were, either because the fathers came from close knit families or had good relationships with their mothers. The support and involvement begin to diminish around year two because the father was either in school or working. Although the involvement diminished, the increase in responsibility and work ethic was a good characteristic they may have learned from their own fathers. Bronte-Tinkew, Scott, and Lilia (2010) examined the different characteristics of custodial single father families, the long term effects of their involvement, and the parenting styles demonstrated in the lives of their adolescents. This longitudinal study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). The sample consisted of 3,977 youth. The data were collected between 1997 and 2003. Bronte-Tinkew et al. found that there was a higher level of disconnectedness reported in single father households than in traditional two parent households. There were low levels of high school completion within single father households as compared to traditional two parent households. Bronte-Tinkew et al. also found that there were no significant differences in parental involvement of single fathers versus traditional two parent homes. The difference in parenting styles may have contributed some to the lack of parental involvement in some instances. For example, there was less involvement from single fathers who utilized the authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles. Risch, Jodl, and Eccles (2004) examined the relationships between fathers and adolescents, especially nontraditional fathers. Risch et al. looked at the quality of father-adolescent relationships (i.e. closeness) and adolescents’ attitudes toward divorce. The closer the relationship between father and adolescent, the less likely the adolescent would go through a divorce themselves in the future. The closeness felt between adolescents and their fathers was a predictor of adolescents’ later attitudes toward divorce, but this was more so for boys than girls. The sample consisted of 1,498 families, 30% European American, 60% African American, and 10% other races, which were a part of the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context longitudinal study. This study examined environmental effects on adolescent socio-emotional development. Risch et al. used sixty-two trained interviewers who went out to each family’s home and conducted a survey. The adolescents and mothers were interviewed face-to-face while the fathers filled out a questionnaire. Coles (2003) examined data from a small sample of African American single fathers in order to build theory from the ground up for future research in this new area. The initial reason for this study was to see if it would be feasible to do a larger scale version and to test venues to locate respondents. The focus was mainly on the reason why a father would decide to take on the responsibility of single fatherhood. The study was conducted with a convenience sample of ten fathers from Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. The fathers filled out a 10 page questionnaire and participated in a two to three hour interview with the primary researcher. This research design was not a good one because the convenience sample leaves room for bias. The interview questions and the questionnaire were designed to explore the motivation for these fathers taking on the responsibility of fatherhood. However, out of the five quantitative measures included in the questionnaire (employment and income, social support, family background, and prior marital status), only the fathers’ employment and income were used to determine the fathers’ motivation for taking on fatherhood. Smentana, Metzger, and Campione-Barr (2004) examined the influences of developmental transitions on middle class African American late adolescents’ perceptions of closeness, supportive relationships, and negative interactions with parents. This was a five year longitudinal study with a sample size of 76 middle class African American late adolescents and their parents. Adolescents filled out a questionnaire that assessed their education level, attachment to parents, and adolescent-parent conflict. Smentana et al. found that there was significant stability in the perceptions of African American adolescents’ closeness to both their mothers and fathers. Smentana et al. found that perceived closeness, supportive relationships, and negative interactions with parents varied throughout the five year study and also that gender influenced adolescents’ attachments on later supportive relationships with their mothers during the transition between adolescence and young adulthood. As evident by the literature out there, there may be a few research studies that focus on single fathers, but the majority of the research still emphasizes mother-child relationships.
More research needs to be conducted on single fathers and their influences on their adolescent children. Single fathers are a demographic that has a negative connotation attached to it because of stereotypes that are perpetuated throughout the media about the African American and Hispanic American communities. The data suggest that the invisible father has become an epidemic because most studies are designed with only the mother (single, teen, step, or divorced) in mind. However, there are some single fathers out there who actually are involved in their children’s lives. Do single fathers, African American in particular, who spend more time with their adolescent sons, have sons who have more positive attitudes toward marriage and family? New research on single father and fatherhood in general would shed light on why some single fathers take on the responsibility of fatherhood willingly and why others shy away from it or downright reject it. This could ultimately reveal if the behaviors or attitudes exhibited by these fathers would influence their adolescent sons, coloring their ideas about marriage and family. I predict that the more time single African American fathers spend with their adolescent sons, the more positive attitudes they will have toward marriage and …show more content…
family.
Method
Participants The population of interest is African American single fathers ages 30 to 55 from different socioeconomic backgrounds. A power analysis was used to determine the number of participants for this study. The study is interested in finding the association between the African American single fathers’ involvement and adolescent sons’ attitudes toward marriage and family. These variables are continuous, so the effect size is represented by r. The standard effect size for social sciences was used which is .30. I required power of .90. I will use a convenience sampling strategy to recruit 120 participants. Advertisements will be placed in area newspapers and on area radio stations. Fliers will be placed at various highly visible locations around the city and surrounding areas recruiting participants who are willing to take part in this study. Participants will call in to the recruitment office and set up an appointment to come in for a brief interview.
Procedure
The participants will be asked to read and sign a consent form giving me permission to use information obtained during this study. A series of surveys will be used to collect information during the study.
Measures
Participants will be asked fill out a general demographic information form that will provide information about their age, city of residence, education level, and family structure (i.e.
separated, divorced, widowed, custodial father never married, etc…). There will be two semi-private areas set up in a local community center. Each area will have multiple computers where the participants will gather and answer the survey questions. The Father Involvement scale will be used to measure African American single fathers’ involvement (Finley and Schwartz, 2004). This scale lists 20 domains of father involvement. For each domain listed, the participants are asked to rate fathers’ involvement on a scale of 1(not at all involved) to 5 (very involved). The total score will be calculated by adding up the domain ratings. The possible scores can range from 20 to 100. Participants will be instructed to place their father’s involvement rating into the right hand blank of the domain listed, (e.g., “Social Development_______”). No score will be reversed scored for this scale. Hill’s Favorableness of Attitude toward Marriage Scale (Hill, 1951) will be used to measure adolescent sons’ attitude toward marriage and family. This is a Likert-type style of measurement which consists of 9 questions. The Participants will be asked to rate their attitude toward marriage on a scale from 1 (not difficult at all) to 5 (very difficult). A sample item will read “In your opinion, would
adjustment to married life be difficult for you”. Salts, Siesmore, Lindholm, and Smith (1994) modified the first seven questions to Hill’s original version to make sure that the questions reflected the possibility of marriage instead of the inevitability. The sample item is an example of the modification. The last 2 questions will be scored on a 2 point answer scale, 1 (no) and 2 (yes). Some items will be reversed scored and a total will be computed.
Proposed Statistics I will use the mean to describe the central tendency of the distribution for my independent variable and the standard deviation to describe the variability. I will use the mean to describe the central tendency of the distribution for my dependent variable and the standard deviation to describe the variability. Because both the independent and dependent variables are continuous, the statistical test I will use will be the t-test for the significance of the correlation coefficient.
References
Bronte-Tinkew, J., Scott, M. E., & Lilja, E. (2010). Single custodial fathers ' involvement and parenting: Implications for outcomes in emerging adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 1107–1127. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00753.x
Coles, R. L. (2003). Black single custodial fathers: Factors influencing the decision to parent. Families in Society, 84, 247-247.
Risch, S. C., Jodl, K. M., & Eccles, J. S. (2004). Role of the father-adolescent relationship in shaping adolescents ' attitudes toward divorce. Journal Of Marriage And Family, 66, 46-58. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2004.00004.x
Robbers, M. (2009). Facilitating fatherhood: A longitudinal examination of father involvement among young minority fathers. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26, 121-134.
Smetana, J. G., Metzger, A., & Campione-Barr, N. (2004). African American late adolescents ' relationships with parents: Developmental transitions and longitudinal patterns. Child Development, 75, 932-947.
.
.
Charlie H Williams III
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Chip Off the Old Block: Fathers’ Influence on Sons’ Attitudes toward Marriage Historically, when discussing the relationships between parents and their children the research has emphasized relationships between mothers and their children, specifically focusing on issues such as teen pregnancy and single motherhood. There has been little to no research on parent-child relationships emphasizing single fathers and their children or single fatherhood in the African American community. The little research that has been attempted always focused on the “invisible” father …show more content…
figure in the African American community. Invisible fathers are fathers who have almost no contact with their children, either by choice, incarceration, or due to social pressures. It seems that if there were programs to educate new or young fathers, then maybe the issue of invisible fathers would be alleviated. Robbers (2009) examined the effectiveness of the Caring Equation, a parenting program for adolescent teen fathers. This study was longitudinal in nature and lasted about 4 years. A pre-test and a series of post-tests were given to measure the adolescent fathers’ involvement during various activities. The post-tests were given at 6 months, 12 months, and then two year intervals to measure the amount of time the fathers had to spend with their children and what had been learned so far in the program. The sample consisted of 310 young fathers; 80% were Hispanic American, 12% were African American, 7% were European American, and 1% were from other races. Robbers (2009) found that the ages of the fathers played a large role on how involved they were in their children lives and the amount of support given. Typically the younger the fathers were, the more involved they were, either because the fathers came from close knit families or had good relationships with their mothers. The support and involvement begin to diminish around year two because the father was either in school or working. Although the involvement diminished, the increase in responsibility and work ethic was a good characteristic they may have learned from their own fathers. Bronte-Tinkew, Scott, and Lilia (2010) examined the different characteristics of custodial single father families, the long term effects of their involvement, and the parenting styles demonstrated in the lives of their adolescents. This longitudinal study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). The sample consisted of 3,977 youth. The data were collected between 1997 and 2003. Bronte-Tinkew et al. found that there was a higher level of disconnectedness reported in single father households than in traditional two parent households. There were low levels of high school completion within single father households as compared to traditional two parent households. Bronte-Tinkew et al. also found that there were no significant differences in parental involvement of single fathers versus traditional two parent homes. The difference in parenting styles may have contributed some to the lack of parental involvement in some instances. For example, there was less involvement from single fathers who utilized the authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles. Risch, Jodl, and Eccles (2004) examined the relationships between fathers and adolescents, especially nontraditional fathers. Risch et al. looked at the quality of father-adolescent relationships (i.e. closeness) and adolescents’ attitudes toward divorce. The closer the relationship between father and adolescent, the less likely the adolescent would go through a divorce themselves in the future. The closeness felt between adolescents and their fathers was a predictor of adolescents’ later attitudes toward divorce, but this was more so for boys than girls. The sample consisted of 1,498 families, 30% European American, 60% African American, and 10% other races, which were a part of the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context longitudinal study. This study examined environmental effects on adolescent socio-emotional development. Risch et al. used sixty-two trained interviewers who went out to each family’s home and conducted a survey. The adolescents and mothers were interviewed face-to-face while the fathers filled out a questionnaire. Coles (2003) examined data from a small sample of African American single fathers in order to build theory from the ground up for future research in this new area. The initial reason for this study was to see if it would be feasible to do a larger scale version and to test venues to locate respondents. The focus was mainly on the reason why a father would decide to take on the responsibility of single fatherhood. The study was conducted with a convenience sample of ten fathers from Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. The fathers filled out a 10 page questionnaire and participated in a two to three hour interview with the primary researcher. This research design was not a good one because the convenience sample leaves room for bias. The interview questions and the questionnaire were designed to explore the motivation for these fathers taking on the responsibility of fatherhood. However, out of the five quantitative measures included in the questionnaire (employment and income, social support, family background, and prior marital status), only the fathers’ employment and income were used to determine the fathers’ motivation for taking on fatherhood. Smentana, Metzger, and Campione-Barr (2004) examined the influences of developmental transitions on middle class African American late adolescents’ perceptions of closeness, supportive relationships, and negative interactions with parents. This was a five year longitudinal study with a sample size of 76 middle class African American late adolescents and their parents. Adolescents filled out a questionnaire that assessed their education level, attachment to parents, and adolescent-parent conflict. Smentana et al. found that there was significant stability in the perceptions of African American adolescents’ closeness to both their mothers and fathers. Smentana et al. found that perceived closeness, supportive relationships, and negative interactions with parents varied throughout the five year study and also that gender influenced adolescents’ attachments on later supportive relationships with their mothers during the transition between adolescence and young adulthood. As evident by the literature out there, there may be a few research studies that focus on single fathers, but the majority of the research still emphasizes mother-child relationships.
More research needs to be conducted on single fathers and their influences on their adolescent children. Single fathers are a demographic that has a negative connotation attached to it because of stereotypes that are perpetuated throughout the media about the African American and Hispanic American communities. The data suggest that the invisible father has become an epidemic because most studies are designed with only the mother (single, teen, step, or divorced) in mind. However, there are some single fathers out there who actually are involved in their children’s lives. Do single fathers, African American in particular, who spend more time with their adolescent sons, have sons who have more positive attitudes toward marriage and family? New research on single father and fatherhood in general would shed light on why some single fathers take on the responsibility of fatherhood willingly and why others shy away from it or downright reject it. This could ultimately reveal if the behaviors or attitudes exhibited by these fathers would influence their adolescent sons, coloring their ideas about marriage and family. I predict that the more time single African American fathers spend with their adolescent sons, the more positive attitudes they will have toward marriage and …show more content…
family.
Method
Participants The population of interest is African American single fathers ages 30 to 55 from different socioeconomic backgrounds. A power analysis was used to determine the number of participants for this study. The study is interested in finding the association between the African American single fathers’ involvement and adolescent sons’ attitudes toward marriage and family. These variables are continuous, so the effect size is represented by r. The standard effect size for social sciences was used which is .30. I required power of .90. I will use a convenience sampling strategy to recruit 120 participants. Advertisements will be placed in area newspapers and on area radio stations. Fliers will be placed at various highly visible locations around the city and surrounding areas recruiting participants who are willing to take part in this study. Participants will call in to the recruitment office and set up an appointment to come in for a brief interview.
Procedure
The participants will be asked to read and sign a consent form giving me permission to use information obtained during this study. A series of surveys will be used to collect information during the study.
Measures
Participants will be asked fill out a general demographic information form that will provide information about their age, city of residence, education level, and family structure (i.e.
separated, divorced, widowed, custodial father never married, etc…). There will be two semi-private areas set up in a local community center. Each area will have multiple computers where the participants will gather and answer the survey questions. The Father Involvement scale will be used to measure African American single fathers’ involvement (Finley and Schwartz, 2004). This scale lists 20 domains of father involvement. For each domain listed, the participants are asked to rate fathers’ involvement on a scale of 1(not at all involved) to 5 (very involved). The total score will be calculated by adding up the domain ratings. The possible scores can range from 20 to 100. Participants will be instructed to place their father’s involvement rating into the right hand blank of the domain listed, (e.g., “Social Development_______”). No score will be reversed scored for this scale. Hill’s Favorableness of Attitude toward Marriage Scale (Hill, 1951) will be used to measure adolescent sons’ attitude toward marriage and family. This is a Likert-type style of measurement which consists of 9 questions. The Participants will be asked to rate their attitude toward marriage on a scale from 1 (not difficult at all) to 5 (very difficult). A sample item will read “In your opinion, would
adjustment to married life be difficult for you”. Salts, Siesmore, Lindholm, and Smith (1994) modified the first seven questions to Hill’s original version to make sure that the questions reflected the possibility of marriage instead of the inevitability. The sample item is an example of the modification. The last 2 questions will be scored on a 2 point answer scale, 1 (no) and 2 (yes). Some items will be reversed scored and a total will be computed.
Proposed Statistics I will use the mean to describe the central tendency of the distribution for my independent variable and the standard deviation to describe the variability. I will use the mean to describe the central tendency of the distribution for my dependent variable and the standard deviation to describe the variability. Because both the independent and dependent variables are continuous, the statistical test I will use will be the t-test for the significance of the correlation coefficient.
References
Bronte-Tinkew, J., Scott, M. E., & Lilja, E. (2010). Single custodial fathers ' involvement and parenting: Implications for outcomes in emerging adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 1107–1127. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00753.x
Coles, R. L. (2003). Black single custodial fathers: Factors influencing the decision to parent. Families in Society, 84, 247-247.
Risch, S. C., Jodl, K. M., & Eccles, J. S. (2004). Role of the father-adolescent relationship in shaping adolescents ' attitudes toward divorce. Journal Of Marriage And Family, 66, 46-58. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2004.00004.x
Robbers, M. (2009). Facilitating fatherhood: A longitudinal examination of father involvement among young minority fathers. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26, 121-134.
Smetana, J. G., Metzger, A., & Campione-Barr, N. (2004). African American late adolescents ' relationships with parents: Developmental transitions and longitudinal patterns. Child Development, 75, 932-947.
.
.