Teresa Jurado Guerrero (UNED, Madrid)

“Fathering in Construction: What favours a positive paternal involvement in the Spanish context?”

abstract

Positive paternal involvement (Pleck and Masciadrelli 2004) has become an important concept in research on new ways of fathering and its consequences for child development.  This presentation draws on data of the Spanish case of the international TransParent research project and is summary of a chapter in a recently published book in Spanish. In Spain 68 dual-income couples in four Spanish towns were interviewed while expecting their first child –first wave in 2011- and 18-24 months after birth –second wave in 2013. Most couples were contacted through childbirth preparation courses and 57 of first-wave couples and one divorced woman could be interviewed a second time. This qualitative and longitudinal methodology allows us to answer questions about the embeddedness and interaction of individual, couple and context level factors. In addition, this qualitative method enables to study the subjective dimensions and justifications of men’s behaviour.

We use the three dimensions of paternal involvement (engagement, accessibility and responsibility) to study how first-time fathers in dual earner couples construct fathering in different ways. In order to explain the observed differences we position ourselves within the theoretical framework of gender as social structure (Risman and Davis 2013) and study men’s anticipation of fathering during pregnancy and their care practices when the first child is between 18 and 24 months old. We conclude with a threefold typology of fathers of occasional carers, helpers of mothers and committed carers, which are related to different factors.