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Time to father
- Authors:
- BOLZAN Natalie, GALE Fran, DUDLEY Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Health Care, 39(1/2), 2004, pp.67-87.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This paper reports the qualitative findings from 40 couples involved in a study exploring men's post-natal mental health. Interviews were conducted with individuals soon after the birth of their first child. Findings suggest that new fathers want to be more involved in the direct care and nurturing of their children than their fathers were with them. Discourses which construct fathers and inform social structures have not kept pace with men's changed attitudes and role expectations limiting the options available to men as fathers. In particular men's employment circumstances figure in their experience of adjusting to life as a father. Those fathers having least flexibility and autonomy in their work report experiencing, since the birth of their child, more unhappiness, anxiety, and generally higher levels of stress. These findings suggest increasing workplace flexibility and provisions such as parental leave are important for men's post-natal mental health. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580)