Winner of the Leisure Studies Association's Outstanding Book Prize This book examines the tensions and ambivalences which men encounter as they negotiate contemporary expectations of fatherhood and fulfill their own expectations of what it means to be a ‘good’ father. There is little doubt that today’s fathers are responding to new expectations about fatherhood and fathering practices. The remote, detached, breadwinning father of the past, once lauded as a masculine ideal, has faded, and men are now expected to be ‘involved’, ‘intimate’, ‘caring’ and ‘domesticated’ fathers. Using a family practices lens and a case study of sport, Fletcher elucidates the changes and continuities in family and fathering practices in different historical periods and contexts. Negotiating Fatherhood will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in family and fathering practices, sport, leisure, and gender.

American Fatherhood: A Cultural History traces changes in what it means to be a dad in America, from the 1960s through today. The book begins with an overview of fatherhood in America from the “founding fathers” through the 1950s and progresses to the role of fathers as they were encouraged to move beyond being simply providers to becoming more engaged parents, navigating complex and changing gender and family expectations. By tracing the story of fatherhood in the United States over the course of the last half-century, American Fatherhood reveals key insights that add to our understanding of American culture. The book argues that, for most of the twentieth century, male parents were urged to embrace the values and techniques of motherhood. In recent years, however, fathers have rejected this model in place of one that affirms and even celebrates their maleness and their relationships with their children. After decades of attempting to adopt the parenting styles of women, in other words, men have finally forged a form of child-raising that is truer to themselves. In short, fatherhood has become a means of asserting, rather than denying or suppressing, masculinity—an original and counterintuitive argument that makes us rethink the idea and practice of being a dad today.

From slavery to present day, the narratives of Black fatherhood have been fraught with biases and stereotypes, failing to accurately capture the voices and lived experiences of Black fathers. Contrary to these narratives, Black fathers play an important role in the lives of their children and families. Health, Parenting, and Community Perspectives on Black Fatherhood: Defying Stereotypes and Amplifying Strengths, edited by Tasha L. Alston, Brianna P. Lemmons, and Latrice S. Rollins, celebrates Black fatherhood and highlights the ways Black men defy stereotypes and embrace their role as fathers with unwavering resilience. Drawing on the expertise of well-regarded experts in the field and using a strengths-based perspective, this comprehensive book provides insight into the experiences of Black fathers in three key areas: health, parenting, and community. The contributors explore the salience of the co-parenting relationship for Black fathers, community-based participatory research with Black fathers, the Black father-daughter relationship, the male in-law relationship in Black families, support systems for Black fathers parenting autistic children, and more. This volume is an essential resource for scholars in social work, psychology, sociology, child development, allied health, and similar disciplines and professions.

Down (law, U. of Florida) offers a progressive discussion of the economic, social, and legal aspects of fathering, making a case for greater emphasis on the social, nurturing behavior involved in parenting to redefine the role men play in the lives of their children. She also explores the barriers to such redefinition, including concepts of masculinity, the interconnections between fathers and mothers, male violence, and homophobia. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Explores the surprising diversity of fathers and fatherhood throughout American history and society The nuclear family has been endlessly praised as the bedrock of American society, even though there has rarely been a time in history when a majority of Americans lived in such families. This book deconstructs the myth of the nuclear family by presenting the rich diversity of family lives in American history from the American Revolution to the twenty-first century. To tell this story, Jürgen Martschukat focuses on fathers and their relations to families and American society. Using biographical close-ups of twelve different characters, each embedded in historical context, American Fatherhood provides a much more realistic picture of how fatherhood has been performed within different kinds of families. Each protagonist covers a crucial period or event in American history, presents a different family constellation, and makes a different argument with regard to how American society is governed through the family.

Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Hebrew Scriptures About the Fatherhood of God discusses some of the main «father-god» concepts of the people of the Ancient Near East, then examines the eighteen occurrences of God's fatherhood specifically mentioned in Hebrew Scripture. From these sources, the book develops a theology of God's fatherhood that honors both ancient and modern scrutiny. Although many studies have explored the subject of the fatherhood of God - mostly from the perspective of nonbiblical disciplines, and through the lens of Greco-Roman mythology - this book takes into account the wealth of material from the ancient Near East, the birthplace of the Hebrew Scriptures.

This handbook examines the psychology of fatherhood throughout the lifespan and across multiple contexts. It synthesizes the trajectory of research and theorization of fathering that has traditionally dominated fatherhood literature. The book explores fathering within the developmental stages of children, from infancy to adulthood. In addition, it addresses the health and well-being of fathers from the perinatal period onward, with a focus on isolation, loss, trauma, and mental and physical health. The book emphasizes positive fatherhood and masculinity, thereby offering new perspectives of fatherhood. It synthesizes cutting-edge research on the intersectionality of fathering and provides knowledge of fatherhood for diverse populations, including military, LGBTQ, and fathers on the margins. The handbook reviews clinical assessment as well as community-based prevention and intervention strategies for issues of fatherhood and examines directions for future public policy and on-the-ground work. It offers recommendations for promoting the health and well-being of fathers and their families from multiple perspectives. Key areas of coverage include: Historical, multicultural, and future directions in the research of fatherhood. Fatherhood and child development, from infancy to emerging adulthood. Grandfathering and adult children. Fatherhood and men’s mental and physical health and well-being. Positive masculinity and fatherhood. The Handbook of the Psychology of Fatherhood is an invaluable resource for researchers, clinicians and practitioners, and policy advocates as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, human development, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, school and educational psychology, and all interrelated disciplines.