Date of Award

1-1-1984

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present study focused on the attitudes that fathers hold regarding their father role. In Part 1, 61 men with at least one 4-year old child were assessed as to their father role attitudes, using the Fathering Attitude Survey (FAS). The FAS was created in an earlier study by factor analysis, and was normed on a sample of 360 fathers. Attitudes are measured along nine scales (e.g., Fathering is merely to be tolerated; Fathering is extremely rewarding and satisfying; Father is emotionally involved with his child; Fatherhood hurts his marriage; etc.). These attitudes were related to the men's psychological sex role orientation (measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory), to their normal personality characteristics (measured by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire(16PF)), to several subjective indices of parent/child closeness, and to demographic variables.In Part 2, 33 of the fathers of the men in Part 1 were assessed using the FAS (i.e., what it had been like for them while fathering their son). Their fathering attitudes were related to subjective measures of parent/child closeness to demographic variables, and were compared directly with their sons.Correlation, multiple regression, and analysis of variance were utilized. Results indicated that fathering attitudes were specifiable on each of the dimensions of the FAS. Clearly, men are willing to participate in studies on fathering. Specifically, psychological androgyny was not differentiated significantly on any FAS scales. Three personality traits emerged as highly related to many FAS scales (e.g., Easily upset versus Emotionally stable; Confident versus Apprehensive; and Conservative versus Experimenting).Perceived closeness between parent and child emerged as a highly significant factor, relative to fathering attitudes within, as well as between the generations of men. There was some evidence of similarity between the generations; however, there were significant differences on five of the nine FAS scales between the generations. Though men in the older generation hold to the traditional stereotype of being a provider, somewhat distant, strict, etc., there was a good deal of variation within each generation. Results are discussed in relation to current research on fathers perceptions of the father role and its impact on the man.

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