ABSTRACT
In fathers' own constructions, their relationships and activities with their children significantly contributed to who they were as developing people. Men saw fathering as a foundational force in shaping their own development. Fathering defined much of their identity (Minton & Pasley, 1996), took much of their time and energy (Daly & Dienhart, 1997), and shaped their daily schedules (Daly, 1996a, 1996b) and developmental outcomes (Palkovitz, 1996a). Beyond that, fathering gave meaning (Palkovitz, 2000) to an otherwise meaningless routine. Fathering anchored men's mental, physical, and relational life. Fathering changed men's foci, their lifestyles, their family relationships, their work lives, their community involvements, their health habits, their morals and values, their emotional lives, and their marriages. The transformations perceived to be brought about by actively engaging in fathering children had many positive demand characteristics as well as some significant challenges, hassles, energy demands, resource drains, unmet needs, and fears.
