ABSTRACT

Fathers as active, involved parents began to attract the attention of social scientists in the 1970s (Greenberg & Morris, 1974; Lamb, 1975; Parke, 1981; Parke & Sawin, 1976). This interest was in contrast to research on fathers conducted in the prior few decades, which primarily focused on consequences for children of father absence (Biller, 1971). The re focused interest on fathers as active parents increased dramatically in the ensuing years with considerable attention given to father involvement in direct childrearing activities (Barnett & Baruch, 1987; Cowan & Cowan, 1987; Crouter, Perry-Jenkins, Huston, & McHale, 1987; Darling-Fisher & Tiedje, 1990; Deutsch, Lussier, & Servis, 1993; Grossman, Pollack, & Golding, 1988; Larson, 1993; Levy-Shiff & Israelashvili, 1988; Marsiglio, 1991; McBride & Rane, 1997). In the past decade researchers were joined by policymakers and the popular media in a continued and explicit focus on fathers and fathering (Coltrane & Allen, 1994; Furstenburg, 1995; Griswold, 1993; Lamb, 1997; LaRossa, 1997; LaRossa, Gordon, Wilson, Bairan, & Jaret, 1991; Marsiglio, 1995; Meyer, 1992; Snarey, 1993; Tamis-LeMonda & Cabrera, 1999; Thomas, 1998).