ABSTRACT
Successful fatherhood must surely be defined relative to the specific socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, and historical niches in which individual men and women together define their needs and roles, whether in or out of enduring relationships. Although students of contemporary fatherhood and its implications for child development have shifted focus many times during the last 20 years, most would now agree that fathers play multiple roles in contemporary families. For one thing, the realization that fathers have filled and continue to fill a diverse variety of roles in their families and in society is an essential prerequisite for understanding both contemporary debates about the meaning and nature of fatherhood. As well as more narrow attempts to explore paternal influences on family functioning and child development. Fathers further influence their children by interacting with them directly, and much of the early research conducted by psychologists was concerned with paternal influences attributable to paternal caretaking, teaching, play, and one-on-one interaction with particular children.
