ABSTRACT
The following discussion of fathers and infants is based on two studies of infant care and development conducted simultaneously in a small industrial town in Central Italy. Together, the two studies produced qualitative and quantitative data on the father’s transition to parenthood during pregnancy and childbirth, patterns of father-infant interaction, and attitudes regarding the paternal role in infant care and development during the first year of life (Benigni, Giorgetti, & Sasso, in press; New, 1984). In addition to providing descriptive data on paternal behavior in this Italian sample, goals specific to this chapter are to examine the status of Italian men as fathers and to gain insight into why some fathers, yet not others, choose an active paternal role. This investigation of the paternal role in infancy acknowledges the need for an ecological perspective on human development (Valsiner & Benigni, in press), which in turn mandates the study of paternal behavior within the context in which it occurs. Before presenting findings from the two studies, the chapter will therefore begin with a depiction of the Italian family from a sociohistorical point of view, followed by a review of contemporary research on Italian fathers. The second half of the chapter will proceed with an ethnographic description of family life in this Central Italian town, thereby completing a frame for viewing the findings from these two studies on paternal behavior during infancy.
