Effective parenting has been identified as an important component in the health and social welfare of children. The role of fathers in parenting is seen as critical to healthy development of children. Consequences of poor parenting are related to poor school performance, limited social competence and antisocial behavior. Earlier work to determine the impact of parenting on subsequent child development has focused on the adolescent mother or adult couples. Other work has described feelings or issues of the unwed adolescent father. However, not as much attention has been directed toward what factors predict involvement of unwed minority adolescent men in the parenting process. The purpose of this project is to identify those sociodemographic factors that contribute to father involvement in parenting with unmarried adolescent mothers. The participants in the study are young men who have fathered a child with young women ages 15 - 19 years. Participants come from a variety of health and social agencies in the Tidewater Area of Virginia. Adolescent men were invited to attend one of the structured focused groups held at the participating agencies. The following topics provided the structure of the focus group discussion: 1) Barriers to fatherhood, 2) Value of fatherhood, 3) Introduction to fatherhood, 4) Competencies of fatherhood, 5) Role-relationships, 6) Social norms, and Father-child contact. Summary of the father's responses and socio-demographic characteristics will be described.
Keywords: Partner Involvement, Adolescents
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.