Dr. Brent Taylor looks at fatherhood throughout the entire life cycle of children.

Fatherhood has been described as America’s “most urgent social problem” due to many factors including high divorce rates, unwed parents and the lack of paternal involvement in many children’s lives. Despite this fact, for years, family researchers failed to examine the role of fathers in family life throughout the life cycle.
     Instead, parenting studies have focused on mothers. Recently, there has been a growing interest among various segments of society to study the role of fathers. To date, most literature about fathers has focused on either the transition to parenting and examining paternal involvement with young children or on the rising number of fatherless families.
     Dr. Brent Taylor’s dissertation research extends the usual concept of fatherhood to include paternal involvement over the entire life course, not just with young children. By exploring three important life stages of the father and child — late adolescent/early adulthood, middle age and old age — he examined how father and child relationships change during these periods of the life course.
     The 1971 and 1997 surveys were analyzed by former graduate student Taylor, Ph.D., now a faculty member at San Diego State University in the Marriage and Family Therapy Master’s Degree Program.
     Dr. Taylor’s results indicate that fathers generally remain highly involved in their child-ren’s lives throughout the entire adult life course. One major finding of this study is that being a stepfather, not getting divorced, more significantly reduces paternal involvement. When fathers remarry and have stepchildren, their involvement with their biological children is significantly diminished.
     How men feel about their family relationships also affects their involvement. Fathers whose relationships with their children are marked with many conflicts are less likely to be involved in their children’s lives. Also, fathers who report high levels of marital happiness are also more likely to report high levels of positive involvement with their children at all stages of the life course.
     One factor that does not affect father’s involvement is the gender of the child. It seems that gender may have a more powerful affect when the children are younger but this dissipates with age. Also, a father’s report of religious beliefs or views on feminism did not significantly impact the amount or type of involvement he had with his grown children.
     Paternal involvement with adult children has not chang-ed significantly over the last 30 years. Although men perceive themselves as more involved today with their children than fathers in 1971, the actual data shows that they have similar levels of paternal involvement.
     Married fathers and divorced fathers follow the same patterns of involvement over time except divorced fathers are usually at slightly lower levels of involvement.
     When men were asked to compare the various roles they occupy in life such as worker, spouse, brother, friend, etc., they rated their fathering role as very important compared to the other roles they play in daily life.
     Most men view their relationships with their children in positive ways. However, fathers who were divorced or had stepchildren were more likely to view their father-child relationships negatively.
     Another interesting finding is that the more elderly fathers provide help and support to their adult children, the more likely they are to receive help and support from those children. This means that when men are contributing to the well being of their children, it not only helps their children but may also help them because their children will be more likely to help them in the future.
     As the debate of whether we are experiencing a “family decline” or simply increased “family diversity” continues, the findings of this study make an important contribution to our knowledge about the role of fathers in families. It is critical for researchers to realize that fathers remain involved in their children’s lives even after their children are grown, have moved out and have their own children. Older fathers should be recognized as contributing members of their families in many ways, even as their children grow older.
     Dr. Taylor is continuing to do more research on fatherhood issues. If any of you would be interested in participating further in his research or would like more information about his findings, please e-mail him at btaylor@mail.sdsu.edu or call (619) 594-3871.

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