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Generative Fathering
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Generative Fathering
Beyond Deficit Perspectives

Edited by:

Volume: 3

November 1996 | 279 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Much of contemporary scholarship on fathers comes from a deficit model, focusing on men's inadequacies as parents. This edited volume assembles a group of prominent scholars who go beyond a deficit model of fatherhood to what the editors call a generative fathering perspective. The generative fathering approach, inspired by the developmental theories of Erik Erikson and building on the pioneering research of John Snary, sees the work fathers do for their children in terms of caring for and contributing to the life of the next generation. The editors describe generative fathering, placing it in contrast to the role-inadequacy perspective of fatherhood. Contributors then elaborate on generative fathering in terms of gender, ethnicity, and historical perspectives and present research that helps us understand generative fathering in challenging life circumstances, such as special-needs children, teenage fathering, and divorce and remarriage. Applications for the generative fathering perspective are presented in terms of family life education, clinical work, and scholarly discourse. The editors conclude the volume with a chapter on ways to teach about generative fathering in college courses. Supported by both qualitative and quantitative research, this book goes beyond the frequent identification of fathers as primarily absent, abusive, deadbeat, deficient, or unnecessary, and helps us to understand fathers as men working to build caring bridges across generations.

John Snarey
Foreword
The Next Generation of Work on Fathering

 
 
PART ONE: BUILDING A PERSPECTIVE OF GENERATIVE FATHERING
Alan J Hawkins and David C Dollahite
Beyond the Role-Inadequacy Perspective of Fathering
David C Dollahite, Alan J Hawkins and Sean E Brotherson
Fatherwork
A Conceptual Ethic of Fathering as Generative Work

 
Kathleen Gerson
An Institutional Perspective on Generative Fathering
Creating Social Supports for Parenting Equality

 
William D Allen and Michael Connor
An African Amercian Perspective on Generative Fathering
Robert L Griswold
Generative Fathering
An Historical Perspective

 
 
PART TWO: EXPLORING GENERATIVE FATHERING IN CHALLENGING CIRCUMSTANCES
Sean E Brotherson and David C Dollahite
Generative Ingenuity in Fatherwork with Young Children with Special Needs
J Lyn Rhoden and Bryan E Robinson
Teen Dads
A Generative Fathering Perspective versus the Deficit Myth

 
Kay Pasley and Carmelle Minton
Generative Fathering after Divorce and Remarriage
Beyond the `Disappearing Dad'

 
Alfred DeMaris and Geoffrey L Greif
Single Custodial Fathers and Their Children
When Things Go Well

 
Anna Dienhart and Kerry Daly
Men and Women Cocreating Father Involvement in a Nongenerative Culture
 
PART THREE: ENCOURAGING THE APPLICATION OF GENERATIVE FATHERING IN PRACTICE AND SCHOLARSHIP
Glen F Palm
Promoting Generative Fathering through Parent and Family Education
Anna Dienhart and David C Dollahite
A Generative Narrative Approach to Clinical Work with Fathers
Rob Palkovitz
Reconstructing `Involvement'
Expanding Conceptualizations of Men's Caring in Contemporary Families

 
William J Doherty
The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
Fathering as a Contested Arena of Academic Discourse

 
David C Dollahite, Stephanie N Morris and Alan J Hawkins
Questions and Activities for Teaching about Generative Fathering in University Courses

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