CAÑA POR HECTAREA

The Re: Membering fatherhood programme in the United States is designed for men wanting to address and improve their fathering experience with the primary focus on enhancing the personal parenting capacity of each individual. Gearing, Colvin, Popova and Regehr (2008) undertook an exploratory study evaluating the efficacy of an eight-week, manualized intervention using pre-and post-test measures. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that the Re: Membering fatherhood programme was successful in addressing many of the issues believed to lead to enhanced relationships between fathers and their families and enhanced confidence and satisfaction of men regarding their fathering role. The scores on the standardised measures demonstrated significant improvements for fathers and their participation within the family, including role performance, involvement, communication, task accomplishment within the family, self-esteem, a sense of increased competence and decreased stress in parenting (Gearing et al., 2008).

The study’s findings indicate that men are able to adopt changes in their fathering role and promote self-esteem, task performance, communication and involvement as well as reduce life stress. However, maintaining and integrating these changes into the fathering role is more difficult. This may reflect that men require more follow-up support in the role transition, or that the wider cultural, social and environmental factors such as societal policies, work demands and partnering

relationships, or family or origin perceptions resist changes to established fathering roles (Gearing et al., 2008; Roy & Dyson, 2010; Fagan & Kaufman, 2015).

Magill-Evans, Harrison and Slater (2006) conducted a systematic review of studies involving fathers in early parenting interventions and found that where interventions involved active participation with or observation of the father’s own child, then the parenting intervention was more effective in improving the father’s interactions with his child. They also found that

interventions were more likely to be effective if the father has multiple exposures to the intervention, such as longer interventions rather than only one or two sessions. Research has also indicated that interventions attended by both mothers and fathers are more effective than programmes attended by mothers alone (Lundahl, Tollefson, Risser & Lovejoy, 2008; Rienks, Wadsworth, Markman, Einhorn & Etter, 2011). Lundahl et al. (2008) in their meta-analysis of 26 studies, concluded that interventions that included fathers, compared to those that did not, reported significantly more positive changes in children’s behaviour and improvements in parenting

practices. Rienks et al. (2011) found that in a randomized intervention designed to increase father involvement, mother and father reports suggested that father involvement increased more in the condition where couples attended groups together than in the group, which mothers attended alone.

Rempel, Rempel, Khuc and Vui (2017) examined the extent to which fathers can be taught and be encouraged to develop positive relationships with their children, especially in infancy. A multifaceted relationally focused intervention was used to assist fathers in Vietnam to engage in responsive direct and indirect involvement with their infants and work together with the mother as part of a parenting team. Fathers demonstrated greater increase in knowledge and attitudes

regarding father-infant relationships. Both fathers and mothers reported that fathers engaged in more affection, care taking, and play in the early months of their infants’ lives and fathers felt more

attached to their infant’s right from birth. A developmental assessment took place with the infants at 9 months and the results showed that through their father’s involvement, these infants demonstrated higher levels of motor, language, personal and social development (Rempel et al., 2017).

A study on fatherhood by Lewaks (2015) in a rural community in South Africa established that the intervention assisted fathers to become more involved in the health and well-being of their families; to develop better parenting and conflict management skills and to communicate better with their children and partners. Additionally, after attending the intervention programme, fathers became more supportive of their partners, their conflict management skills improved and they became more involved in unpaid care. The more involved fathers became in the family’s life, childcare and support, the less risk behaviour they reflected. Although a significant number of fathers still practice corporal punishment, as a means of discipline, more fathers showed positive signs, or the need to find alternative ways, of discipline. Some fathers still held strong patriarchal views of fatherhood, but a significant number indicated that the intervention assisted them to change their views of fatherhood, to a more gender-equal parenting view. Conversely, the families of the fathers, who were less involved, showed signs of conflict and distress (Lewaks, 2015).

In another South African study conducted by Pape (2014) with a fatherhood group based in Cape Town on the MenCare Campaign, the aim of the programme was to tackle underlying harmful norms that lead men to engaging in inequitable gender behaviour with the goal to reduce harmful

behaviour. Participants’ responses demonstrated that they were prepared to and did engage in care work in support of their partners, even though they reported that they would be socially sanctioned and looked-down upon by others. Several of the men spoke of how they had previously accepted the use of sexual and physical violence against partners, even engaging in it themselves, while since becoming involved with the Fatherhood Group they no longer deemed this behaviour acceptable nor engaged in it. They reported on the importance of respect and communication in building relationships and explained how this contrasted with traditional norms where men demanded and women obeyed, norms that several of the men reported they had previously followed themselves (Pape, 2014).

The fathers in Pape’s (2014) study (a fatherhood group based in Cape Town) distanced themselves from traditional norms of fathers as solitary breadwinner figures that had limited relationships with their children. Instead they spoke of how they would have closer relationships with their own children, and how participating in the Fatherhood Group taught them how to be a more involved father. Several showed how in contrast to traditional behaviours they supported the expression of affection. The Fatherhood Group provided furthermore a supportive environment that not only helped participants foster their own positive alternative masculinities, but also built their confidence in these alternative values and behaviours. This led to the men being able to spread such behaviour in their own community by openly living more equitably and speaking with friends and neighbours about their values, to demonstrate that these were possible and acceptable (Pape, 2014).

It is clear from the literature that men in fatherhood programmes can be taught to interact more sensitively, responsively, and effectively with their children, men are able to adopt changes in their fathering roles. Several benefits for both the fathers and their families exists and exposure to programmes assists fathers in changing their views of fatherhood and gender equal parenting. However, maintaining and integrating these changes into the fathering role is more difficult and men require more follow-up support in this role transition.