The spouse/partners understanding and insight into the fatherhood intervention programme and the value they found in it is illustrated by the participants’ voices:
“I was taught to support our children not just financially but spiritually as well and building up our kid’s self-esteem. And even though I didn’t go through the programme self, I learnt through him being in the programme”. (Participant, 10)
“…he would come home and then he would explain to us what the programme is about, and how are our kids in the home and that, and how we need to be with them as kids in the home, as a family, as parents, as a father…” (Participant, 13)
Another participant said:
“I also want to change, like just like he changed I think I can also change because I get very angry at the children but now he calms me down, he talks to me”. (Participant, 15)
This finding confirms that for some of the fathers who willingly shared with their spouses/partners the information they received; this level of openness and communication about the programme began to open up spaces for the notion of new fatherhood. New fatherhood reflects involved, responsible and shared parenthood (Mikulioniene & Kanopiene, 2015). As such, fathers in this study started sharing with their spouses/partners; they began to create a space for engaging on what they have learnt in the fatherhood programme.
The findings of the current study further show that the fathers exposure to the programme, allowed the spouses/partners opportunities to reflect on their own styles of parenting. This generated a personal desire within them to change or to improve their parenting. As reflected in the voices of
the participants above, some of the spouses/partners said even though they did not go through the programme themselves, they have learnt through the father being in the programme and another one said she also wants to change, just like the father changed. A South African study by Lewaks, Rich and Roman (2018) explored how an intervention programme for fathers contributed to child and family well-being, the findings illustrate the experiences of mothers and children on how they experienced fathers after they attended a fatherhood intervention programme and how the intervention contributed to their well-being. The intervention assisted the fathers to improve their relationships with their children; they became supportive towards their spouses and the children expressed their satisfaction with the improved relationships between themselves and their fathers; as well as the relationship between both their parents. The results also illustrated how the spousal relationships affected the children and how improved relationships between the mother and father contributed to child well-being, as well an increase in the father’s involvement in the lives of their children and unpaid care duties after the intervention (Lewaks et al., 2018).
The results of this study; similar to the findings of Lewaks et al. study (2018) also suggest that the fatherhood intervention programme contributed to better relationship conflict management by fathers and their spouses/partners, as reported below:
“We have our minors, like disagreements, but that’s just for then and then that’s it, cause we [are] handling it a bit differently now. Cause normally our disagreements will be out there for everyone to see. Now he tells me let’s not argue in front of the kids and in front of other people, let’s do it in the bedroom, tonight”. (Participant, 10)
The relationship that the father has with the mother of his child(ren) has an impact on involvement with children; and working on parenting roles, conflict resolution and co-parenting is extremely important in developing the relationships between mothers and fathers (Olivier, Slaven, Sodo & Vusizi, 2016). Bronfenbrenner (1979) provided a theoretical foundation for understanding the role of males in childhood development and it suggests that children develop in relation to influences of others where the home or family is the initial influence. The home and family is the child’s microsystem (Paquette & Ryan, 2001), it is the closest to the child and it is in this system that children interact with parents. Parent-child interactions influences children’s development and any conflict and disruptions within this system may have a negative influence on the child’s
development (Bronfenbrenner, 1999).
It appears from the findings that after exposure to the fatherhood intervention, spouses/partners perceive the fatherhood programme to have provided the fathers with conflict management skills, as they are now handling conflict situations differently. Therefore, in line with social role theory (Eagly, 1987), the behaviour of men and women is governed by the stereotypes of their social roles and to conform to these expectations, males developed traits that manifest agency. The study by Holborn and Eddy (2001) conversely found that boys growing up in absent father households are more likely to display hyper masculine behaviour, including aggression. In the absence of fathers these boys thus displayed behaviour governed by the stereotypes of their social roles as referred to by Eagly (1987).
The next sub-theme has as its focus the experiences of the fathers implementing the programme with their families.
5.3.2.3. Sub-theme 2.3: Experiences of father’s implementation of the programme