What Do We Know About Fatherhood? A Critical Review of Literature
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Written by Nanxun LI
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EXCERPT
Studies have shown an increase in fathers’ involvement (FI) in families since the 1970s. The increase in women’s education and their labor force participation are two major factors that have fostered new nurturant fathers who actively engage in their children’s lives beyond their traditional breadwinning and disciplinary roles (Lamb 2010). In the mid-1980s, more researchers started to examine how FI influenced children’s development and the quality of the father-child relationship. Recently, FI and sensitive fathering have raised more attention in both western and Asian contexts (Yeung 2013; Zhang and Yeung 2012). Many studies have addressed how fathers engaged in children’s lives (Harper and Martin 2013; Juhari, Yaacob, and Talib 2013; Sriram and Sandhu 2013) and their roles in children’s cognitive development, social adjustment, and academic achievement (Flouri and Buchanan 2004; Lamb 2010; Torres et al. 2014; Yeung, Duncan, and Hill 2000; Yeung et al. 2001).
BIONOTE
Dr. Nanxun LI received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore (NUS). She is also a research scholar at the Centre for Family and Population Research (CFPR), NUS. Her research interests include family sociology, family policy, parenting, and child development.
