Youth Fatherhood: An Experience of Challenging but Critical Transitions

While much research has focused on young single mothers, little is known of the men who fathered their children. Young fathers are often invisible as a group, in research and practice, or if discussed, regarded as part of the problem rather than solution.

This research brief highlights the challenges of early fatherhood as well as the strengths that young dads – and those close to or who work with them – can draw on to help them make a greater difference in their children’s lives.

Who Becomes a Young Dad?

“Young fathers” broadly refers to fathers under the age of 24. Since teen pregnancies usually involve females in their late teens, many young fathers are slightly older, in their early twenties.

The factors linked to teenage fatherhood are similar to those associated with teenage motherhood. Common factors that predict young parenthood include:

• Growing up in disadvantaged circumstances, such as low levels of parental education, large family size, and financial hardship;
• Individual childhood attributes, such as poor reading ability, having a conduct disorder, psychosocial adjustment, antisocial behaviour, and low self-esteem; and
• Having a mother with low educational aspirations for her child.

These characteristics suggest that young dads typically navigate complex life circumstances that place them at a disadvantage.

Non-Resident Fatherhood is Common for Young Dads

A fairly common outcome of early fatherhood is fathers not living with their children.

• One wide-ranging review of studies found that while two-thirds to three-quarters of teenage fathers are in a relationship with the mother at the time of the birth, this falls to between one-third and one-fifth three years later. Nonetheless, fathers who do not sustain a relationship with their child’s mother may still have contact with their child.
• A Canadian study of 33 young fathers found 50% living with their child full-time, and 33% of the children never seeing their fathers. Some young fathers were living with one child, and not seeing their child from another relationship.

Young Dads Face Multiple Challenges, Not Least Exclusion by Health and Social Services

One UK study explored how young first-time fathers and their partners experience the pregnancy and early parenting process, and how health service professionals perceived young fathers.

The couples were interviewed separately in their homes five months into the pregnancy and again nine months after the birth. The first interviews included 92 women and 74 men, with 79 women and 52 men taking part in second interviews. There were also interviews with 105 health service personnel.

The study found that young fathers face various challenges, including:

• Poor family support – Young parents’ relationships with their own parents were often poor and unsupportive. About a third of both the women’s and the men’s parents responded to the first news of the pregnancy negatively, and under half of the prospective grandparents were clearly positive and supportive in the early days of the pregnancy.
• Weak fatherhood role identity – Five months into the pregnancy, 71% of the young expectant fathers felt positively about it but 66% had no clear image of themselves as fathers.
• Exclusion by health service professionals – Young men often felt excluded from ante-natal and post-natal services. Health care professionals often knew little about the fathers, did not see them as central to their task, and felt they lacked the skills to engage with men.

In 50% of cases, health visitors did not know the fathers’ names, despite the young mothers’ high valuation of the fathers’ involvement.

Other studies corroborate this finding:

• A review of US and UK studies found young fathers reporting limited or no contact with midwives, health visitors and social workers.
• A UK study of young fathers, young mothers and service providers found consensus that services are all targeted at mothers.

Young Dads Have Strengths That Matter

When young men do not, or are not encouraged to, take on the responsibilities of fatherhood, there are adverse consequences for their children, mother, and society. Various studies, including those of very disadvantaged young fathers, find that:

• Young fathers want to be involved – Only a fraction express no joy about becoming fathers and have no intention of supporting their partner and children. The vast majority want to stay connected to their children.
• Early fatherhood triggers maturity and growth – Many young fathers say early fatherhood has given their lives meaning, and protected them from involvement in a range of negative activities. Young fathers show greater involvement than their non-father peers in socially productive activities, such as serving as volunteers in their communities.

Qualitative studies also indicate that fatherhood can be a positive transformation in identity for teen males, with many young fathers experiencing a “jolt”, requiring rapid adjustment, change and/or refocus to their life course.

• Mothers and children benefit richly from fathers’ involvement – The less involved a father is, the greater a young mother’s parenting stress. In contrast, teenage mothers with positive partner support tend to be less rejecting and punitive towards their children.

The young father’s support not only strengthens the mother’s child-rearing skills but also fosters healthy emotional, cognitive and social development in the child.

Sustaining the Involvement of Young Dads – What Works

Research points to several strategies that may enhance the involvement of young dads:

• Strengthen partner relationship – The most important factor predicting young men’s post-natal involvement is the quality of their relationship with their partner during pregnancy rather than family or social difficulties. This indicates the value of helping the partner relationship succeed.
• Strengthen co-parenting relationship – Some studies emphasise interventions to help young parents strengthen their co-parenting relationship, in order to foster fathers’ engagement with their children.
• Address beliefs and behaviours of young mothers and grandparents – The mother’s beliefs about the father’s role is a key determinant of his involvement, as is the paternal grandmother’s acceptance of her son’s paternity and her feelings towards the child’s mother.
• Reform of how health and social services engage young fathers – Young fathers are often excluded, though they often want to be involved, and can make a positive difference by being involved. Staff training and development to equip health and social services to engage young fathers is thus key.

Conclusion

The research is clear that young dads can – and do – make a difference. Greater recognition of their role as fathers is needed to ensure that their relationships with their children and their children’s mothers are supported, rather than undermined.

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References:

1. Dudley, J.R. (2007). Helping non-residential fathers: the case for teen and adult unmarried fathers. Families-in-Society.

2. Teenage Pregnancy Research Programme (2007). Consequences of teenage parenthood: pathways which minimise the long term negative impacts of teenage childbearing. Research Briefing, 8. Teenage Pregnancy Research Programme; Quinton, D. L., Pollock, S.B, & Golding, J. (2002). The transition to fatherhood in young men: influences on commitment. University of Bristol.

About the Author: The Dads for Life Resource Team comprises local content writers and experts, including psychologists, counsellors, educators and social service professionals, dedicated to developing useful resources for dads.

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First published on 18-07-2011.