Purpose This study was conducted to explore first-time fathers' experiences during their transition to parenthood in South Korea.
Methods Data were collected from September 2019 to February 2020 through in-depth interviews that were conducted individually with 12 participants. First-time fathers with children under 2 months of age were recruited. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method.
Results Four theme clusters were identified: Preparing to become a father, challenges of becoming a father, motivation to foster familial bonds, and acknowledgement of fatherhood.
Conclusion These findings suggest that Korean first-time fathers prepared to practice parenthood through prenatal education, taegyo, and feeling bonds with their new baby. They recognized their identity as fathers and experienced self-growth. These results would be beneficial for health professionals in developing perinatal care programs, and the results provide basic data for studies on fathers and families during the transition to parenthood.
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Purpose The symptoms and impairments caused by cerebral palsy usually require long-term treatment, resulting in a substantial burden on the family of affected children. This study explored the experiences of fathers with prematurely-born children with cerebral palsy, with a focus on how such experiences influenced their families.
Methods A qualitative case study method was used. Nine subjects were recruited from April 2018 to June 2019 at one hospital, and each was interviewed three times by a neonatal nurse.
Results Five core experiences of fathers were identified: "regret for an insufficient initial response", "confronting my child born as a premature baby", "the position of being a dad who can't do anything", "the process of treatment like a tunnel with no exit", and "a father's getting meaning in life through children". These stories covered an individual's timeline and family interactions.
Conclusion Our findings suggest that fathers of prematurely-born children tend to suppress their emotions; therefore, a novel intervention program to encourage fathers' emotional expression and to support healthier interactions with their families is needed. Moreover, our findings could contribute basic information for the construction of a community-based support system to aid families, including prematurely-born children and other persons with impairments.
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine types of parenting among fathers. The characteristics of parenting each type in early childhood were identified by systematically analyzing and classifying father’s perceptions of parenting using the Q-methodology, which places importance on the perspective of the performer.
Methods The Q-method, which is effective for measuring individual subjectivity was used. The subjects in this study were 50 fathers with young children (2~36 months).
Results Four parenting types were identified analyzing the subjective perceptions of fathers with young children about parenting. One type was centered on character development. Another was centered on social development. A third was centered on physical health and development. The fourth was centered on building values.
Conclusion Parenting education programs should be developed based on type-specific characteristics and further research should investigate the effects of father’s parenting type.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the paternal stress and nursing support as perceived by fathers of high risk infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU).
Methods The study participants included 88 fathers of high risk infants in NICUs. Their parental stress and nursing support were measured using a self-report questionnaire.
Results The parental stress level of the fathers was 3.57 of a possible 5. Among the parental stress items, ‘Relationship with infant and parental role’ had the highest scores. The perceived nursing support level was a relatively high, 3.90 on a 5-point scale. The lowest score was for the item ‘showed concern about my well-being.’ The parental stress was lower in fathers with low income, higher in fathers in nuclear families and when the infants’ condition was serious.
Conclusion The findings indicate that fathers of high risk infants experience intense parental stress. Thus when designing care to provide support for these fathers and their infants, it is necessary to encourage the fathers’ engagement, provide information on how to respond to the baby, and include supportive care to the fathers.
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify effects of parenting stress in North Korean refugee fathers on their parenting behavior.
Methods A descriptive study design was used. Data were collected during 2014 and 2015 in a settlement support center for North Korean refugees and 99 North Korean refugee fathers participated. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0.
Results Warmth․encouragement parenting behavior received the highest score. The score for parenting stress was 81.98 out of 180, and 32.3% of participants were found to need professional help (≥PSI 90). There were significant negative correlations between warmth․encouragement parenting behavior and parenting stress. There were also significant positive correlations between rejection․neglect parenting behavior and parenting stress. Predictors of warmth․encouragement behavior were parent-child dysfunctional interaction which explained 10.1% of the variance. Predictors of rejection․neglect behavior were parent-child dysfunctional interaction, number of children and wife’s education level which explained 33.4% of the variance.
Conclusion Findings show that North Korean refugee fathers’ parenting stress significantly influenced warmth․encouragement and rejection․neglect parenting behavior indicating a need to identify ways to decrease parenting stress. Parenting education can guide North Korean refugee fathers to strengthen parent-child positive interactions and therefore promote their children’s growth and development.
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of fathers about early childhood parenting.
Methods Selected fathers of children in early childhood were interviewed, and an open-ended questionnaire was utilized to identify the fathers’ awareness of the meaning of parenting, priority for parenting, opinions on paternal roles as a child raiser, parenting difficulties, and what education they wanted to receive as fathers. After their statements were collected, a content analysis was done.
Results Results of the content analysis showed there were 45 significant statements, which were classified into 17 categories. The fathers saw the meaning of parenting as being in five different domains: social, cognitive, emotional, physical and environmental. As for paternal roles, they thought that a fathers should serve as emotional supporters. The parenting difficulties that they faced were attributed to time constraints.
Conclusion For fathers, development of parent education programs that deal with early childhood parenting knowledge, communication methods and how to play with children according to their developmental stages are required, and qualitative research should be implemented to keep track of the process of changes in parenting characteristics.
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