A narrative analysis of men's interpretation of their fathering experience

This research was a narrative analysis of men's interpretations of the fathering experience in their own families. It aimed at understanding the meaning of fatherhood from the perspective of the fathers themselves. Being a qualitative research with narrative analysis as the conceptual reference, its basic concern was to explore the different facets, not the modality, of the subject matter. The respondents were fathers of intact families. Their ages were between 35 and 45. They had two children with the elder child of primary school age.;By telling their fathering stories in interviews, respondents uncovered the abundant meanings they had derived from fatherhood. These meanings were found to cluster along three dimensions, i.e. why the respondents fathered children, what they did in fatherhood, and how they were affected in actual fathering practice. Besides, the respondents also revealed how the narration of personal fathering experience in the interviews, which was an uncommon practice in their daily social encounter, had influenced them.;In the narratives about the reasons for fathering children, respondents revealed their existential concern in enacting the father's role. Basically, they observed considerable change in their reasons for fathering children throughout the process of fatherhood. When they first became a father, most of them could only feel a limited commitment in the new role, regardless the different concerns they related as the deciding factors in having a child. However, in the subsequent years, there was substantial transformation in these fathers' attitude.;There were three components in the respondents' narratives about their fathering activities. These components included duties and roles in daily fathering work, factors affecting the concept of fatherhood, and evaluation of respondents' own performance as a father.;Merely examining the respondents' evaluation on their performance as a father, it was quite difficult to understand how they could have a growing commitment in their fathering practice. In this study, there were some narratives in which the respondents revealed how they, as developing persons, were affected by the fathering experience. It was found that respondents' commitment in fatherhood was basically caused by an increasing awareness that their lives were closely tied to their children. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...