Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 733 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2020 Aug;112(4):344-361. doi: 10.1016/j.jnma.2020.04.002. Epub 2020 May 11.
To explore fathers' pregnancy and early infancy experiences in supporting his infant, partner, and himself, using information collected from fathers, mothers, and mother-father dyads in a low-income, urban community.
Father involvement is associated with positive child health outcomes and parental well-being. However, little information exists about low-income parents' perceived needs for father involvement during pregnancy and infancy.
This was an exploratory qualitative study of parents in low-income communities of Baltimore, Maryland. Participants were conveniently sampled via partnerships with community organizations. Eighty percent of parents were African American. Four focus groups were conducted with fathers (n = 8), 4 with mothers (n = 9), and 4 interviews with father-mother dyads (n = 8). Sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using iterative, inductive open coding performed independently by two team members (interrater agreement 86%). Frequency tables were generated for identified categories for content analysis and theme development.
Five themes were identified: perspectives on the father role, supporting partners, negotiating co-parenting, parenting logistics, and learning parenting skills. Participants expressed the importance of fathers to "be there" and barriers to being involved (e.g., finances, lack of role models). Fathers discussed needing to learn how to manage partner conflicts, while mothers discussed fathers' need for greater empathy. Dyads discussed the importance of co-parenting strategies (e.g., effective communication, sharing responsibilities). Logistics included direct infant care, finances, and community resources. Fathers discussed learning by trial and error rather than informational resources and relying on healthcare professionals for pregnancy information and female relatives for infant care.
Participants discussed various needs of fathers to be effective partners and parents, and lacking informational resources tailored specifically for fathers. Research is needed to explore the best ways to tailor and disseminate information to fathers, especially prenatally.
Study findings have significant implications for improving the ways in which maternity care, community-based programs, and pediatric providers support father involvement.
通过从巴尔的摩低收入城市社区的父亲、母亲和父母二人组收集信息，探索父亲在支持婴儿、伴侣和自己方面的怀孕和婴儿早期经验。
父亲的参与与积极的儿童健康结果和父母的幸福感有关。然而，关于低收入父母在怀孕和婴儿期对父亲参与的感知需求的信息很少。
这是一项对马里兰州巴尔的摩低收入社区父母的探索性定性研究。通过与社区组织的合作，方便地对参与者进行抽样。80%的父母是非洲裔美国人。对 8 位父亲（n=8）、9 位母亲（n=9）进行了 4 次焦点小组访谈，对 8 位父母二人组（n=8）进行了 4 次访谈。会议进行了录音、转录，并由两名团队成员（一致性 86%）独立进行迭代、归纳开放式编码进行分析。针对内容分析和主题开发，生成了确定类别的频率表。
确定了五个主题：对父亲角色的看法、支持伴侣、协商共同育儿、育儿后勤和学习育儿技能。参与者表示，父亲“在那里”很重要，参与存在障碍（例如，经济、缺乏榜样）。父亲讨论了需要学习如何管理伴侣冲突，而母亲讨论了父亲需要更多的同理心。二人组讨论了共同育儿策略的重要性（例如，有效沟通、分担责任）。后勤包括直接照顾婴儿、财务和社区资源。父亲讨论了通过试错而不是信息资源学习，以及依靠医疗保健专业人员获取怀孕信息和女性亲属获取婴儿护理信息。
参与者讨论了父亲成为有效伴侣和父母的各种需求，以及缺乏专门针对父亲的信息资源。需要研究探索向父亲提供信息的最佳方式，尤其是在产前阶段。
研究结果对改善产妇护理、基于社区的计划和儿科提供者支持父亲参与的方式具有重要意义。
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