School of Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA.
School of Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice, Community Researcher, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Compr Child Adolesc Nurs. 2023 Dec;46(4):320-347. doi: 10.1080/24694193.2023.2250448. Epub 2023 Sep 12.
Becoming a father is a common transitional event, however men are often not adequately prepared for their fathering role. The United States (U.S.) health care system does little to support fathers' parenting needs during the postnatal and infancy period. Moreover, father's support needs are often perceived as secondary to the mother's needs in the maternal-child system. It is important that fathers' social support needs be investigated in the first year of his newborn's life, especially in diverse populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the social support needs of urban, African American fathers during early parenthood. Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), a descriptive, qualitative design was used to interview 35 fathers about their social support at 2-12 months after the birth of their baby. Using a semi-structured interview guide, fathers were asked to describe helpful and unhelpful events they experienced since the birth of their baby. Fathers reported 36 helpful events and 32 unhelpful events for an overall total of 68 events. Data was analyzed using House's Social Support Theory and the four social support categories: instrumental, informational, emotional, and appraisal. Using the CIT, main categories and subcategories were developed. The helpful categories included: 1) Helping father with infant care, 2) Providing information on infant care, 3) Receiving HCP assistance, 4) Managing relationships, and 5) Becoming a father. The unhelpful categories included: 1) Receiving unhelpful assistance, 2) Receiving unreliable or unwanted assistance, 3) Offering bad advice, 4) Conflicting relationships, 5) Conflicts with friends, 6) Unsatisfying HCP experience, and 7) Receiving no support from family/organizations. The results of the study validated House's Social Support Theory and served as an excellent framework for exploring social support needs in fathers. More research needs to be conducted on the social support needs of fathers during the first year of their infants' lives, especially with experienced African American fathers and nonresidential fathers, and how health care professionals (HCPs), specifically postnatal and child health nurses, can better support fathers during the infancy period.
成为父亲是一个常见的过渡事件，然而男性通常没有为他们的父亲角色做好充分的准备。美国的医疗保健系统在产后和婴儿期几乎没有为父亲的育儿需求提供支持。此外，在母婴系统中，父亲的支持需求通常被认为次于母亲的需求。在新生儿生命的第一年调查父亲的社会支持需求非常重要，尤其是在不同人群中。因此，本研究的目的是确定城市中非洲裔美国父亲在初为人父时的社会支持需求。研究采用关键事件技术（CIT），使用描述性、定性设计，在婴儿出生后 2-12 个月采访了 35 位父亲，了解他们的社会支持情况。使用半结构化访谈指南，父亲被要求描述他们在婴儿出生后经历的有帮助和无帮助的事件。父亲报告了 36 个有帮助的事件和 32 个无帮助的事件，总共有 68 个事件。数据使用豪斯的社会支持理论和四个社会支持类别进行分析：工具性、信息性、情感性和评价性。使用 CIT 开发了主要类别和子类别。有帮助的类别包括：1）帮助父亲照顾婴儿，2）提供婴儿护理信息，3）获得医疗保健提供者的帮助，4）管理人际关系，5）成为父亲。无帮助的类别包括：1）获得无益的帮助，2）获得不可靠或不想要的帮助，3）提供糟糕的建议，4）关系冲突，5）与朋友冲突，6）医疗保健提供者体验不满意，7）得不到家人/组织的支持。研究结果验证了豪斯的社会支持理论，并为探索父亲的社会支持需求提供了一个极好的框架。需要对父亲在婴儿生命的第一年的社会支持需求进行更多研究，特别是对有经验的非洲裔美国父亲和非居住父亲，以及医疗保健专业人员（HCPs），特别是产后和儿童健康护士，如何在婴儿期更好地支持父亲。
