Exploring mothers as barriers to young fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives: the perspectives of young men and women.
| dc.contributor.advisor | Maharaj, Pranitha. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Khumalo, Qiniso. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-10-21T10:39:56Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-10-21T10:39:56Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2020 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description | Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | More than half of children in South Africa do not have regular contact with their biological fathers. Children and families without a father figure have been associated with negative life outcomes, including poverty, violent behaviour, and emotional disturbances. Emerging research on fatherhood suggests that many young fathers want to be involved in the lives of their children. They want to play positive roles and become good role models for their children. However, there are many factors that hinder father involvement, including interpersonal relations, especially the relationship between biological parents; the financial situation of the father and cultural practices such as inhlawulo and ilobolo. Therefore, the overall aim of this study is to explore how mothers may become a barrier to young fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives. To achieve this, the study draws on rich findings obtained from conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with seventeen young men (seven) and women (ten) who were students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The findings suggest that young fathers want to build a stable relationship with their children, change the stereotypes about them and build a new narrative of fatherhood. However, they cited financial constraints as inhibiting them from achieving their status of fathers. Young mothers, on the other hand, felt that a father who is supportive during pregnancy is likely to be a good father; whereas a father who is not supportive is likely to abandon his child. The entry of a new sexual partner created conflict and tension in the relationship and subsequently affected father involvement. Young mothers used the child as bait to force the father into staying in the relationship. Additionally, regularly passing negative remarks about the father created a long-lasting memory in the child’s mind that is likely to adversely affect the fatherchild relationship. The study, therefore, concludes that poor interpersonal relations between biological parents disproportionately affect father involvement in their child’s life, especially for young unemployed and student fathers. In this regard, mothers are encouraged to make decisions that are in the best interest of the child. Psycho-social initiatives and future research should focus on strategies that would support the involvement of young unemployed fathers. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/19845 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Father absence. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Mothers. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Parental involvement. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Father-child relationship. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Children. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Biological fathers. | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | Biological parents. | en_US |
| dc.title | Exploring mothers as barriers to young fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives: the perspectives of young men and women. | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |