Editors
Brenda L. Volling
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
Marc H. Bornstein
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Institute for Fiscal Studies, and UNICEF
The goal of this special issue is to showcase innovative and state of the art contemporary research on fathering and the roles of men as parents in diverse family forms. We envision for this Special Issue a series of papers that move fathering research forward by using contemporary theoretical perspectives on fathering, introducing new methods and measures of fathering and father-child relationships, demonstrating how fathering benefits children’s development either directly or indirectly via effects on others in the family, examining fathering in more contemporary families (stay-at-home fathers, dual-career fathers, LEAD dads, fathers taking paternal leave), examining fathering from different socio-cultural perspectives, and representing fathers from diverse backgrounds.
In all cases, submitted papers must move beyond measures of father involvement (e.g., how much men are involved in child care tasks or play) and focus on some aspect of the quality of fathering, coparenting, and/or father-child relationships, whether playful interactions, child-rearing attitudes, discipline, attachment security, sports and coaching, book reading, homework assistance, school participation, and other parenting and educational activities that support children’s socioemotional, academic, language, and cognitive performance. Our goal with this Special Issue is to provide a forum that showcases contemporary and novel insights into men’s roles as fathers and coparents, the mental health and well-being of fathers, and the interpersonal and work-place supports for fathers.
We prefer papers that advance fathering from family systems or ecological perspectives that situate men and their partners in context and can demonstrate both the direct and indirect effects of fathering on children’s development. We also encourage papers that address more contemporary families and fathering that may include gay father families, stay-at-home fathers, divorced or single fathers, fathering and reproductive technologies, and papers that address “invisible men” who have traditionally been overlooked in fathering scholarship (e.g., incarcerated fathers, military fathers, transgender men).
Although not required, preliminary letters of intent and an abstract are encouraged so that the editors can give authors early feedback on the suitability of their proposed papers for this Special Issue. Once reviewed, the editors will invite submission of a full manuscript. However, an invitation to submit a full paper is not a guarantee of acceptance.
