BEYOND FATHERING BEHAVIORS - TYPES OF DADS

Sixty-nine maritally intact, middle-class Caucasian families rearing t heir 15-month-old firstborn male child participated in a study of fath ering. Two 1-hr naturalistic home observations per family were conduct ed near dinnertime to record father-child interactions, which were the n used to rate father involvement. Cluster analysis of fathering ratin gs revealed 4 groups of dads: caretakers, playmates-teachers, discipli narians, and disengaged fathers. Information on demographics, personal ity, marital quality, relatedness, moods and hassles, and infant emoti onality was gathered via parental reports. Analysis of antecedent vari ables indicated that the caretaker and playmate-teacher fathers were m ore educated, had more prestigious occupations, were less neurotic, ha d more confidence in the dependability of others, and experienced fewe r daily hassles than the disciplinarian and disengaged fathers. Discri minant analysis demonstrated the collective ability of the antecedent variables to distinguish the 4 groups of fathers.