A new typology of fathering: Defining and associated variables

Our goal was to identify different types of parenting based on self-report measures of fathers' involvement and parental attitudes. The present invest igation studied 468 two-parent, French Canadian families with at least one child between 0 and 6 years of age, living in a disadvantaged environment. The study, conducted on a sample of fathers, revealed the presence of the t hree basic types of parenting identified by Baumrind (authoritarian, author itative and permissive), and also of a new type of parenting (stimulative p arenting). The fathers in this latter group provide more emotional support to children and are more stimulating, as is evidenced by the greater psycho logical presence of children in the father's cognitions and by the fact tha t they more frequently introduce their children to new activities. These fa thers are characterized by more secure social relationships. The father's p arental stress level was found to be the most important variable discrimina ting between different types of fathering. Authoritarian and authoritative fathers are more at risk of maltreating their children because their more f avourable attitude towards the use of physical punishment is combined with greater parental stress, less parental involvement of mothers, and a larger number of children in the home. Authoritarian fathers are even more at ris k of maltreating their children because of more difficult family socioecono mic conditions, particularly lower levels of maternal education and income. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.