Browsing by Author "Le Roux, Maria Catherina"
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- ItemIdeas and practices of paternal care in low-income, rural, Afrikaans-speaking communities in the Western Cape(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Le Roux, Maria Catherina; Lesch, Elmien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The majority of early research on fatherhood in South Africa emphasise the prevalence of absent fathers in the country, and the detrimental outcomes this leads to for children and families. Father absence has further been focused on due to the known benefits of positive father involvement on the well-being of not only children and other family members, but also for the father himself. More recent global and local research on fatherhood, however, has shown a shift in fathering practices, where contemporary men engage in more involved and complicated fathering practices, which include nurturing and caring activities. This has given rise to the so- called “new” father, who is attentive and caring towards his children and other members in the household. Although local studies have begun to identify nurturing and caring activities in fathering, they have not more comprehensively explored ideas of practices of nurturing and caring fathers. Furthermore, there has been a call for research providing more contextual knowledge on fathering practices in South Africa, across the diverse population groups in the country and the different social contexts. This study, rooted in a social constructionist masculinity theoretical framework, therefore, explored the ideas and practices of paternal care in a specific social context in South Africa, namely low-income, rural, Afrikaans-speaking communities in the Western Cape. These communities are especially under-represented in South African fatherhood literature. Ten families from three such communities, namely Piketberg, Porterville, and Laingsburg, took part in this study. Each family unit consisted of a father-figure, a mother-figure, and an adolescent (15 to 17-years-old), a total of 30 participants. The findings presented here were generated using Braun and Clarke’s (2013) method of thematic analysis. In total, 48 qualitative interviews (including 18 follow-up interviews), conducted separately with each family member generated the data used in this study. Participants’ accounts revealed complicated notions of paternal care. Although more contemporary caring ideas and practices of fathering behaviour were reported, these caring masculinity ideas remained intertwined with traditional hegemonic masculinity ideals. Nevertheless, these findings indicate that a change has started to take place within these communities where traditional ideas about fatherhood and masculinity have expanded to incorporate more nurturing, caring and expressive qualities. This change indicates a potential site for developing more gender equitable ideas, by supporting men’s changing ideas around masculinity.