ERIC Number: ED366432
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1993
Pages: 403
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-0-674-40940-X
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
How Fathers Care for the Next Generation: A Four-Decade Study.
Snarey, John
In the 1940s, Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of Harvard Law School began a cross-sectional study of 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent boys. This book is based on interviews and other data provided by 240 subjects in the non-delinquent group over a 40-year period. All of the subjects were born into lower- and working-class Boston families in the 1920s and 1930s and were interviewed at an average age of 14, 25, 31, and 47, with subsequent questionnaires administered through the 1980s. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction and presents the theoretical framework of the study, which is based on Erik H. Erikson's idea of "psychosocial generativity"--that is, that an adult's caring activities create or contribute to the life of the next generation. Chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 report on 5 empirical, quantitative studies that focus on the subjects' role as fathers compared to: (1) the varieties of paternal generativity; (2) their midlife marital, work, and social success; (3) their children's early adulthood accomplishments; (4) their ability to deal with infertility; and (5) their boyhood experiences. Chapters 3, 5, 7, and 9 report individual case studies of 4 of the 240 men, focusing on their role as parents and their relationship with their children. The main conclusions of the work, presented in chapter 11, are that fathers play a vital role in their children's lives, especially in the realms of social-emotional, intellectual-academic, and physical-athletic development. Contains approximately 500 references. (MDM)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Child Rearing, Children, Emotional Development, Fathers, Longitudinal Studies, Parent Child Relationship, Parent Role, Physical Development, Social Development, Socioeconomic Status, Success
Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-9983 ($35).
Publication Type: Books; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A