Content of the CENOF research projects

CENOF wants to undertake the challenge to develop its own framework, empirically as well as theoretically, in order to thoroughly delineate fatherhood on the basis of six different research projects:

Project I.

Constitutional Fatherhood: Reproductive parameters and motivational correlates

Ulrike Ehlert, Zurich/CH

Project II.

Fatherhood constraints: Consequences of work-family-balance decisions

Petra L. Klumb, Fribourg/CH

Project III.

Fatherhood as stepfather: Parental investment in the service of mating

Harald A. Euler, Kassel/D

Project IV.

Fatherhood between investment and desertion: Broken-home experience and paternal competence  

Katja Nowacki, Dortmund/D

Project V.

Maximized fatherhood: Its impact on emotional regulation and stress management in vulnerable children

Lieselotte Ahnert, Vienna/A

Project VI.

Fatherhood as supporting power: Its impact on emotional regulation and self-motivation in preschool children 

Julius Kuhl, Osnabrück/D

Project I

Project I, will reach out the furthest and recruit N=3000 men based on online surveys. It is the aim of this survey to comprehensively describe the socio-psycho­logical costs of fatherhood, alluding social and psychological variables that will later be taken up by all projects of the CENOF Research Study. Of special interest in Project I, however, will be the subsequent detailed research work on selected subsamples (overall n=500) which will be explored psychobiologically, i.e., on reproductive parameters and motivational correlates. This part of the project will look into the circumstances, motives and reproduction requisites of men who are convinced/not convinced fathers or childless men. The idea is to cross-link the basic associations of this part of Project I with all other projects of the CENOF Research Study which are going to extend/deepen these outcomes by further research questions.

Project II

Project II deals with the question of how much a father (convinced or not) is empowered to invest in fatherhood by the given possibilities and limitations on his engage­ment at the job market. More precisely, Project II explores the question as to what extent the work-family balance of fathers is dependent on job positions, and need to control this investigation by different social and psychological variables portraying the fathers, individually. Is it then possible to find factors that are related to the job demands which enhance or buffer the paternal work-family balance, and if so, how much do the family conditions, couple constellation and characteristics contribute to good father-child relationships as a measure of fatherhood quality?

Project III

Whereas Project II will explore the environmental conditions for men who are motivated to fulfill fatherhood, but are limited to certain extent by work demands, Project III sticks with men’s archaic investment strategies in the offspring and questions motives to be a father as seen from an evolutionary perspective. Human evolutionary legacy seems to point to the fact that fathers, unlike mothers, may, but don’t have to invest in the offspring. Project III thus wants to approach this relative voluntariness, most effectively, in a sample of stepfathers. Beside social and personal factors determining paternal investment, the project will explore in which ways stepfathers with and without a joint biological child(ren) differ in terms of amount and type of their investment, of their relationship qualities towards the children who live with them, as well as of their reproduction parameters such as sex orientation, mate value, and testosterone level. It is assumes that specifically step fathering (not adoptive or foster fathering) contains a risk potential for family dynamic and child development. The planned research will be able to deliver both, empirical proofs for these assumptions, and practical advice for law decisions and family interventions in the contexts of the rising numbers of divorce.

Project IV

Project IV aims to investigate the investment of fathers who have been socialized in broken homes and have experienced welfare support during their own childhood. How do they function as fathers or do they desert? What does the quality of fatherhood look like in such risk samples? Besides practical considerations for the welfare system, this research will be able to contribute to an important but controversial theoretical issue which deals with the transmission of relationship experience from one’s own childhood onto the relationship with one’s own offspring.

Project V

Project V will be putting children’s differential susceptibility towards parenting into the spotlight. The key question is concerned with children who are more or less susceptible to the rearing conditions (by their gene mounting). In what way can the paternal care and the father-child attachments enable children to develop optimal strategies, to cope with challenges and stress, from early on, and to learn to regulate emotions internally? This topic is of specific importance in children who are most vulnerable such as preterm infants. Thus, for preterm infants, paternal investment is considered unusually intense. Project V therefore aims to identify mechanisms of stress management helping to soften adverse consequences of poor stress management on mental health during early childhood, from the fathers’ sides. The expected findings might support intervention programs where paternal, in addition to maternal parenting strategies are supervised, and are helpful in implementing healthy environ­mental conditions for preterm children ranging from family care up to public care and school environments.

Project VI

Project VI will follow up on the consequences of fatherhood for child emotional regulation and asks how the capacities for emotional regulation contribute to a self-determined perso­nality before children enter school. In what way do child emotional regulation and self-motivation vary particularly in achievement situations with regard to the paternal time investment as well as to the quality of father-child relationships? And are there any links to a father’s reproduction requisites? To our knowledge this question has not been dealt with. However, from the preschool ages onwards, it is known that fathers interact with their children gender-specifically, even though the debate on assured evidence is highly controversial. This project will shed light into the debate, and will also help to set up reasonable family inventions. Knowing which paternal behaviors are most relevant for child competence concerning the emotional regulation will help to improve efficiency of family counseling. Moreover, demonstrating the relevance of emotional regulation in learning processes will justify political initiatives in supporting fathers in their roles.