Family Men: Fathers as Coparents in Diverse Contexts and Family Structures, volume II

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Background

Significant contextual changes over the past few decades have suggested that mother-focused models of science do not accurately capture fathers’ involvement as caregivers and coparents. Extant research, such as the study from Cabrera and their team in 2018, has debunked myths that paint fathers solely as secondary caregivers, “hands off” parents, and absent fathers. On the contrary, recent studies have suggested that fathers exert significant direct and indirect influences on child development and partner relationship quality via coparenting – how parents work with or against each other to care for their children (e.g. the studies from Farr & Patterson in 2013; Kuo and their team in 2017; McHale and their team in 2019; Murphy and their team in 2017 and Schoppe-Sullivan & Fagan in 2020).

According to McHale and their team's research in 2019, coparenting has been of interest to family systems researchers, clinicians, as well as intervention and preventionists, due to this construct capturing whole-family dynamics. While much of coparenting literature has focused on gender differences in the roles and involvement of opposite-sex coparents, such as the research from Carone & Lingiardi in 2022. However, we know less about coparenting in alternative family structures, particularly gay father coparents, as mothers are heavily emphasized in extant literature.

Trends of coparenting research on fathers, such as the ones from DeMartini & Hazen in 2021 and Green and their team in 2019, suggests that fathers’ involvement exerts a positive influence on family dynamics, and when family dynamics turn negative, fathers tend to retreat. However, data on coparenting behaviors of fathers has been studied almost entirely with opposite-sex parents, in which mothers are likely to be primary caregivers and take the leading role in coparents’ decision-making.

In some cases, as Schoppe-Sullivan and their team found in 2015, this may lead to maternal gatekeeping, in which mothers criticize or limit fathers’ access to caring for the child. In addition, coparenting in opposite-sex couples has also primarily focused on fathers who are the genetic parent of their child.

Fathers’ role in coparenting is beginning to be explored with fathers as research participants, within same-sex couples, as well as in broader contexts that are more reflective of contemporary families and actual, representative familial experiences, such as fathers of multiple children, across family transitions, as well as from diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. The goal of this Research Topic is to solicit input from researchers that explore the role of contemporary fathers as coparents in diverse contexts.

We welcome articles addressing the following subtopics and other challenges that investigate the role of fathers in coparenting and its effects on child development and partner dynamics:

● resident and non-resident fathers;
● same- and opposite-sex couples;
● genetically-related, adoptive, and fostering fathers;
● fathers with one or multiple children;
● fathers’ adjustment patterns across family transitions (e.g., transition to parenthood, transition to having a second child);
● fathers in divorced and in-tact families;
● fathers from diverse socioeconomic contexts;
● fathers from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: Fathers, fathering, gay father, coparenting, cooperative, undermining

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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