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Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar
Few studies have investigated fathers’ roles in child care in Madagascar. This study explored the perceptions, attitudes, and practices regarding fathers’ involvement in child care using qualitative methods. Ten focus group discussions were conducted among parents of children aged 6–23 months; seven...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8009407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33784340 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247112 |
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author | Rakotomanana, Hasina Walters, Christine N. Komakech, Joel J. Hildebrand, Deana Gates, Gail E. Thomas, David G. Fawbush, Fanjaniaina Stoecker, Barbara J. |
author_facet | Rakotomanana, Hasina Walters, Christine N. Komakech, Joel J. Hildebrand, Deana Gates, Gail E. Thomas, David G. Fawbush, Fanjaniaina Stoecker, Barbara J. |
author_sort | Rakotomanana, Hasina |
collection | PubMed |
description | Few studies have investigated fathers’ roles in child care in Madagascar. This study explored the perceptions, attitudes, and practices regarding fathers’ involvement in child care using qualitative methods. Ten focus group discussions were conducted among parents of children aged 6–23 months; seven were among mothers, and three among fathers. In-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 8) were also conducted with key informants. Discussions and interviews were audio-recorded and the verbatim transcripts in Malagasy were translated into English. Data were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Provision of financial and material support as well as teaching and playing with the child were the main perceived roles of fathers. In practice, fathers spent their time alone with their children playing and holding them when the mother was unavailable. Busy schedules and separation due to work were major barriers to fathers’ involvement. Traditional gender roles for child care in which the mother is seen as primarily responsible for the child were salient across the data. Consequently, men involved in child care activities and their wives were often criticized by the community. Nevertheless, there was self-reported interest from both mothers and fathers in involving men more in child care. Interventions aimed to increase fathers’ involvement in child care may be more successful when they focus on shifting the community perceptions on the division of responsibilities between fathers and mothers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8009407 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80094072021-04-07 Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar Rakotomanana, Hasina Walters, Christine N. Komakech, Joel J. Hildebrand, Deana Gates, Gail E. Thomas, David G. Fawbush, Fanjaniaina Stoecker, Barbara J. PLoS One Research Article Few studies have investigated fathers’ roles in child care in Madagascar. This study explored the perceptions, attitudes, and practices regarding fathers’ involvement in child care using qualitative methods. Ten focus group discussions were conducted among parents of children aged 6–23 months; seven were among mothers, and three among fathers. In-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 8) were also conducted with key informants. Discussions and interviews were audio-recorded and the verbatim transcripts in Malagasy were translated into English. Data were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Provision of financial and material support as well as teaching and playing with the child were the main perceived roles of fathers. In practice, fathers spent their time alone with their children playing and holding them when the mother was unavailable. Busy schedules and separation due to work were major barriers to fathers’ involvement. Traditional gender roles for child care in which the mother is seen as primarily responsible for the child were salient across the data. Consequently, men involved in child care activities and their wives were often criticized by the community. Nevertheless, there was self-reported interest from both mothers and fathers in involving men more in child care. Interventions aimed to increase fathers’ involvement in child care may be more successful when they focus on shifting the community perceptions on the division of responsibilities between fathers and mothers. Public Library of Science 2021-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8009407/ /pubmed/33784340 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247112 Text en © 2021 Rakotomanana et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Rakotomanana, Hasina Walters, Christine N. Komakech, Joel J. Hildebrand, Deana Gates, Gail E. Thomas, David G. Fawbush, Fanjaniaina Stoecker, Barbara J. Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title | Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title_full | Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title_fullStr | Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title_full_unstemmed | Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title_short | Fathers’ involvement in child care activities: Qualitative findings from the highlands of Madagascar |
title_sort | fathers’ involvement in child care activities: qualitative findings from the highlands of madagascar |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8009407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33784340 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247112 |
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