Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Learning Competent Fathering: A Longitudinal Analysis Of Marital Intimacy And Fathering, Kay Bradford, Alan J. Hawkins

Faculty Publications

Although scholars have documented many links between marital relationships and parenting, these associations are not commonly explained in terms of behavior that is learned or achieved over time. This paper examines the idea that good fathering – conceptualized here as competent fathering – is the result of a developmental process, and that a loving, committed relationship between parents creates a context in which traits supportive of caring fathering are likely to be learned and practiced. After setting the stage conceptually, we provide a modest initial test of this hypothesis to discern the associations between three components of marital intimacy (emotional …