| Description |
The purposes of this investigation were to identify attitudes and behaviors perceived by wives as characteristic of fathering within three weeks of antepartum and then, three to five weeks postpartum and, moreover, to explore changes in the wives' perceptions of fathering within that time span. Fifty-three married primigravidas from the Salt Lake City area, ranging in age from 18 to 36 years, participated in the study. All but one of the wives had attended prenatal classes in childbirth preparation and the majority (59.6%) reported no complications throughout the childbirth experience. The Short Marital Adjustment Test indicated that, as a group, the wives were martially well-adjusted. Seven wives scored in the medium-depressed range on the Beck Depression Inventory parentally and three scored in that range postpartum. Wives' perceptions of fathering behaviors and attitudes were assessed by the following measures: estimation of husband's average hours at home per week, projected husband's fathering activities with own child, involvement of husband in baby care activities, and whether or not the couple had been out alone without the baby. Wives perceived their husband as highly involved in infant care and willing to participate with their children in a wide variety of activities throughout childhood. Much of the data collected in the study, as results of the tools designed, dealt with factors which might affect how the wife perceives her husband as a father. Some of these factors were: the importance of the father versus the mother in infant care, how the baby was fed, and how much help the wife expected from relatives and friends after the birth of the baby. The tool which yielded the most statistically significant and intriguing results of the study wad the Fathering Activities With Own Father check sheet. This measurement of the wives' participation in activities with their own fathers resulted in interesting correlations with many other variables in the study. The wives' sex preferences for the baby and frequency of increased expenses related to the birth of the baby are additional findings of the study. Several limitations to this study must be considered. The wives were all volunteers in the study leading to a biases sample women who were willing to share their views. The sample was drawn primarily from wives attending prenatal classes. Therefore, the sample probably reflects couples already highly involved in the childbearing process. The Beck Depression Inventory has been used primarily for people already clinically diagnosed as depressed and was not designed for pregnant women. Since the majority of the tools were designed by the researcher for purposes of this study, they cannot be considered reliable or valid at this time. Data from three variables, wives, occupations, wives' incomes, and care for children since marriage, was nuclear, suggesting needed refinement of the tools. Much of the data gathered referred to factors affecting wives' views of their husbands rather than the views per se because of the design of the tools. The researcher makes the following recommendations as a result of her experience with this study. Random sampling of the population through other sources than prenatal classes would afford more reprehensive data of the wives and allow for boarder generalization of the findings. Tools for a study of wives' views on fathering need to be designed in such a way as to yield more specific data about wives' assessments of their husbands as fathers. The tools used in this study need to be refined and tested individually for reliability and validity. A longitudinal study of the same sample and comparison with wives' original predictions of husbands' fathering activities with their children may produce interesting findings. Further exploration of anticipatory planning by couples for the baby may lead to fruitful data which would be helpful to health workers in planning for intervention. Health workers may find a study which focuses on factors affecting the wives' view of their husband useful in giving guidance to women during the prenatal period. |
