Fathers’ Involvement across the Life Course

In recent decades, an increasing number of mothers have remained in the workforce after having children, attitudes towards the role of fathers have changed, and public concerns over rising numbers of fathers living apart from their children have grown. As a consequence, the role of fathers in family life is attracting more scholarly attention. Despite this heightened attention, our understanding of paternal involvement is still limited. Research has often been bifurcated into studies which deal with either the parental involvement of resident fathers or the behaviour of non-resident fathers. This workshop seeks to connect the research on residential and non-residential fatherhood. We are particularly interested in submissions that address the involvement of fathers across the life course. Quantitative as well as qualitative papers from sociology, demography, political sciences, economics, and law are welcome. The following topics will be of particular interest to our workshop:

• Changes in fathers’ involvement across the life course
• Linkages between fathers’ involvement and well-being across the lives of fathers and children
• Characteristics and prevalence of non-residential fatherhood, lone fatherhood, and/or step-fatherhood across the life course
• Residential and non-residential fatherhood as parts of men’s life histories