Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2022
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Child and Family Studies
Major Professor
Amy J. Rauer
Committee Members
Spencer B. Olmstead, Megan L. Haselschwerdt, Mitsunori Misawa
Abstract
Existing research on Anglophone Caribbean families gives minimal attention to Jamaican fathers, particularly stepfathers, despite a growing number of stepfamilies in Jamaica. Although an expanding Western literature now recognizes the critical role that stepparents play in children’s lives, there remains remarkably few studies on how stepfathers understand and adjust to this role. Even fewer studies examine stepfathers’ view of their parenting, and fewer still offer a non-Western view of stepfathers’ subjective experience of assuming this role. As such, the purpose of this narrative case study was to understand how a purposive sample of 10 Jamaican men who parent their partners’ children 25 years old or younger, talked about assuming their parenting role in the context of blended families living in Kingston and St. Andrew. Participants were invited to tell stories about their parenting experiences in a narrative interview consisting of a semi-structured interview framed by oral and visual elicitation segments. The study employed narrative thematic analysis and drew upon assumptions and concepts from family systems theory as well as role theory to enhance understanding of the meaning of the men’s stories. Three overarching themes, each of which characterized one key aspect of the transition to parenthood, were identified: 1) negotiating parenting and identity with child; 2) negotiating parenting and compromise with partner; and 3) turning points in the development of men who parent their partners’ children. The findings highlighted not only the specific family interactions that were sites of negotiation and growth (e.g., father-child relationship building, parental identity development, emotional and behavioral resistance, co-parental relationships), but also negotiations with the ‘self,’ in which participants used their executive functions of perception, evaluation, and monitoring as resources for parental decision-making. These findings could potentially inform interventions aimed at supporting blended families when men who parent their partners’ children join the system, as well as supporting the men’s mental health as they progress through their own cognitive and behavioral changes during the transition to parenthood.
Recommended Citation
McLean Cooke, Wendy Carolyn, "A Narrative Case Study of the Transition to Parenthood for Jamaican Men Who Parent Their Partners’ Children. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2022.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/7267