Intergenerational Relationships and the Timing of Fatherhood

Abstract

Several theoretical traditions call attention to intergenerational influences in parenting. From a developmental perspective, one can ask, “From where do fathering attitudes and behaviors come?” Childhood socialization theories emphasize parents as agents of socialization. Observational learning theories remind us that parents serve as models for acquired behaviors (Hartup & Coates, 1970; Bandura, 1977). Through this mechanism, boys observe their fathers and learn salient information about being a father through that process (Bandura & Huston, 1961). Following the early work in this area, cognitive and affective processes were woven into theory and research to understand which gender-role behaviors were likely to be attended to and learned (Maccoby, 1992; Martin, Ruble, & Szkrybalo, 2002). Of course, influences on gender-role development extend beyond the family and are influenced by individual factors such as cognitive-information processing mechanisms (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Moreover, as reviewed in Chapter 1, life span and life course theories highlight the importance of development beyond childhood.