Experiences and Issues of First-Time Fatherhood: Theoretical and Clinical Implications.

First-time fatherhood is now a subject of modem political interest. This present study was designed in an investigatory, postal study using a convenience sample (N = 74) of first-time fathers, recruited from 5 different hospital sites in Kent after gaining Ethical Approval from the West Kent Health Authority based at Maidstone. The theoretical framework underpinning this research was based on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) theory, within which social interactionism was incorporated in a developmental psychological paradigm, examining first-time fatherhood as a critical rite of passage. These participants were assessed, using previously validated measures, to determine -ante-natally and post-natally - their levels of depression and anxiety by means of the Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale (HADS), their previous bonding with their own parents by means of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), as well as the quality of their present marital/partnership relationships using the Intimate Bond Measure (IBM). In addition, demographic information was obtained about the sample as a whole: their attitudes to social problems were also measured on the Shortened Social Problems Questionnaire (SSPQ). Apart from quantitative, correlational analyses using Spearman’s Rho on the whole sample, qualitative analyses in addition were carried out on a selected sub-sample of 14 post-natal fathers who had experienced vulnerability to undue stress and/or trauma following the births of their infants. This was done by means of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The aim of this was to gather additional, richer data about the functioning of this vulnerable group, and also to determine whether any of them could be considered to be suffering from paternal post-natal depression which is now estimated to have an incidence of approximately 7% in the UK, affecting approximately 6,000 new fathers each year. Results show that there are some modest associations between the interaction of marital quality with depression and anxiety in new fathers, and of the care the expectant fathers received originally from their fathers with the care they experience from their wives/partners pre-partum. Over-protection by the mothers of expectant fathers during their childhood and adolescence particularly, is associated with less care that they received from their wives/partners pre-partum, but not post-partum. The main findings refute the previous, commonly held assumptions primarily of socialisation theory and of predominant parental determinism. They point to an elaboration of the theory of a complicated interaction between genetic endowment and the environment. These findings will be discussed in terms of their implications