ED366432
PS021990
Title: How Fathers Care for the Next Generation: A Four-Decade
Study.
Author(s): Snarey, John
Pages: 403
Publication Date: 1993
ISBN: 0-674-40940-X
Available from: Document Not Available from EDRS.
Availability: Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138-9983 ($35).
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Reports--Research (143)
Geographic Source: U.S.; Massachusetts
Journal Announcement: RIEJUN1994
In the 1940s,
Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of Harvard Law School began a cross-sectional
study of 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent boys. This book is
based on interviews and other data provided by 240 subjects in the
non-delinquent group over a 40-year period. All of the subjects
were born into lower- and working-class Boston families in the 1920s
and 1930s and were interviewed at an average age of 14, 25, 31,
and 47, with subsequent questionnaires administered through the
1980s. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction and presents the theoretical
framework of the study, which is based on Erik H. Erikson's idea
of "psychosocial generativity"--that is, that an adult's
caring activities create or contribute to the life of the next generation.
Chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 report on 5 empirical, quantitative
studies that focus on the subjects' role as fathers compared to:
(1) the varieties of paternal generativity; (2) their midlife marital,
work, and social success; (3) their children's early adulthood accomplishments;
(4) their ability to deal with infertility; and (5) their boyhood
experiences. Chapters 3, 5, 7, and 9 report individual case studies
of 4 of the 240 men, focusing on their role as parents and their
relationship with their children. The main conclusions of the work,
presented in chapter 11, are that fathers play a vital role in their
children's lives, especially in the realms of social-emotional,
intellectual-academic, and physical-athletic development. Contains
approximately 500 references. (MDM)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement; *Child Rearing; *Children;
Emotional Development; *Fathers; Longitudinal Studies; *Parent Child
Relationship; *Parent Role; Physical Development; Social Development;
Socioeconomic Status; *Success
Identifiers: Erikson (Erik); *Generativity; Infertility;
Psychosocial Development
