General Practice and Primary Care - Theses
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ItemEngaging new fathers: learning from baby makes 3( 2016)Intimate partner violence is a global phenomenon with significant social, economic and health costs. The importance of engaging men in preventing intimate partner violence is well established with strategies that engage men as fathers through parenting programs showing some promise. Australia’s world first national primary prevention framework identifies gender inequality as the central driver of intimate partner violence. The transition to parenthood is a critical moment in the production of gender inequality and often leads to a retraditionalisation of gender roles for heterosexual couples. This life transition presents a prime opportunity to promote gender equality and engage fathers in interventions that seek to prevent intimate partner violence from ever occurring. While policies and programs are increasingly seeking to engage men in violence prevention, engagement frameworks in the primary prevention field are underdeveloped. Current research focuses on the manner in which men are drawn into prevention work rather than the engagement process itself. Existing Australian primary prevention programs tend to focus on engaging boys in school-based respectful relationships programs with little attention paid to reaching adult men. This study sought to fill these gaps by developing an engagement model for fathers and exploring its application to intimate partner violence primary prevention strategies. Aligning with the gendered lens of our national framework my research explored how gender impacts on service providers’ engagement with new fathers in respectful relationships programs delivered in health settings. Framed by a constructivist epistemology and ontology I employed a case study research design using the Baby Makes 3 (BM3) program, a three-week respectful relationships program for first time parents incorporated into New Parent Groups run by Maternal and Child Health Services in the Eastern Metropolitan Region of Victoria, as an illustrative example. I collected data from multiple sources including interviews with fathers who participated in the program and the Maternal and Child Health Nurses who recruited parents into the program as well as focus groups with the facilitators who led the program. To identify the gender phenomena that influence father engagement in this context I applied a novel analytical framework combining a three-phase father engagement model with a multidimensional theory of gender. This multi-level, multi-phase framework was used as a heuristic through which the evidence about the gendered phenomena that impact on service providers’ engagement with new fathers in the BM3 program were analysed. In terms of ‘getting’ fathers to attend BM3 in the first instance this study found that a complex, multidimensional interplay of gender related factors shapes men’s father identities, behaviours and ultimately their decisions to participate. In particular this study revealed that men’s differing paternal role identities and the gendered Maternal and Child Health Service setting play critical roles in fathers’ participation decisions. In regards to retaining father attendance and actively engaging them in the program the single-gender father group work led by male facilitators who are themselves fathers was key. BM3’s father group work provided a homosocial environment where men could engage in non-traditional gender practices and form intimate connections with other fathers.