Blending Traditional and Nurturing Fathering: Fathers of Children With Autism Managing Work and Family

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Kevin Lien,Bonnie Lashewicz,Jennifer Mitchell,Nick Boettcher
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12472

K L, B L, J M,  N BUniversity of

Calgary

Blending Traditional and Nurturing Fathering:

Fathers of Children With Autism Managing Work

and Family

Objective: Against a backdrop of hegemonic

masculinity, we contribute to understandings of

how having a child with autism impacts fathers’

navigation of work and family responsibilities.

Background: Parents of children with autism

face distinct needs related to accessing health,

education, and social supports for their children.

In supporting their children, fathers may feel

pulled between traditional nancial provider

roles and relatively nurturing, involved styles of

fathering.

Method: Using a traditional masculinity theo-

retical orientation, we conducted a directedcon-

tent analysis of narrative data from 26 fathers

of children with autism collected as part of

a broader project. We analyzed approaches to

fathering reected in fathers’ descriptions of

managing work and family and corresponding

meanings fathers attached to work relative to

family responsibilities.

Results: Fathering approaches included (a) tra-

ditional breadwinners, (b) caregivingbreadwin-

ners, (c) “tag-team” parents, and (d) caregiving

fathers. Meanings of work included (a) nan-

cial power and security in the face of autism;

Department of Community Health Sciences, Univer-

sity of Calgary, Room 3D20, TRW Building, 3280

Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6 Canada

(bmlashew@ucalgary.ca).

Key Words: autism, disability, fathering, gender,

work–family interface.

(b) work as information, support, and reprieve;

and (c) work strain contributing to guilt, sad-

ness, and depression.

Conclusion: Fathers’responsibilities entailed a

careful balancing between nancial provision

and caregiving for their children with autism.

We identify theoreticaland policy implications

aimed at more fully understanding and support-

ing fathers of children with autism.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurode-

velopmental condition characterized by

heterogeneous social communication and inter-

action challenges and repetitive and restricted

behavioral patterns, activities, or interests

(Laiet al., 2014).Thecombinedprevalence

of autism spectrum disorder for children and

youth, dened as 5 to 17years old, is esti-

mated to be 1 in 66 in Canada (Public Health

Agency of Canada,2018). Research aimed at

understanding experiences of parents raising a

child with autism contributes to the gathering

momentum to understand and support families

of children with disabilities. Within the liter-

ature about understanding demands of raising

children with disabilities, parents of children

with autism are highlighted as facing distinct

needs given the communication and behavioral

challenges associated with autism. Parents

of children with autism report compromised

quality of life and higher levels of stress than

parents of typically developing children (Dodd

264Family Relations 70 (February 2021): 264–281

DOI:10.1111/fare.12472

Fathers managing work and family265

et al., 2009;Glasberget al., 2007;Gray, 2003;

Li-Chinget al., 2008;Mancil et al., 2009)and

children with Down syndrome (Sanders &

Morgan, 1997).Disability-relatedneeds, com-

pounded by economic and societal stressors,

can incline parents to adhere to traditional gen-

der roles to allow for a “divide-and-conquer”

approach. Mothers often assume the central

role in managing their child’s medical, educa-

tional, and disability programming needs, while

fathers focus on generating income to pay for

family needs and non–publicly funded disabil-

ity programming and services (e.g., Cheuk &

Lashewicz, 2016; Doddet al., 2009; Dudley&

Emery, 2014;Stoner&Stoner, 2014).Thus,

fathers’ paid work may take on heightened

signicance as the sole source of family income

to cover relatively high childrearing costs

(e.g.,Carpenter&Towers, 2008;Lashewicz

et al., 2016).

Fathering children with autism plays out

against a backdrop of idealized masculine

characteristics and changing trends in the

work–family interface. Over the past 30years,

Westerneconomies have restructured away from

manufacturing economies and into knowledge

economies. This shift creates job uncertainty and

job precarity in traditionally male-dominated

industries where employment was formerly

stable and perceived as meaningful (Afeck

et al., 2018). Alongsidethisshift, men’s levels

of educational attainment, occupational stature,

earnings, and employment have declined or

stayed the same over the past 30years, while

women have realized signicant gains on the

same measures (Autor & Wasserman,2013).

Some men may strive to distinguish themselves

in difcult economic contexts by spending

long hours in paid employment and embodying

overwork as a modern-day “status symbol”

(Bellezza et al., 2016; Gershuny, 2005).

Men’s relationship to work and the tradi-

tional masculine breadwinner role thus have

been destabilized; this has implications for

fathers of children with autism who are inclined

to prioritize both work and family responsi-

bilities given parenting demands associated

with autism that often include challenges in

accessing health, education, and social supports

for their children with autism amid prejudice,

restrictive built environments, and waiting lists

for supports (Braunstein etal.,2013; Jeanes

&Magee, 2012;Shipton&Lashewicz, 2019).

Indeed, traditional masculine characteristics,

such as being problem-solvers, providers, and

protectors, can be assets in raising children with

disabilities(Beatonet al., 2012).Moreover,

such characteristics may be amplied for fathers

of children with autism who are propelled by

their children’s needs toward relatively nurtur-

ing, involved styles of fathering that include

play and leisure, personal care, social activ-

ities, and helping to manage behaviour (e.g.,

Beatonet al., 2012;Lashewiczet al., 2016;

Potter,2017). The purpose of this article is to

contribute to understandings of how having a

child with autism inuences fathers’ navigation

of work and family responsibilities. Using a

theoretical orientation of traditional masculin-

ity, we conducted a directed content analysis of

narrative data from 26 fathers of children with

autism collected as part of a broader project.

We analyzed approaches to fathering reected

in fathers’ descriptions of managing work and

family responsibilities and the corresponding

meanings fathers attached to work relative to

family responsibilities. As such, we illuminate

some of the ways in which fathers of children

with autism blend traditional and nurturing

elements of fathering.

T A

The theoretical orientation of this article is

drawnfromConnell’s (1996;Connell&

Messerschmidt,2005) work on gender rela-

tions and predicated on the corresponding belief

that ideals of traditional masculinity permeate

ideas about fathering, including in the context

of disability. Denitions of masculinity vary

across cultures and classes, as well as within

micro-contexts such as work environments or

peer groups, with some masculinities being

“more honoured than others” (Connell,1996,

p. 21). As such, fathers occupy multiple roles

and likely experience tensions between provider

ideals of traditional fathering and contempo-

rary ideals of involved, nurturing fathering

(e.g.,Kaufman, 2013);thesetensionsmaybe

accentuated by demands associated with having

a child with autism. Further, fathering, and

the masculinities embedded in fathering, are

dynamic and actively constructed and shaped

by sociocultural context (Connell,1996) or

macro-context (Doucet,2013). On a macro

level, fathering is inuenced by a “hierarchy of

masculinities”—a “pattern of hegemony” inu-

enced by the structural production of masculine