Research On Stay-at-home Fathers

[jlbass]

My name is Julie Bass and I'm a summer research student at Roanoke College in Virginia. I am doing research on fathers who serve as the primary caregivers for their children. This research project is being funded by Roanoke College and has been approved by the Institutional Research Board which reviews all surveys. In addition, I work very closely with my faculty advisor and head of the Sociology Department at Roanoke College, Dr. Kristi Hoffman.

The main goal of this research is to better understand social experience of primary care giving fathers. In addition, my research is also focusing on the resources available to these fathers, whether they are likely to use resources if made available, and which resources fathers find to be most beneficial. In addition, gaining awareness for this family arrangement as a viable, working option for families is valuable for society as a whole as well as those families who already have a male primary caregiver.

I have created an on-line survey that should take no longer than 15 minutes and confidentiality and anonymity are ensured for all participants. The only requirement for participants is that they serve as the primary caregiver for their children. If there are any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering, feel free to skip them.

The link to the survey is:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2b8eBI7jte6_2bw16c20T6dqQ_3d_3d

I will share my results with the users of dadsstayhome.com and certainly mention and thank the site for their much appreciated help with my study in my paper.
Thank you very much for your time and assistance!

Julie Bass
Roanoke College

[tt3]

I was hesitant to call this board a support group, but it kind of is...
Like a lockerroom brawl, but support.

[KSam1113]

Haven't taken many of those, but that one was pretty good. Easy to take and I thought the questions were relevant.

[Captain Dad]

Not a fan of the questions, very vague and seem to make the assumption that everything is negative about being a SAHD.

[jlbass]

I can understand your response that the questions seemed vague and assumed negativity. I wanted to keep the questions more broad in order to cover everything I wanted to cover in a survey that people would be willing to do. I can't imagine I'd get too many responses if the survey took thrity minutes to an hour. Ideally, I'd sit down and do interviews with fathres to get the full scope of their experience but the time perameters of my project didn't allow for that.

I'm sorry if you found the questions made your experience seem only negative and I assure you that is not my point at all. Much of the resarch I looked read before taking on this project focused on the issues that come along with being a stay-at-home father and I hope that people's responses to my survey will in fact prove there are far more positives than negatives to this family arrangement.

Thank you to anyone who has taken my survey so far, I can't express my appreciation enough!

[chuck]

not a bad survey, I've participated in a bunch of them on the subject, some of the questions are good, I particularly like the one's about the social acceptance of our undertaking, I don't see enough about that and it is a major item we all have to deal with on a daily basis, people are not only rude but just plain stupid when it comes to a SAHD, it has gotten better over the past five years but when I got started at this I got crap from all kinds of folks.
I think more could be done on how it has effected our spousal relationships, but as you said you didn't want it to go on forever

[Captain Dad]

jbass,

I don't mean to be negative, I just did not feel like some of the questions really gave me the correct choices. Each of us are different as to why we are SAHDS and how we got here. One section that I did not like asked (and this was last night that I took the survey) about social acceptance as a decision factor. It was not a factor for me but I felt like it Had to have been from your questions.

I have done a few of these surveys and I understand that most of them are coming at the topic from a "this is new, how do people react, how could you shun parenting and family mores and the stereotypical male roles".

Hey, keep up the good cause and let people know we are not losers who can't get "real"jobs, or slackers who found sugar momma's. 99% of us found the best situation for our family and are serving in the role that is best for our families. It just so happens that this is the best job anyone can have, and it is a job. Just go ask your mother.:chugchug:

[Will'sdad]

I thought it was a pretty good survey. It actually made me think a bit about my situation...something I'm not usually good at. I tend to put my head down and go.

[57plymouth]

I agree, it did seem to approach many questions as if there was something inherently wrong with being a SAHD. I personally have found a lot of financial freedom since I left the rat race. The survey seems to imply that it is a financial death sentance.