The Generative Legacy of Fathering: Examining Themes of Future Concern, Audience and Progress in Interviews with Indigenous Fathers

Mike Pratt, Heather Lawford, Jessica Ball, Anna Dienhart

How Are We Conceptualizing Generativity and Legacy? Erik Erikson’s model of generativity vs.

stagnation as a midlife stage in personality development, with parenting as a prototype experience for this

Defined as efforts toward a) care and commitment to future generations, b) as a legacy of the self for the child’s future

Notion of legacy in this framework involves several key ideas, as illustrated in following quote from an Indigenous father

Key Themes of Fathering as a Legacy for the Future Indigenous Dad: “When my daughter was just a newborn I built

that chair and we carried it into the house with her in it…My brother said to me, “That will be so great! Every time your daughter visits the house she will be able to say, ‘My father built that chair.’ I think about that now… I know that when I am gone, all that will be left of me is my children and my art. Everyday I have a chance to do something they will be proud of…”

Interest in child’s future

Regard for parenting by audiences of others (child, brother)

Passing on to child a gift from the self that can be proud of

Generativity and the Idea of Positive or Redemptive Themes

Dan McAdams (2006) argues that many life stories focus on redemption themes …stories of how negative events have brought positive change

Generative adults are particularly likely to express such redemptive themes about their lives, and to use this to sustain a sense of commitment to future generations under challenging circumstances (McAdams, 1997)

Thus, we took special note of themes of positive transformation in the legacy comments of fathers in our sample, of how negative aspects of one’s own background were transformed to become a positive gift to child

The FIRA Interviews

About 200 individual interviews were conducted across the 7 clusters represented in total, two of which were Indigenous and Young Fathers

A fairly standard set of questions was asked, though with some variation, e.g., young dads were asked about future hopes for child, Indigenous dads were not

30 or so interviews involved young dads cluster, 40 involved the Indigenous dads cluster

Many of the fathers in these two clusters were single, separated or divorced parents, some with custody, many not

Analysis of the Interviews

Preliminary analysis involved 5 research assistants reading all transcripts, categorizing material into several broadly defined categories, including a generativity-related theme category that involved a sense of giving of the self

These “generativity”- relevant comments were then read and discussed by our smaller research team

Complete transcripts were read for samples of interviews by cluster to help get a fuller sense of interpretive context

Only the transcripts for Young fathers and Indigenous fathers have so far been read for this preliminary report

Legacy: Summary of Thematic Findings Concerns for child’s future

Child as future audience for feelings of pride

Cultural preservation

Themes of personal redemption and progress

Legacy: Future Concern Themes Indigenous Dad: “My kids are going to grow up

with a dad they don’t have to worry about. My son has a positive role model and he’s not going to go to gangs to get that. He is not going to go to the street kids to get that. He’s not going to go to drug dealers to get that…”

Indigenous and young dads were both likely to talk about future in terms of helping child avoid problems, given negative images of their fathering in dominant culture, and realistic focus on problems that they had experienced themselves

Legacy: Father Efficacy and Pride – Role of Child as Audience

Young Dad: “But I think it’s what you can teach them that later on will come back at you and ‘Hey Dad, thank you very much for teaching me this because it helped me in this.’

Indigenous Dad: “(My) passing on traditions brings knowledge on where he comes from. Well, he is adopted but I’m the only dad he has ever known. It brings a closeness of family, a sense of belonging to identify with. I think as he grows up, he won’t be trying to identify with a rapper on South Central…he’ll know what his culture is, he’ll know where he came from…”

Child’s own appreciation of father’s gift as evidence of a positive legacy in parenting

Also note that fathers here anticipated child’s future reactions

Legacy: Cultural Preservation Themes Indigenous Dad: “Just the spirit that I feel when I’m at a

pow-wow. I hear native singing, it’s an awesome feeling and it carries on to my kids.”

Cultural background was important positive heritage for parenting for many (60%) of the Indigenous fathers, not all – of course, less prominent in young dad sample

However, many dads in both groups also felt that they had to cope with negativity in own personal backgrounds, and described generative progress themes that stressed positive gains for child coming out of those problems

Legacy: Three Themes of Generative Progress and Growth

Themes: Generational progress, family fathering progress, personal progress

Generational Progress: “Lately, I’ve seen a lot of guys taking responsibilities of their kids, like even fighting for custody of them… I hear it is on an upswing. I see there’s a lot of guys taking responsibility, whether its just going for a walk or whatever, I just see it getting better and better.”

Most of the Indigenous fathers (80%) reported a sense of generational progress, saw themselves as part of a forward-moving group doing more than own dads, who were depicted as fairly negative in their fathering (75% of sample)

Legacy: Family and Personal Progress Themes Family Fathering Progress: “Think about what you most

wanted as a child and give that to your children. That’s what my mom told me… For me it was time. I didn’t get any time when I was a kid. My dad would call and say he was going to pick me up for Christmas and he wouldn’t show…So OK, then, time is what you give your kids.”

Using own family background problems to parent better was seen as a “redemptive” way of transforming negative past

Personal Progress: “I think when (she) gets older and starts to

go wayward, I can help her and point her in the right direction. I come from such a negative past, so I understand consequences a lot better than someone who has never been through it. I can teach her about drugs, alcohol, jail, the criminal system.”

Personal negative experiences as redemptive benefit for child

Legacy: Some General Implications Indigenous and adolescent dads showed many similar

comments on legacy in this preliminary analysis, though obviously differences too. Comparison with other clusters would be important to understand this more fully

A sense of progress over one’s generational and personal past can help feelings of efficacy and positive legacy for fathers. Ex., Indigenous Dad: “I consider myself a success story because of where I came from and what I have done in my life.”

This sense of efficacy and giving to child is part of generative fathering, and can help to sustain it in difficult circumstances