Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair and Members
Nicholas Papouchis, Chair
Lisa W Samstag
Kevin B Meehan
Keywords
Caregiving beliefs, Emotion socialization, Fatherhood, Masculinity, Normative male alexithymia, Reflective functioning
Abstract
Prior research has documented the effects of traditional masculine ideologies (TMI) on men’s restrictive emotionality (Levant, 2011), labeled as normative male alexithymia (Levant et al., 2006). For men who become fathers, research has noted how the rejection of TMI increases fathers’ nurturing role beliefs and the frequency that children turn to their fathers for emotional support, but these findings do not outline the quality of fathers’ emotional support (Petts al., 2018; Shafer et al., 2019). Therefore, the current project examined the effects of TMI on 281 fathers’ capacity to respond to their children’s negative emotions with Expressive Encouragement (EE), which is a response that provides validation and encouragement (Fabes et al., 2002). In addition, the first study hypothesized that the relationship between fathers’ rejection of TMI and their increased use of EE would be mediated by fathers’ nurturing role beliefs and their decreased normative male alexithymia, using self-report and vignette style measures. In the second study, 85 fathers’ reflective functioning was assessed using the Brief Reflective Function Interview (Rudden et al., 2005). It was hypothesized that fathers’ reflective functioning would mediate the relationship between TMI and EE, as reflective functioning directly assesses one’s ability to reflect on their own and others’ mental states. The results of the first study confirmed many proposed hypotheses, including a significant relationship between the rejection of TMI and EE, and the mediating role of fathers’ nurturing role beliefs. Additionally, the second study found a significant and strong relationship between fathers’ rejection of TMI and their improved reflective functioning. These novel findings and related limitations were discussed in conjunction with existing research.
Recommended Citation
Katzman, William Girard, "The nurturing father: The role of fathers' masculine ideology, caregiving beliefs, and reflective functioning" (2025). Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-. 53.
https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/brooklyn_fulltext_dis/53