Working with Single Fathers: Suggestions for Effective Practice

Single fathers (i.e. men rearing their children without support from a ‘live-in’ adult companion) have been termed an ‘unnoticed group’ in Australian society (Bain, 1973).

Apart from the author's own recently completed research (Wilson, 1988), only three previous Australian studies about single fathers have been undertaken. This evident lack of interest in single fathers needs to be understood within a broader context of traditional family research approaches, which denied the significance of the fathers' role in the socialisation and nurturance of children. Fathers have been termed the “forgotten contributors to child development’ (Lamb, 1975) since traditionally, social scientists have viewed fathers as aloof and distant from their own children, with little capacity to undertake core caretaking roles in families (Fein, 1978).