“Something Had to Give”: A qualitative study of fathering in the early months of a global pandemic

Sensitized by ecological theory, this qualitative study explored how COVID-19 shaped fathering processes in the United States for fathers of young children. Scholars emphasize the need to understand how sociocultural and economic uncertainty impacts parenting processes. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine how the environmental press of a global crisis impacts the proximal processes of fathering, which serve as important engines of development. Guided by grounded theory methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 fathers of children aged four and younger who lived in the U.S. Data were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory methods. Contextual features of COVID-19 were a form of environmental press that enabled and constrained proximal processes of father-child interactions, interdependence among coparents, and intrapersonal adjustments with stress. Although the pandemic yielded many challenges, fathers’ narratives embodied ideals of engaged fathering that centered on men’s active presence in their children’s lives and reflected processual changes in his context that transformed fathering. Policies, programs, and practitioners can enable fathering proximal processes to accommodate familial needs in caregiving roles of young children, specifically in times of crisis and transition.