Father Roles in the future

Summary:

There was study done on television shows that demonstrated domestic situations in comedic way, but its purpose was to examine various themes of father involvement. The observers took note of all instances that involved either discussion or fulfillment of the father role. They used inductive thematic analysis to lead to three themes: carious ways fathers interact with children, how fathers of varying racial/ethnic groups, and socioeconomic status were depicted; and along with negative messages regarding the role of the father in the family. The fathers in family-oriented sitcoms engage in diversified actions that convey both positive and negative messages about their role within the family. The messages conveyed considering the difficulty associated with fathering in contemporary families, a role whose expectations are often indefinite.

My Opinions/ Questions:

I feel that this is a good study to view when talking about the father figure in the future. The reason being is because this study viewed different family types on the shows along with being set in different time eras. I think this was a good study because while looking at these shows you are able to see how different domestic situations were handled in different time periods. An example of the different eras is According to Jim, the Cosby Show, and Roseanne. For example in the Cosby Show they had to deal with a child hiding drinking while with Roseanne they have to deal with a child who is going through a gothic stage. They handle in different ways because of the structure of those specific families, but mainly it is because it took place in different decades. The other thing that was different was how the father handled the situations. In the Leave it to Beaver the father had the authoritative role, but as it progressed overtime the father role became the comedic relief who really had no authority. If this study was to be done today I wonder how they would analyze and apply the themes to shows such as Modern Family. In the future I wonder how family structures will be different? What will the domestic situations be and how will the families handle it? Will the father role change in the future and become more serious again or just be void due to the popularity of single mother families?

Reference: https://courseweb.pitt.edu/@@/ED1A764B3FEC81B2F038544ACC07CBAB/courses/1/2114_23120/content/_6560550_1/Pehlke_Does%20Father....pdf