Fatherhood desire in men

Abstract

Generally when trying to account for the desire to have a child, this topic is associated most frequently with women. This has resulted in a notorious lack of research on men’s desire of being parents. The objective of this study was to analyze men’s talk on their desire of being parents. A qualitative research was carried out through in-depth interviews with six participants of three Mexican middle-class fathers, who participated in a program of ‘school for parents’. Results showed that men’s desire of fatherhood can be conceived as a construction process, in which different social discourses are involved (models of fatherhood from their own families; books about parenthood; etc.), which play the role of cultural resources supporting such a construction