Ser e sentir-se pai pela primeira vez

Abstract

Paternal parenting encompasses how the father meets the child’s needs, establishes limits, grants autonomy and promotes skills in the child. This dissertation was divided into two studies: a scoping review of the national literature and a qualitative study. The scoping review aimed to investigate the Brazilian evidence on paternal parenting. A survey was conducted in the Scielo, Pepsic, IndexPsi and Lilacs databases, of studies carried out between 2018 and 2023. Of the 201 studies found, 20 met the eligibility criteria. The results showed that, in addition to financial provision, the father promotes child development in a reciprocal affective relationship, with disciplinary strategies, exploration of the environment and socialization, added to the co-responsibility of parental roles with mothers, and the presence of a support network. The qualitative study aimed to investigate how the differentiation of self influences the parenting of primiparous men. The narratives of two primiparous men were collected through episodic interviews and analyzed according to Bowen’s Systemic Theory. The analysis resulted in three themes: 'paternal happiness', 'parental differentiation-undifferentiated' and 'intergenerational differentiation'. These themes highlighted the paternal happiness in the face of the child’s growth, the consolidation of mutual bonds and stress management; the need to avoid coercive parenting and emotional discontrol, and to encourage children’s autonomy and sharing parental control with their mother; and, given their history of creation, the search for a participatory and affectionate paternity, and by parental figures who value the autonomy and belonging between fathers and children. While limitations, in study 1 there was the need to refine search strategies, identifying other possible male experiences in parenthood. In study 2 the inclusion criteria did not accept other paternal perspectives; there was a lack of initial ties with participants, which resulted in dropouts in recruitment; the use of video calls instead of face-to-face interviews, that may have affected the quality and freedom of interviewee and researcher during the interview. It is concluded that the findings of both studies can be valuable for research on fatherhood and masculinity, in so far as they can elucidate the contours in which men feel, care, value people in their lives and recognize themselves in their own history.