Men’s Relations with Kids: Exploring and Promoting the Mosaic of Youth Work and Fathering

ANNALS, AAPSS, 624, July 2009 Using qualitative in-depth interviews with a sample of adult male youth workers (n = 55), including a subset of twenty-nine fathers, the author explores how men’s fathering and youth experiences can be viewed as part of a larger, integrated social mosaic. Informed selectively by social constructionist, symbolic interactionist, life course, and generativity themes, the analysis expands the fatherhood literature by connecting it to men’s volunteering and work with kids in public settings. While extending his framework of fathering trajectories (self-as-father, father-child, and coparental) to examine similar processes defining men’s youth work, the author explores key points of intersection between youth work and fathering: youth work as inspiration and training for fathering, reciprocal influences between youth work and fathering, and men’s contributions to social capital for kids in public settings. The author also sketches several ideas to foster conceptual and practical ties between youth work and fathering to benefit youth.