As Father’s Day approaches, I’ve been thinking about messages of healthy fatherhood. And I’ve been thinking about MFFN’s strategy of framing fatherhood based on the benefits that fathers bring to children, women, communities, and to fathers themselves.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been hearing more and more about the concept of social norms. As I understand it, social norming states a positive reality based on the majority of the population — rather than stating a negative reality based on a small minority.
Here’s how it’s explained by the National Social Norms Institute, “Until recently, the predominant approach in the field of health promotion sought to motivate behavior change by highlighting risk. Sometimes called ‘the scare tactic approach’ or ‘health terrorism,’ this method essentially hopes to frighten individuals into positive change by insisting on the negative consequences of certain behaviors. Think of the image of a crumpled automobile, flashing red lights, and the tag line ‘Speed kills!’ and you will have a sense of this kind of public health campaign. As sociologist H. Wesley Perkins has pointed out, however, this kind of traditional strategy ‘has not changed behavior one percent.’”
As I continue to think about fatherhood, I realize that talking about fatherlessness and father absence may be the equivalent of the scare tactic approach. Meanwhile, talking about father presence, healthy fatherhood, and positive father-child relationships is the social norms approach.
Afterall, we know that most men (married and unmarried) are present at the birth of their children. Most men protect their children and raise them in healthy ways. Most men provide monetarily and emotionally, as best they can, to meet the needs of the next generation. Most men aim to be good fathers.
And most men (and most women) could probably do just a little bit more to be an even better parent.
This Father’s Day, I’m happy to celebrate the social norm of good fathering.
Happy Father’s Day,
Paul Masiarchin
I agree. Too often the “default” position of perception is that fathers are a (sometimes superfluous) addendum to mothers with regards to the well-being of children. While it has improved significantly in the past two decades, we still have a deeply ingrained belief that father absence, while not necessarily desirable, is socially “logical”; that is, it makes sense, it follows because, after all, this is just the way men “are”. Thanks for pointing out that, in fact, that is not how men are most of the time - they are around, are involved, do make sacrifices for their children every day.
Comment by Pat Morley — June 19, 2009 @ 8:43 am