Are Mothers Really “Gatekeepers” of Children?

Abstract

Guided by symbolic interactionism, this qualitative study based on interviews with 83 rural mothers investigated mothers' perceptions of nonresident fathers' involvement in low-income families. Contrary to some fathers' claims that mothers “gatekeep” their access to children, the majority of mothers in our study wanted increased father involvement. The mothers' desire for active father–child interaction was not dampened by their frustration at the lack or irregularity of child support payment, which mothers tended to accept, given the lack of economic opportunities in rural communities. Despite their wishes to promote father–child contact, mothers also experienced frustration and distrust toward former partners when they perceived that the fathers were not fulfilling their expected parental roles. This study demonstrates that mothers' actions, which may be interpreted as gatekeeping by the fathers, are often not intended to discourage father involvement but rather are meant to negotiate more acceptable father behavior.

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“…The disparate themes, com pared to those developed in response to a "good father," suggest that the majority of teenage moth ers who participated in this study did not perceive the fathers of their children to be meeting their perceptions of a "good father." These results are consistent with previous findings of young adult mothers (Sano, Richards, & Zvonkovic, 2008), which found that the majority of mothers in their study reported that they received child support irregularly, and half of the sample reported that their children's fathers had irregular contact with their children, with many either being incarcerated or banned from seeing the child. Additionally, most mothers expressed a desire for increased father child interactions, much like in the current study.…”

Maternal Kinship Involvement and Father Identity in Fragile Families

“…Negative relationships between mothers and fathers potentially increase the number of barriers that parents, nonresident fathers in particular, face in maintaining involvement with children. For example, among nonresident fathers, research has shown that mothers sometimes serve as gatekeepers of children (Allen and Hawkins 1999;Sano et al 2008). That is, mothers may block fathers' access to children for a number of reasons, including perceptions that fathers threaten mothers' new romantic partnerships, or that fathers are a threat to her children (e.g., Claessens 2007).…”

Colour me father: Lived experiences of incarcerated fathers in northern British Columbia.

“…Other research shows that the quality of a father's participation in his child's life hinges on the quality of the father's relationship with the mother of the child Sano, Richards, & Zvonkovic, 2008). Further, scores of women do not believe that men can parent properly and consequently prefer that men be excluded from parenting (hooks, 1984;Sano et al, 2008).…”

“…Further, scores of women do not believe that men can parent properly and consequently prefer that men be excluded from parenting (hooks, 1984;Sano et al, 2008). Roy and Dyson (2005) conducted research with incarcerated fathers to ascertain the influence of maternal gatekeeping on securing, restricting and defining the extent of involvement in their children's lives.…”

“…Over 80% of the mothers encouraged positive relationships of the father with his children. These mothers wanted more contact of the father with his children despite their perceptions of poor quality father-child interaction (Sano et al, 2008). Other mothers believed the father's parenting skills were inadequate, but this was partly based on their lack of trust in the father's nurturing abilities.…”