Due to the structure simplification and downsizing of the families as well as the increase of married women employment, the demand on for fathers to participate in fathering is growing. However, the men's voice on the fatherhood experience and fathering is low, and the academic discussion on fatherhood is also insignificant. Therefore, this study will explore what the men think of themselves as being a father, what the sphere of caring that the fathers participate in is, what the fathers think about the ideal role of fathers and what role they are actually carrying on.
To accomplish the purpose of this study, both qualitative and quantitative research were carried on. The qualitative research was done in ways of the FGI(Focused Group Interview) and depth interviews. These methods is to have more understanding on the men's life to develop the questionnaire based on their perspective. Also, this study carried on a questionnaire research to analyze the fatherhood experience and the fathering of the men who are raising or who have raised children. In point that the expectation and perception on the father's role within the family might vary according to the different expectations and thoughts of the family members as well as the men's socio-demographic characteristics, the research was conducted in household unit considering the family cycle. Moreover, to examine the men's fathering and their paternal patterns, the sampling was limited to a certain age group in which the children are not grown up, the demand for fathering is still high. To this end, 900 households with both parents and with children younger than 20 years old in Cities and Guns(a county) across the nation were randomly sampled, from which, a total of 2300 household members (both parents and their children) were chosen.
The result of this study is as follow. Firstly, the majority of the fathers recognize financial support for their families as their major responsibility, but at the same time have idealized views of being attentive and friendly parents. Men regarded fatherhood as more abstract and ambiguous than motherhood, placing it in the same category as protection and support.
Secondly, we were able to clearly verify the change in the ideal father model. The married men perceived their fathers as supporters, moral models, and strict trainers but considered themselves to be the emotional supporters and friends of their children, showing generational changes. Despite this understanding, the fathers still depended mostly on the mothers in the fostering of their children. Moreover, eventhough the fathers know that various father's roles are required, most of them don't practice much in other roles besides emotional and financial support.
Thirdly, we looked over the different understanding of fatherhood among the family members. The most noteworthy part of the result was the significant difference between the fathers' and children's understanding of the role of fathers. That is, the fathers's recognition of how much they are doing the father role was higher than what the children thought they are receiving. This shows that there is a gap between the fathers' understanding of their children and what they actually do. Therefore, there is a problem that the conflict might grow between the fathers and the children, at the situation when the children's expectation is high, but the fathers can't reach it.
The last is about the role conflict occurring when the men practice fathering. The more favorable their family relationships were, the more positive they assessed their paternal roles. Positive professionalism was observed to have weakened conflicts in work-family balance. Especially, the 5 day workweek system turned out to have effect on alleviating the work-family conflict, telling that the constant dissemination of this system is very important.
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