Contemporary fatherhood and family from the perspectives of men

In contemporary societies, traditional family structure has been evolved into nuclear family structure, thus, roles and responsibilities of individuals within the nuclear family structure has been changed, women?s education status has been increased and consequently women?s status in the society have been raised and women have become independent from being economically dependent on men. Elimination of the sharp social gender boundaries has changed traditional mother and father roles, in this fashion, the concept of fatherhood is also affected from this developments. Men have been started to share housework and child care responsibilities, hence, the nature of fatherhood and parenting attitudes have been changed and concept of the fatherhood and parenting has gained new meaning. It has being observed that, in today?s contemporary societies, traditional and modern cultural beliefs and values for maternity ? paternity have been living side by side. After reviewing the relevant literature, it is seen that studies have been conducted in order to find the determinants of attitudes and behaviors of fatherhood are inadequate and topic needs further study and research. This research aims to determine which factors are effective in changes of the attitudes and behaviors of today's men?s fatherhood concept in cultural structure of Turkish society, thus, hopefully to fill some gap in this literature, albeit a bit. In this study, even though, field study conducted by us is characterized by quantitative research design, qualitative data obtained in-depth interviews were also used in order to strengthen quantitative research design. Decoded data obtained in-depth interviews have been decisive in the determination of the statements contained in Likert scale. In addition to Likert scale, five more questions which have primary impact on formation of the fatherhood attitude in socio- demographic variables were asked to the participants. They are: their father's education level, mother's education level, the place where their families live, average monthly income of their families, the number of the siblings. With the help of Likert-type scale, a questionnaire form applied to the male university students who are candidates for the fatherhood. Obtained data are processed under frequency analysis and chi-square tests of independence. We can conclude that; according to the results of statistical tests applied, education level of the mother and father have influence in the process of formation and development of attitudes and behaviors of fatherhood for prospective father candidates.