The Role of Father's Masculinity on Relationship Transitions

Kristy Krivickas, Bowling Green State University

This study uses the Fragile Families data to examine how a diverse group of men display their masculinities and how masculinity influences relationship transitions. First, I identify three ideal categorizations of masculinity: the “traditional,” “new father,” and “hyper-masculine” models. In creating these categories, I use factors that have been previously associated with masculinity, such as emotional control, primacy of work, and violence. I will use cluster analysis to confirm if these categories differentiate forms of masculinity among urban fathers. Then, using multinomial regression models, I address if masculinity predicts whether fathers transition into a more or less committed relationship with their child’s mother between the birth of the child and the child’s fifth birthday. Preliminary results indicate that fathers appear to cluster into three groups that correspond with the three idealized models. Additionally, father’s masculinity is associated with relationship transitions.