Electronic encounters: fathers' experiences of parental support

A group of fathers met regularly during their child's first year through an e-meeting portal. (This was part of a larger study which was designed to describe mothers' and fathers' experiences of an intervention to provide parental support.) The technology allowed meetings by web-based videoconferencing, both one-to-one and in groups. The leader of the electronic encounters was a man with comprehensive experience in leading parental support groups with fathers. The fathers were interviewed using a narrative approach twice, once midway through the study and once at the end. Qualitative content analysis was applied to the interview data and three categories were identified: being unfamiliar and insecure talking about fatherhood, sharing experiences and being confirmed, and being supported and limited by the electronic encounters. Most fruitful and rewarding in the meetings was the fathers sharing other fathers' experiences. It was important to talk about things they did not talk to others about. Some fathers expressed a wish for more structure in the meetings. The fathers in this study expressed a wish to meet other fathers in a support group during the whole childhood period.