Stress, social support, and the transition to fatherhood

Over the past ten years, nurses have shown increasing interest in understanding and assisting men in their transition to fatherhood. Inadequate data and lack of a framework for interpreting diverse studies have hindered the development of appropriate intervention strategies. In this article, a paradigm from the field of stress research is adapted to the transition to fatherhood. The new paradigm organizes and integrates the factors that impact on a man's experience of becoming a father. The utility of this paradigm in generating theory and hypotheses for future research is illustrated by fully exploring one of the potential variables impacting on fatherhood, i.e., social support. Through this process a better theoretical understanding of social support as well as a guide to future inquiry concerning fatherhood is acquired.