Fathers' perceptions of how they were parented

The purpose of this article is to report how a group of 391 well-educated, White, midwestern American married fathers of young adolescents (11 to 14 years) described their perceptions of how they were raised. The question "Describe how your parents parented you" was asked as part of a larger quasi-experimental study to test the outcomes of communication skills training among a sample of families in a community. The fathers' short-answer descriptions were succinct yet substantive. Using content analysis procedures, 6 themes were identified. Four reflected the men's perceptions of specific strategies used by their parents. The themes were labeled establishing boundaries, parental presence, adhering to guidelines, and communication techniques. A 5th theme, labeled family size, indicated that some men perceived that the structure influenced how they were parented. The 6th theme, evaluation of their parents' parenting, encompassed the men's opinions of how successful they perceived their parents were at raising them. The men's perceptions are discussed within the context of fathering roles. The themes are offered as a framework to define parenting, and implications for nursing practice and research are proposed.