Publications [#255386] of Linda Burton

Book Chapters

1. Roy, D; Burton, LM, 'Show me you can be a father': Maternal monitoring and recruitment of fathers for invovvement in low-income families, in Monitoring families, edited by Nelson, M; Garey, AI (2009), pp. 192-216, Vanderbilt University Press, ISBN 9780826516718
   (last updated on 2020/03/04)

   Abstract:
   How low-income single mothers and nonresidential fathers sort out responsibilities for taking care of their children remains a keen policy interest in American society. Unfortunately, we have limited insight into how lowincome single mothers acquire resources for their families (Dominguez and Watkins 2003). We also have limited insight into how nonresidential fathers maintain involvement with unmarried mothers and their children (Carlson, McLanahan, and England 2004; Waller and McLanahan 2005). Maternal gatekeeping has been used by researchers as a blanket concept to identify most efforts by mothers to shape men's involvement with their children. Gatekeeping has emerged from studies with a primary focus on coresidential, married couples, most of whom are middle class and European American (Allen and Hawkins 1999; DeLuccie 1995; see Fagan and Barnett 2003 for exception). The term is primarily used to indicate mothers' exclusion of fathers' involvement, including motivations to discourage or deflect men's interactions with children. However, Pleck and Masciadrelli (2004) note that most gatekeeping studies link discouragement of paternal involvement only to mothers' attitudes, and rarely to actual family processes and behaviors. In previous research (Roy and Burton 2007), we identified a specific family process: "kinwork," or the work that mothers do to maintain family members' commitments that promote children's well-being. Mothers create a set of family scripts that guide social expectations and lead to efficiency and consistency in taking care of family responsibilities (Byng-Hall 1985). This kinscripts framework (Stack and Burton 1993) situates women's work within complex family relationships over time and serves as an alternative approach to the gatekeeping concept. The framework also shifts the focus of study from mother-father relationships to extrafamilial relationships that "regenerate families, maintain lifetime continuities, sustain intergenerational responsibilities, and reinforce shared values" (Stack and Burton 1993, 160; see also Crosbie-Burnett and Lewis 1999; DiLeonardo 1987). Kinscripts become critical when mothers make decisions to create or dissolve supportive networks for the daily survival and social mobility of their families (Hansen 2005; Nelson 2000, 2005; Stack 1974). They are crafted as accepted standards of behavior that family members must favorably meet as dedicated kinworkers. Mothers may recruit a range of men (e.g., biological fathers, boyfriends, non-intimate friends, and paternal and maternal kin) for involvement if those men fulfill basic kinwork expectations. For most fathers, for example, an established standard is that they accept responsibility for their biological children by contributing resources or time to improve children's life chances in economically disadvantaged communities. Family members often hold time-proven mental representations of low-income fathers as "renegade relatives" whose transitions in residences, relationships, and employment put low-income families at risk for loss of resources, conflict, and abuse (Edin and Kefalas 2005; Sano 2004; Stack 1974; Waller and Swisher 2006). However, focused recruitment of men into kinwork roles potentially enhances families as well. Men provide financial resources for their children (Gibson, Edin, and McLanahan 2005; Kotchick, Dorsey, and Heller 2005; Mincy, Garfinkel, and Nepomnyaschy 2005; Roy 1999) even through the simple act of paternity establishment and through the subsequent contributions of fathers' own kin (Stack 1974). Low-income single mothers seek from fathers not only guidance for their children but also emotional support or trustworthy caregiving (Jarrett, Roy, and Burton 2002; Roy, Tubbs, and Burton 2004). What is underexplored in research on recruitment, however, is how mothers gather information to make decisions about recruiting fathers, and how they monitor those fathers once they are recruited. In this chapter, we consider how the work of surveillance is particularly relevant as mothers create or dissolve family membership. This type of monitoring differs from formal surveillance by public organizations, as it is rooted in surveillance of the "borders" of role relationships (Marx 2007). Personal data about fathers may be at the core of mothers' "thin" surveillance methods, especially if unemployment histories, physical mobility, and past experiences (e.g., incarceration, gang activity, and drug use) determine whether men are appropriate parents (Torpey 2007; Zuriek 2007). Moreover, both the ongoing process of monitoring and the act of recruitment bring power into play in family relationships, especially when information on men's behavior leads mothers to let go of them as family members. In this chapter, we return to our previous analyses (Roy and Burton 2007) to expand on how monitoring shapes "kinscription" (i.e., the recruiting of kin for specific work within a family). We explore low-income single mothers' monitoring and subsequent recruitment of men as open-ended and contested processes, inclusive of these multiple family needs and multiple actors. We examine monitoring as an ongoing process that forms the basis for initial recruitment and continuing validation of men's positive involvement with children. We define recruitment as the negotiation of connections with a range of men (biological fathers, boyfriends, non-intimate friends, and paternal and maternal kin) in order to improve children's life chances in economically disadvantaged communities. In short, paternal monitoring and recruitment are critical dimensions of mothers' efforts at kinscription and efforts to be "good mothers. © 2009 by Vanderbilt University Press. All rights reserved.