Child Healthcare Decision-Making: Examining "Conjointness" in Paternal Identities among Residential and Non-Residential Fathers

This study examines the paternal identity conjointness of seventeen residential and fourteen non-residential fathers within five, normative healthcare decisions. Using consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology to investigate fathers’ usage of parenting voice (I or We), we examined how paternal identity conjointness was similar and different between residential and non-residential fathers in each healthcare decision. Results revealed two new paternal identities, “self-as-detached” and “mixed.” Residential fathers expressed a self-as-co-parental identity in three of the five healthcare decisions, but shifted to a self-as-solo identity when deciding if their child would be circumcised. Non-residential fathers constructed a self-as-co-parental identity in two healthcare decisions while also expressing a self-as-detached identity and mixed identity in other healthcare decisions. Contextual and relational influences on paternal identity conjointness are identified. Implications of our findings for future research and practice are discussed.