Paternity: social responsibility of man's role as provider.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze meanings attributed to paternity by men who are fathers.


METHODS
Study with a qualitative approach and gender-theory focus, performed in the city of João Pessoa, Northeastern Brazil, in 2003. A total of ten men, whose children had been cared for in the pediatric outpatient clinic of a university hospital, participated in the study. Information analyzed was obtained with semi-structured interviews. Critical discourse analysis technique was employed to analyze participants' speech. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: Participants in the study viewed paternity as a new social role, more closely associated with material support for the family than the dimension of affective involvement with the child. However, participants experienced a transition process where the traditional father lived with those whose affective dimension of paternity was found to be the main concern of being a father.


CONCLUSIONS
The meaning and concrete exercise of paternity were found in an area of responsibilities that predominantly reproduces the traditional father, but also recreates the father's role, including the affective dimension.
Freitas
Waglânia de Mendonça Faustino e
Wde M
Grupo de Pesquisa Políticas Públicas de Atenção à Mulher e Gênero, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil. waglaniafreitas@ccs.ufpb.br
Silva
Ana Tereza Medeiros Cavalcante da
AT
Coelho
Edméia de Almeida Cardoso
Ede A
Guedes
Rebeca Nunes
RN
Lucena
Kerle Dayana Tavares de
KD
Costa
Ana Paula Teixeira
AP
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010334:Paternity; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012922:Social Change; D012941:Social Responsibility; D055815:Young Adult