Faithful Fathering in Trying Times: Religious Beliefs and Practices of Latter-Day Saint Fathers of Children with Special Needs

Keywords

religious beliefs, Latter-day Saint, fathers, children, fathering

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from an exploration of religious beliefs collected from narrative accounts from 16 Latter-day Saint (LDS or Mormon) fathers of children with special needs. Six themes were created to organize the narratives as a result of coding. The first three are not explicitly religious in nature: (1) choosing to care, (2) dealing with today's challenges, and (3) building love through play. The second three themes were explicitly religious: (4) having faith in God's purposes, (5) giving priesthood blessings, and (6) accepting help from the church. These themes are connected to the literature on special-needs children and are related to the conceptual ethic of generative fathering (Dollahite, Hawkins, & Brotherson, 1997).

Original Publication Citation

Dollahite, D. C., Marks, L. D., & Olson, M. M. (1998). Faithful fathering in trying times: Religious beliefs and practices of Latter-day Saint fathers of children with special needs. The Journal of Men's Studies, 7, 71-93.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1998-10-01

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/7690

Publisher

The Journal of Men's Studies

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Family Life

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS