Constructions of fatherhood during the 'transition to the empty nest' stage of parenting
This thesis presents a discursive psychological analysis of the ways in which fatherhood is constructed in a variety of contexts during the transition to the ‘empty nest’. The body of the data used in the study consists of thirty three Internet articles describing parenting challenges related to the event of children leaving home, a hundred and sixty four postings of parents’ online conversations about transition to the ‘empty nest’ as well as nineteen semi-structured interviews with fathers whose children have left, or were in the process of leaving home. This range of data was firstly collected in order to explore the breadth of the fatherhood constructions available in everyday settings. Secondly, the aim of the study was to investigate whether the accounts constructed in different contexts varied and how those discrepancies contributed to the understanding of fatherhood during the ‘empty nest’. Finally, the different types of data were analysed to contribute to current methodological debates about the role of interviews in qualitative research. Each of the 3 empirical chapters presents an analysis of constructions of fatherhood from these separate contexts.
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