Using qualitative data from Project SIZE—a study that explores child and family
well-being in the context of HIV/AIDS and poverty, we interviewed the female caregivers
of 20 9- to 10-year-old children and 16 of the father-figures nominated by
children. We consider how childhood experiences with fathers are associated with
women’s expectations and men’s experiences of fathering. Data were analysed thematically
in pairs of the focal child’s caregiver and father-figure. Data from four
women who were not paired were analysed individually. Results generally support
both the modelling and the compensatory hypotheses to explain intergenerational influences
on men’s fathering attitudes and behaviour. Our results go a step further to
acknowledge that fatherhood is dynamic and, in rural KwaZulu-Natal, it is influenced
also by socio-cultural and economic factors, societal expectations, fathermother
relationship and individual characteristics of men