Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Antonio Estrada

Second Advisor

Jorge Mayer

Third Advisor

Trevor O'Reggio

Abstract

Problem

When Hispanic people immigrate to the United States, they come with their own traditions, ideas, and values. Many of these values and teachings are different from North American values, however, each system strives to achieve similar goals in forming functional families. Many of these values conflict with traditional North American values. This natural conflict can make the transition from their native countries to the United States difficult, especially when analyzing the different ways each country’s government intervenes on behalf of children. If parents are unable to modify the social norms of their native country to allow the child to develop like other North American children, conflicts may result in a dysfunctional family. Thus, it is crucial to encourage fathers to participate more in their children’s lives. Hispanic fathers grow up in a traditional culture where most of the nurturing, socialization, and responsibility for child development is left to women, resulting in the loss of real male role models for children. It is important that fathers be taught to participate more effectively in the education and development of their children, to change their mind set, as well as be given x information and knowledge about childhood development.

Method

This dissertation was designed to help the Hispanic fathers who live in the United States to understand and develop four major concepts of family life that will encourage them to become more effectively involved in their children’s lives. The practical part was designed and implemented in /Atrevete! a series of workshops made especially for Hispanic fathers, in order for them to understand the learning concepts (roles, rules, boundaries, and ecology of the family) and the dynamics which help the participant to assimilate the introduced concepts and to encourage them into practice. Each workshop consisted of three mini lectures and were accompanied by an exercise to help the participant fathers integrate the concepts in their daily lives. Pre-and post tests were implemented to help measure the impact that the seminar had on the knowledge of the participant fathers. In all, four workshops added positively to the knowledge the participant acquired during the seminar.

Conclusion

A clear understanding and explicit integration of the four concepts, roles, rules, boundaries, and ecology of the family in the lives of Hispanic fathers will help them to develop good parenting skills. It will also prepare them to be more effectively involved in their children’s lives, because with the knowledge acquired through the concepts, fathers will be empowered to participate with an understanding of their children’s needs and their social system.

Subject Area

Hispanic American fathers; Hispanic American parents; Parenting; Father and child

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/468

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