Meaning Making in Growing Up Without a Father: Narratives of Young Adolescent Boys

Abstract

This article explores young adolescent boys’ narratives and lived experiences of growing up without fathers. We conducted Individual interviews with thirty-two adolescent boys, and used discursive data analysis methods to analyse meanings that these participants made about growing up without fathers. We found that participants in the study embraced alternative voices of masculinity that were not destructive to the self and others, despite growing up without father figures. This contradicts the mainstream literature which holds that boys who grow up without fathers are highly likely to experience emotional disturbances and indulge in risk-taking behaviours.