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Genetic Counselors' Experiences with Paternal Involvement in Prenatal Genetic Counseling Sessions: An Exploratory Investigation
Author(s) -
Lafans Richard S.,
Veach Patricia McCarthy,
LeRoy Bonnie S.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1023/a:1023232203033
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , exploratory research , qualitative research , psychology , medicine , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , family medicine , genetics , social science , sociology , anthropology , biology
Limited research exists concerning male partners' participation in prenatal genetic counseling (R. Kenen, A. C. M. Smith, C. Watkins, & C. Zuber‐Pitore, J. Genet Corns 9, 33–45, 2000). To further understand paternal participation, we interviewed 17 experienced prenatal genetic counselors to assess their perspectives on this issue. We investigated 6 research questions: 1) How do genetic counselors define paternal involvement, 2) how do they determine and address problematic involvement, 3) what factors influence involvement, 4) was paternal involvement addressed in training, 5) how might training be improved, and 6) how do participant strategies for addressing involvement compare to those of marriage/family therapists? Qualitative analysis revealed that 1) participants regard paternal involvement asimportant; 2) most address problematic involvement with strategies similar to those of marital/family therapists; 3) influential factors include male partner's characteristics, the couple's relationship (including culturalpractices), and pregnancy factors; and 4) participants received little or notraining on paternal involvement and recommended didactic and experientialactivities. Implications and research recommendations are presented.