Negotiating an acceptable fit amid cumulative trauma: a constructivist grounded theory of fathers’ engagement in the nurturing families intervention

Abstract

When it comes to structured family-based psychosocial programmes, engaging fathers to participate and commit to the programme is a widely reported issue. This can become more pressing in conflict-affected regions, where a history of trauma, financial pressures, and the presence of rigid traditional outlooks towards masculinity add to the challenges in engaging the continued participation of fathers in such programmes. Thus, the present study aims to explore the process that fathers and households go through when considering participation in psychosocial support programmes, using the Nurturing Families intervention as an example. This study employed a constructivist grounded theory approach to develop an integrated process model of fathers’ participation in the Nurturing Families intervention. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with six fathers who participated in the programme, seven programme facilitators, and one mother who also participated in the programme. The sample was from two different locations in Iraq: Erbil and Mosul Governorates. The resulting constructed theory underpinned the process, centred on the core category of negotiating an acceptable fit amid a backdrop of cumulative trauma. The core category highlights the underlying processes shaping fathers’ participation, influenced by contextual and historical factors. Among the six conceptual categories integrated under the core category, cumulative trauma was cross-cutting in its influence. By embedding father-engagement decisions related to psychosocial support programmes within the historical and contextually relevant underlying processes, the present study widens engagement models beyond Western and developed contexts.