This article explores the social support needs of African American men as they become fathers in early parenthood. Although becoming a father is often viewed as a common life event, it can be a stressful for fathers---especially for those lacking adequate social support. Social support is defined as emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support. Using the Critical Incident Technique, qualitative data was analyzed to identify helpful and unhelpful types of social support received by fathers. The findings highlight the importance of health care providers and social systems in offering meaningful supportive care in early parenthood.

Perceived maternal competence during early parenthood is associated with greater comfort in infant care. This study surveyed a convenience sample of 58 married, first-time mothers and 22 single, first time-mothers at six to eight weeks after childbirth to determine differences of mothers’ maternal competence levels. The 17-item Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC; Gibaud-Wallston, 1977) was used to measure parental role competency across two subscales: a) Skill/Knowledge, and b) Valuing/Comfort.
Statistically significant differences were only found in the Valuing/Comfort subscale, with single mothers reporting lower levels of comfort and perceived value in the maternal role (t = 2.128, df = 30.713, p = .037), compared to married mothers. These findings suggest that health care professionals should develop interventions aimed at enhancing feelings of value and comfort among single mothers during early parenthood.