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Introduction 3 and experiences within them influence ideologies about fatherhood and the practices associated with fathering itself. CONCEPTUALIZING AND DEFINING FATHERS’ ROLES ACROSS CULTURES Until fairly recently, fathering was predominantly conceptualized within Lamb’s framework of engagement, accessibility, and responsibility (Lamb, Pleck, Charnov, & Levine 1987). Other conceptualizations of fathering and childhood development have highlighted the emotional and cognitive aspects of father involvement, fathers as resource providers, father identity, father presence, fatherwork, generativity, and responsible fathering (Amato 1998 Doherty, Kouneski, & Erickson 1998 Dollahite, Hawkins, & ­ Brotherson 1997 Palkovitz 1997), as well as the factors that mediate and moderate fathering practices and childhood outcomes (Cabrera, Fitzgerald, Bradley, & Roggman 2007). Despite these advances, cultural psychological frameworks on father–child relationships remain elusive. Admittedly, though the uni- versal goal is to raise children who possess the skills and assets necessary for meeting the demands of life within their cultural community, the pathways to achieving those skills, and the forces that shape them, vary across cultures. Following perspectives on different developmental pathways to human development (Greenfield, Keller, Fuligni, & Maynard 2003), the chapters in this volume draw from a broad range of frameworks (e.g., ­ autonomous–relational, adaptationist, ecocultural, familism, feminist, collectivistic, men and masculini- ties, social constructivism, institutional conceptualization of welfare regimes) to situate and anchor fathering practices. In most cases, the theoretical perspec- tives and conceptual frameworks consider the construction of fathering roles but acknowledge that change in traditional views of fathering is necessary for optimal childhood development. The chapters in this book provide a platform for extending the discussion on conceptual frameworks on the multiple mean- ings of fathering in a global community marked by changes in parental social- ization patterns and expectations of children, migration, and greater attention to human rights. Whereas in some cultural communities a strong case is made for the connection between fathering activities and childhood development, in others, fathers assume a peripheral role as “helpers” amid ambiguity about exactly how they contribute to children’s psychological development. In most cultural settings, the emphasis on economic provision for family members domi- nates and often encourages physical and psychological distance between men and the interior aspects of childrearing. The theoretical perspectives used by the authors to frame fathering roles and developmental outcomes in children not only lead to greater scientific integration of the fathering literatures from cultural, cross-cultural, and