
Dads & Kids: Health & Fitness Talk is an interactive web resource to inform and inspire individuals committed to promoting healthy lifestyles for fathers and children. It targets parents—especially dads, youth and young adults, as well as professionals working with kids in the community as health care providers, coaches, teachers, youth ministers, Big Brothers, and the like.
I draw on my experiences as a dad as well as my training as a sociologist who interviews different types of fathers and studies their perceptions, feelings, joys, and challenges raising kids. In practical terms, and with a keen eye on dads and kids, I bridge the gap between the world of academic research and families’ everyday realities depicted by the popular press.
Dads should be treated as central players in what I call the social health matrix—the myriad conditions, relationships, and choices that define matters of health, fitness, and well-being for fathers' and children’s intersecting lives.
Dads & Kids: Health & Fitness Talk is an interactive web resource to inform and inspire individuals committed to promoting healthy lifestyles for fathers and children. It targets parents—especially dads, youth and young adults, as well as professionals working with kids in the community as health care providers, coaches, teachers, youth ministers, Big Brothers, and the like.
I draw on my experiences as a dad as well as my training as a sociologist who interviews different types of fathers and studies their perceptions, feelings, joys, and challenges raising kids. In practical terms, and with a keen eye on dads and kids, I bridge the gap between the world of academic research and families’ everyday realities depicted by the popular press.
Dads should be treated as central players in what I call the social health matrix—the myriad conditions, relationships, and choices that define matters of health, fitness, and well-being for fathers' and children’s intersecting lives.

Now, more than ever, American dads are poised to take a proactive approach to health and fitness for themselves and their children. In Dads, Kids, and Fitness: A Father's Guide to Family Health, I highlight the value of treating dads as central players in what he calls the social health matrix-the myriad condition, relationships, and choices that define matters of health, fitness, and well-being for fathers and children's intersecting lives.
The book was published with Rutgers University Press in fall 2016. It features interviews I've done with dads and pediatric health care professionals across the country as well as my own personal experiences.
Ultimately, I want to transform men’s thinking and behavior in ways that make men personally more health conscious and intimately invested in supporting their children’s health and fitness. This can be achieved most effectively by generating collaborative partnerships between individuals and community groups. Four partnerships are critical: |
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1. Father-child
2. Father-coparent (and other key family members)
3. Father-nonfamily members involved in a child’s life (e.g., teachers, coaches, pediatricians)
4. Community organizations with one another (e.g., schools, Boys and Girls clubs, public health groups, churches)
The website’s progressive philosophy breathes new life into complex debates about fathering, manhood, and health. The site also affords likeminded contributors and visitors an opportunity to expand their network and perspective. In doing so, participants should be better equipped to help dads and kids learn how to support each other as they strive to stay healthy, get healthy, or cope successfully with adverse health conditions and disabilities.
2. Father-coparent (and other key family members)
3. Father-nonfamily members involved in a child’s life (e.g., teachers, coaches, pediatricians)
4. Community organizations with one another (e.g., schools, Boys and Girls clubs, public health groups, churches)
The website’s progressive philosophy breathes new life into complex debates about fathering, manhood, and health. The site also affords likeminded contributors and visitors an opportunity to expand their network and perspective. In doing so, participants should be better equipped to help dads and kids learn how to support each other as they strive to stay healthy, get healthy, or cope successfully with adverse health conditions and disabilities.