"What we're seeing reflects the changing sexual ideology," said James Levine, the director of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute in New York, a private research organization.

"Ask yourself what the parents' behavior toward you really represents," said Dr. Ron Levant, the former director of the Fatherhood Project at Boston University, which studied men in their 30's and 40's.

One man who participated in the Fatherhood Project described how his father had been complaining loudly about him at family gatherings.

James Levine, director of the Fatherhood Project, a separate part of the institute, calls the changing nature of parental decision-making "the family issue of the 90's."

More rank-and-file employees are taking paternity leave than ever before, said James A. Levine, the director of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute in New York.

"There is a mismatch in young women's and men's views of the future," said James A. Levine, director of the Fatherhood Project, which conducts research and acts as a national clearinghouse on issues related to fatherhood.

There is very little reliable data on custody decisions, said James A. Levine, the director of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute in New York City.

"I would hear these stories over and over from the men we interviewed," said Dr. Ron Levant, the former director of the Fatherhood Project at Boston University, which studied men in their 30's and 40's.

Dr. Levant observed the behavior of more than 100 stepfathers from 1983 to 1988 while director of the Fatherhood Project at Boston University.

In 1981 Mr. Levine began the Fatherhood Project, which conducts research and acts as a national clearinghouse on issues related to fatherhood.