Conceptualizing And Measuring Father Involvement

After decades of focusing on the mother's role in parenting, family studies researchers have turned their attention to the role of the father in parenting and family development. The results shed new light on childhood development and question conventional wisdom by showing that beyond providing the more traditional economic support of the family, fathers do indeed matter when it comes to raising a child. Stemming from a series of workshops and publications sponsored by the Family and Child Well-Being Network, under the federal fatherhood initiative of the National Institute of Child Health and Development, this comprehensive volume focuses on ways of measuring the efficacy of father involvement in different scenarios, using different methods of assessment and different populations. In the process, new research strategies and new parental paradigms have been formulated to include paternal involvement. Moreover, this volume contains articles from a variety of influences while addressing the task of finding the missing pieces of the fatherhood construct that would work for new age, as well as traditional and minority fathers. The scope of this discussion offers topics of interest to basic researchers, as well as public policy analysts.

After decades of focusing on the mother's role in parenting, family studies researchers have turned their attention to the role of the father in parenting and family development. The results shed new light on childhood development and question conventional wisdom by showing that beyond providing the more traditional economic support of the family, fathers do indeed matter when it comes to raising a child. Stemming from a series of workshops and publications sponsored by the Family and Child Well-Being Network, under the federal fatherhood initiative of the National Institute of Child Health and Development, this comprehensive volume focuses on ways of measuring the efficacy of father involvement in different scenarios, using different methods of assessment and different populations. In the process, new research strategies and new parental paradigms have been formulated to include paternal involvement. Moreover, this volume contains articles from a variety of influences while addressing the task of finding the missing pieces of the fatherhood construct that would work for new age, as well as traditional and minority fathers. The scope of this discussion offers topics of interest to basic researchers, as well as public policy analysts.

This comprehensive study focuses on ways of measuring the efficacy of father involvement in different scenarios, using different methods of assessment and different populations. It stems from a series of workshops and publications sponsored by the Family and Child Well-Being Network.

Fathers are critical to their children's growth and development. Research on the involvement of men with their children stresses the important role that fathers play from infancy to adolescence. Due to the ethnically diverse population of fathers in America, culture and context frames the nature of fathering and shapes expectations within a cultural milieu. The book offers a wide range of vantage points–social work, family studies, marriage and family therapy, counseling, sociology, psychology, gender studies, anthropology, cultural and ethnic studies, urban studies, and health. There are five primary parts within this book, each of which looks at numerous facets of fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Part I defines the concept of fatherhood and family composition, becoming a father, young fathers, single fathers, fathers and daughters, and examines the father-son relationship. Part II looks at nonresident fathers, homeless fathers, incarcerated fathers, and the never married fathers. Part III reviews biological fathers, stepfathers, male foster carers, fatherhood and adoption, and gay fathers. Part IV examines the cultural dimensions of fatherhood, including Latino, African American, and Native American. Part V explores the fatherhood service delivery system by engaging fathers in culturally competent services, measuring the father's involvement, and the initiatives to support fathering. The context, practice, and gaps in responsible fatherhood programs are discussed. This informative and sensitive book will be useful for researchers, students, and professionals in the field of social work, health, family counseling, and human services. Applicable in classrooms and treatment situations, Fatherhood in America bridges the gap between research and practice through chapters authored by some of the country's foremost fatherhood scholars and clinicians by offering fresh perspectives and keen insights borne out of field experience working with fathers.

This work deals with the fathers' influence on and contribution to their children's emotional, intellectual, and social development. It presents a broad-scale review of all we know about paternal influences on the development of the child. Early chapters cover history of fatherhood, images of the father in psychology and religion, and varieties of fathering and father-infant relationships. Succeeding sections examine paternal influences at different stages of the child's life (preschool, school age, adolescence), ethnic differences, varieties of family structure (divorced and stepfathers), unconventional fathers (gay, adolescent, abusive), and adjustment and father-child relationships.

Much contemporary scholarship on fathers comes from a deficit model, focusing on men's inadequacies as parents. This volume goes beyond a deficit model of fatherhood to what the editors term a 'generative fathering perspective'. It presents research that helps readers to understand generative fathering in challenging life circumstances.

This second edition reviews the new research findings and theoretical advances on fathers, families, child development, programs, and policies that have occurred in the past decade. Contributors from a range of disciplines and countries showcase contemporary findings within a new common chapter structure. All of the chapters are either extensively revised or entirely new. Biological, evolutionary, demographic, developmental, cultural, sociological, economic, and legal perspectives of father involvement are described along with policy and program implications. Now with a greater international perspective, this edition considers demographic shifts in families in the United States and Europe. All chapters now follow a common structure to enhance readability and interdisciplinary connections. Each chapter features: Historical Overview and Theoretical Perspectives; Research Questions; Research Methods and Measurement; Empirical Findings; Bridges to other Disciplines; Policy Implications; and Future Directions. In addition, each chapter highlights universal and cultural processes and mechanisms. This structure illuminates the ways that theories, methods, and findings are guided by disciplinary lenses and encourages multidisciplinary perspectives. This extensively revised edition now features: • Expanded section on Biological and Evolutionary Perspectives that reviews fathering in animal populations and the genetic and hormonal underpinnings that feed into fathering behaviors within and across species. • New section on Economic and Legal Perspectives that addresses the economics of fatherhood, marriage, divorce, and child custody issues, and family dispute resolution. • New section on Child Development and Family Processes that covers topics on father-child relationships, the father’ role in children’s language, cognitive, and social development, and father risk, family context, and co-parenting. • Separate chapters on Black, Latino, and Asian American fathers. • Now includes research on cohabitation and parenting, gender roles and fathering, intergenerational parenting, and fatherhood implications for men in the section on Sociological Perspectives. • The latest demographics, policies, and programs influencing father involvement in both the US and Europe. • Coverage of methodological and measurement topics and processes that are universal across ethnic groups and cultures in each chapter. Intended for advanced students, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers interested in fatherhood and family processes from a variety of disciplines including psychology, family studies, economics, sociology, and social work, and anyone interested in child and family policy.

A systematic search was conducted across eight databases using the keywords: "measure*, scale*, father* or paternal*, and involve*. A final sample of 17 studies were identified for a systematic review. A total of eleven (five child-reported and six father-reported) father involvement scales were used in the studies. Guided by a heuristic contextual model of father involvement, secondary data from Waves 5 and 9 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were analyzed to assess the effects of father involvement (mother and father report of father involvement) at five years of age on children's internalizing, externalizing, and delinquency behaviors and nine years of age and the effects of father involvement on academic performance measured at middle childhood. The findings of the systematic review offer foundational support to expand evidence-based practices of parenting techniques to responsible fatherhood programs. Path analyses found that mother-reported father involvement was significantly negatively predictive of child externalizing behaviors in girls and delinquency in boys, and significantly positively predictive of academic performance in boys, even after controlling for the effects of father age, socioeconomic status/income, education, relationship with child's mother, and health, and including the effects of mother involvement in the models. Mother involvement was significantly positively predictive of child externalizing in girls and delinquency in boys.

Recently, the roles of fathers and husbands in families have been recognized as important issues. They appear in legislation aimed at deadbeat dads, social movements including the Million Man March and Promise Keepers, in the development of advocacy groups, and in think tanks. Therefore, contemporary research on men in family relationships has very mixed results. Some studies show that fathers have small effects on child development and in preventing antisocial behavior, whereas others suggest no effects. Other research claims that the primary importance of men in families is in their role as providers. Although some studies state that the husbands' and fathers' most vital work occurs in new families, others indicate that it is when their offspring reach adolescence. Confusing the issue even further, labor market trends predict that men's family roles may diminish. Based on the presentations and discussions from a recent national symposium on men in families held at The Pennsylvania State University, this book addresses these issues. This is the only book that deals with men's involvement in families in a comprehensive way. Although several books focus on fathers alone or on a broader family perspective, this is the first book that deals with a variety of family roles on an interdisciplinary basis. Although most of the writers are psychologists or sociologists, there are key figures in history and anthropology who also make important contributions. As such, this volume will be useful to scholars, students, policy specialists, and family program administrators.

All parents experience stress as they attempt to meet the challenges of caring for their children. This comprehensive book examines the causes and consequences of parenting distress, drawing on a wide array of findings in current empirical research. Kirby Deater-Deckard explores normal and pathological parenting stress, the influences of parents on their children as well as children on their parents, and the effects of biological and environmental factors. Beginning with an overview of theories of stress and coping, Deater-Deckard goes on to describe how parenting stress is linked with problems in adult and child health (emotional problems, developmental disorders, illness); parental behaviors (warmth, harsh discipline); and factors outside the family (marital quality, work roles, cultural influences). The book concludes with a useful review of coping strategies and interventions that have been demonstrated to alleviate parenting stress.