Accounting for Patterns of Father Involvement: Age of Child, Father‐Child Coresidence, and Father Role Salience

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which fathers are involved in parenting their children under several conditions, using a multivariate regression model. The model includes the age of the child, father role salience, and the father and child's coresidential status as predictors of father involvement. Although nonresidential fathers tend to be less involved than residential fathers under most conditions, this is not the case for fathers of adolescents who find the father roIe to be at least moderately salient. Explanations for their greater involvement are proposed, focusing specifically on the unique characteristics of the parent-child relationship involving an adolescent child and a nonresidential parent.

From the external to the internal

“…Only mothers were included in Study 1 to correspond with most studies conducted in Western cultures (Ensor et al, 2014;Slaughter et al, 2007). Further studies should explore the relationships between fathers' talk and children's ToM because fathers are increasingly involved in childrearing (Bruce & Fox, 1999). Moreover, we only examined the role of behavior clarifications in Chinese children's false-belief understanding.…”

The Design and Development of the Father-Child Instrument (FCI) for Assessing the Characteristics of Fathers’ Availability and Engagement With Their Preschool Children

“…Father availability has frequently been assessed exclusively in families where the father is living with the children (e.g., two-parent, married couple families). It would nonetheless be important to know the nature of father presence in cases where the fathers do not reside in the same household as his children, this particularly because previous research findings would indicate that such fathers are generally less committed to parenthood (e.g., Bruce & Fox, 1999;Greene & Moore, 2000).…”

“…The indicator is designed for fathers of children aged 3 to 6, as father presence is most conspicuous precisely in these preschool years (Bruce & Fox, 1999;Woodworth, Belsky, & Crnick, 1996;Yeung, Sandberg, Davis-Kean, & Hofferth, 2001). The objective was to increment such data on father presence in the family, which will contribute to the development of a valid and reliable measure that serves as a basis to advance family care.…”

Predictors of father involvement : the role of early life events and stressors.

“…For fathers who are not sharing a residence with their children, it is more difficult for them to get involved. Research also found that nonresidential fathers who are less involved with their children compared to residential fathers, and nonresidential fathers tend to face a multitude of obstacles to maintaining active engagement with their children (Bruce & Fox, 1999). Non-resident fathers tend to face various barriers, such as distance, time, and expenses, that prevent them from being involved with their children (Hawkins et al, 2006).…”

“…Coley (2001) asserted that fathers are more likely to get involved with their children when the paternal grandmothers encourage fathers to do so. Castillo & Fenzl-Crossman (2010) Bruce and Fox (1999) pointed out that the paternal involvement, including father engagement tends to increase as the child grows out of infancy, and then decline as a child grows into adolescence. Fathers spend the least amount of time per day in direct interaction with their infants, on average less than a hour a day (Lewis & Weinraub 1974;Ninio &Rinott, 1988), compared to preschool and school-aged children with ranges from 1.9 to 2.8 hours per day (Pleck, 1997).…”