Fathering interventions for men who use intimate partner violence and child maltreatment: Perceived benefits and risks

Abstract

Intervention classes for fathers that use family violence are in the very early stages of development. The purpose of this paper is to better understand how fathering interventions are minimizing risks and maximizing benefits in working to address the service and knowledge gaps toward fathers that use IPV, CM, or both IPV and CM. Initially, the service and knowledge gaps are identified as well as the perceived benefits and risks of offering fathering interventions. Then, based on the analysis, several recommendations are made for the implementation of these interventions. Following this, I describe two widely available intervention curricula, and discuss the ways these classes are similar and dissimilar from the recommendations. Taken together, though the two programs contain similar content and recommendations, they differ in their therapy delivery methods, depth of focus on fathering intervention, and on what types of fatherperpetrated violence they address. Both intervention classes illustrate some of the perceived benefits as well as risks identified in the literature. Recommendations are made for future intervention practice, related necessary research, and needed policy. This paper concludes with the acknowledgement that these interventions are working to create collaborative systems that provide safety to victims, assess men's individual risks, and use well thought out and effective therapeutic strategies to elicit behavior changes in fathers.

The Parents under Pressure parenting programme for families with fathers receiving treatment for opioid dependence: the PuP4Dads feasibility study

“…Encouragingly, a small body of researchers have implemented and evaluated parenting programmes for marginalised fathers, such as young and low-income fathers, those engaged in intimate partner violence and those subject to child protection orders. [30][31][32][33][34] Findings indicate improvements in psychological functioning 30,33 and father-child relationships. 31,34 However, poor engagement with fathers remains problematic.…”

“…[30][31][32][33][34] Findings indicate improvements in psychological functioning 30,33 and father-child relationships. 31,34 However, poor engagement with fathers remains problematic. 32,35 In addition, it is not known how fathers affected by other forms of disadvantage and co-occurring problems might respond to parenting programmes, for example fathers who are drug dependent.…”