Predictive Factors of Father Involvement: Examination of the Five-Year Follow-up from the Fragile Families Study

Background and Purpose:

 Prior research indicates the importance of father involvement and has suggested that this involvement can positively impact children’s educational, social, and mental health outcomes (Panter-Brick et al., 2014).  Better understanding factors which predict paternal involvement is important for social workers working with families.  Enhancing knowledge regarding parental experiences from the perspective of fathers is a growing concern in child welfare research.  Many studies examining fathers and father involvement rely on mother report (Gorvine, 2010). Father report of his involvement showed a more consistent predictive relation to child outcomes than did mother report (Hernandez & Coley, 2007). 

There have been limited approaches to understanding fathers’ perceptions of themselves as parents and the resultant impact on father involvement.  Recent models of father involvement suggest the importance of relational and contextual factors (Cabrera, Fitzgerald, Bradley, & Roggman, 2014). This study examines time fathers spend with their children and how social supports, depression, criminal history, use of corporal punishment, and medical insurance influence their involvement, from father’s perspective and report.

Methods:

A secondary data analysis of the Father’s Five-Year Follow-Up Survey from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study was conducted to examine factors associated with father’s time spent with children. Variables in the analysis included father’s perceptions of parenting and themselves as parents, social support, depression, criminal record, criminal behavior, corporal punishment, medical insurance,.  Demographics of the fathers from the sample (N=3140) included age (M=33.14), child’s age in months (M=61.72), income (M=$34,149.80), and weeks worked in the past year (M=45.69).

 Results:

A bivariate logistic regression was conducted with the variables. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test indicated goodness of fit of the model χ² (8) = 12.996, p = .112 with the model explaining 54.7% (Nagelkerke R²) of the variance in father’s time spent with child. The odds of spending at least half or most time with a child were 4.66 times higher for those fathers who felt they were a very good parent compared to fathers who labeled themselves as good parents (95% CI:1.698-12.823). Also, the odds of spending half or most time with a child were 148.15 times higher for fathers who were either married or romantically involved with the mother compared to those fathers that were not (95% CI:44.663-491.424).

  Conclusions and Implications:

Although it was predicted that variables related to father’s social support, use of corporal punishment and depression would predict father involvement, these were not statistically significant.  However, father’s belief that they were a very good parent and relationship status with the child’s mother, were significant predictors of father involvement.  Fathers’ perceptions of themselves as parents and interaction with child’s mother appear to be related to time spent with children. It is important for social workers to consider these variables related to father involvement with children in family systems.  Practitioners working with this population should consider fathers beliefs about themselves as a parent as this may impact their level of involvement with their children.  Inclusion of father report and perception are important factors in better understanding father involvement.