Enhancing father engagement in parenting programs: Translating research into practice recommendations

Objective Given the increasing research and practice interest in father engagement, this article aimed to develop a clinical narrative integrating the extant research literature to distil key practice recommendations for enhancing father engagement in parenting interventions for child wellbeing. Method A narrative review of research on father engagement in interventions for child wellbeing was conducted, to identify and distil evidence‐based policies and practices to enhance father engagement for practitioners and organisations. Results Six broad policy and practice recommendations are provided that pertain to: engaging the parenting team, avoiding a father deficit model, increasing father awareness of parenting interventions, ensuring father‐inclusive program content and delivery, increasing organisational support for father‐inclusive practice, and increasing professional father engagement training. Conclusion This review provides practitioners with guidelines for enhancing father engagement based on the available research. It also provides recommendations for further research regarding the effectiveness of strategies to enhance father engagement

Capturing the developmental timing of adverse childhood experiences : The Adverse Life Experiences Scale

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with a range of physical and mental health problems, and it is now understood that the developmental timing of ACEs may be critically important. Despite this, there is a distinct lack of methods for the efficient assessment of such timing in research and clinical settings. We report on the development and validation of a new measure, the Adverse Life Experiences Scale (ALES), that indexes such developmental timing within a format incorporating caregivers' reports of ACEs in their own lives and those of their children. Participants were a nationally representative sample of Australian families (n = 515; Study 1), and a sample of clinic-referred families (n = 168; Study 2). Results supported the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the ALES and indicated high levels of acceptability for the measure. In terms of validity, ALES scores were significantly associated with interview-based measures of child maltreatment and quality of the family environment, as well as measures of psychopathology across multiple informants (parents, teachers, clinician-rated). Furthermore, indices of ACEs occurring within specific age-based periods of childhood were found to explain unique variance in current symptoms of child and caregiver psychopathology, independent of the overall chronicity of those ACEs and current adversity