Factors Influencing a Divorced Father’s Involvement with His Children

One of the outcomes of divorce that has appeared consistently over the years has been a lessening of contact between divorced noncustodial fathers and their children. This review synthesizes empirical evidence to portray the formidable obstacles that men face in maintaining contact with their children after dissolution of their co-residential relationship with the child’s mother. Its goal is to bring new understanding to observed behavior patterns of divorced fathers. We will briefly examine what the research tells us takes place in many fathers who have been divorced from their wives and have lost physical custody of their children

Parenting and Adult Development

It is likely that the more engaged a parent is, the more his or her adult development will be affected. Because there is a direct relationship between the degree of investment a person places in any developmental context and the outcome that the context exerts, it has been hypothesized that the developmental impact of parenting is directly related to its cumulative salience in relation to other contexts of development (Palkovitz, 1996). This chapter represents an attempt to summarize pertinent empirical findings, to further refine conceptual constructs, to elaborate upon their interactions and to facilitate understanding of the effects of parenting on adult development

The Inventory of Father Involvement: A Pilot Study of a New Measure of Father Involvement

As the study of fathering has matured in recent years, fathering scholars have recognized the need for richer, broader measures of the construct of father involvement (Hawkins & Palkovitz, 1999). In an effort to create a measure sensitive to affective, cognitive, and direct and indirect behavioral components of involvement, 100 items were initially generated. Of these, 43 were selected for the “Inventory of Father Involvement” (IFI). Fathers (N = 723) reported on “how good a job” they were doing on the 43 indicators of father involvement. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded nine relatively distinct first-order factors, indicating a single, global second-order factor of father involvement. The final model confirms a shorter, 26-item version of the IFI that reflects a multi-dimensional concept of father involvement

Why the “Good Provider” Role Still Matters: Providing as a Form of Paternal Involvement

Providing as a form of paternal involvement is not readily acknowledged in contemporary fatherhood literature. Providing is often overlooked because it is taken for granted, is invisible to the family, holds negative connotations, and is inadequately conceptualized. This article expands paternal involvement to include economic provision. Providing as a form of paternal involvement is considered as it affects father, child, and family well-being. In conclusion, practice and policy implications related to an expanded view of economic provision and paternal involvement are shared