The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a parent
education/play group program on the types of involvement fathers have
with their children, and on their perceived sense of competence in
parenting skills. Subjects were 30 fathers (15 - treatment group, 15
- "wait-list" control group) and their preschool aged children.
Treatment group father-child pairs met for 2 hours on 10 consecutive
Saturday mornings. Each session consisted of 1 hour of father-child
play and 1 hour of the fathers in group discussions on parenting and
child development. Measures of the fathers' involvement in
childrearing and their perceived sense of competence in parenting
skills were taken on a pretest - posttest basis from treatment and
control groups. Due to the initial comparability of both groups on
pretest and demographic variables, program effects were examined using
posttest data only. Three categories (interaction, accessibility, and
responsibility) were utilized in defining father involvement.
Analyses indicated there were significant program effects on the
responsibility assumed by treatment group fathers, as well as on their perceived sense of competence in parenting skills. No program effects
were evident on their levels of interaction or accessibility.
Analyses on the combined pretest data suggests there was a significant
positive relationship between the fathers' sense of competence in
parenting skills and their responsibility types of involvement.
Pretest data suggested the fathers have different amounts of
interaction and accessibility for workdays and non-workdays. Further
analyses indicated these two types of involvement are highly related
on workdays, but not so on non-workdays. Different patterns of
involvement were evident for fathers of girls as opposed to fathers of
boys, as well as fathers with employed wives vs. non-employed wives.
The results of these analyses are discussed in terms of future
research on the antecedents and modifiability of father involvement,
as well as the implications for the development and implementation of
parent education and support programs aimed at increasing the
parenting options for fathers
