Symposium
Chairs: Lori A. Roggman and Kimberley Boller
Discussants: Charlie Lewis and Philip Hwang
The role of fathers in infants' lives has received increasingresearch attention over the past two decades. Fathers have also attractedthe attention of policy makers and practitioners concerned about familieswith infants and young children. Understanding the characteristics offathers who are involved with infants may be particularly important forprograms aimed at promoting the early development of infants in familiesconsidered 'at risk' because of poverty. However, we know the least aboutthis population of fathers. The presenters in this symposium report data about fathers in theEarly Head Start (EHS) research project, a multi-site evaluation of anearly intervention program for infants in low-income families. At 17 sitesaround the US, EHS programs use a variety of strategies to promote earlydevelopment and support the involvement of both mothers and fathers intheir infants' lives. In addition to program evaluation data, the researchproject also collects longitudinal data on these infants and their parents.As part of this project, fathers have been interviewed and observed withtheir infants at ages 24 and 36 months. Additional information aboutfathers comes from interviews with mothers at the same time points. We alsopresent information about how intervention programs are involvinglow-income fathers based on surveys of EHS program directors. The first paper in this symposium describes demographiccharacteristics of fathers in the national sample. The characteristics ofthese low-income fathers of toddlers are presented in relation to theirresidence, marital status, and relation to their infant (biological father,step father, or other father figure). These data paint a portrait oflow-income fathers of infants in a wide range of locations and settingsacross the US. The second paper presents data about the involvement ofthese fathers in their toddlers' lives. Involvement is defined as spendingtime, providing caregiving, and doing specific activities (e.g.,reading,playing, feeding, etc.). Data about father involvement comes directly fromfathers as well as from mothers. The various ways in which fathers areinvolved with infants are described in relation to barriers to theirinvolvement and techniques used by EHS programs to enhance theirinvolvement. The third paper presents a local view of fathers from onesite that has conducted additional interviews at earlier points in theirinfants' lives. Longitudinal patterns of fathers' knowledge about earlydevelopment and involvement with their infants are explored. Finally, wedescribe EHS program strategies for increasing father participation inprograms and encouraging father involvement with infants. These papers reflect extensive collaboration among researchers andpractitioners across the US in studying low-income fathers of 2-year-olds.The context of fatherhood for these families and the meaning of fatherinvolvement for these fathers and their toddlers are discussed as is thedevelopment of appropriate services for this population.
Details of individual items:
paper
An important insight gained from recent efforts to understandfathers' involvement in children's lives has been the realization of thelimitations of the available data on father involvement. Existing data aremainly based on middle-class samples; come from mothers as proxy forfathers; and are focused on one dimension of father involvement collectedat a single point in time. In national surveys, men who are not located orare not part of the household roster are undercounted. The 'maleundercount' problem underlies a fundamental problem for policy makers andresearchers. We know little about low-income men. Who they are? How arethey involved with their children? What types of barriers and challenges dothey face? However, a number of studies are currently underway that promise toprovide rich and in- depth data about who these low-income men are, theirroles as fathers, and the nature, antecedents, and consequences of fatherinvolvement in low-income, culturally diverse families. In this paper, wepresent preliminary findings from one of these studies, the Early HeadStart (EHS) Father Study. In this study, interviews are conducted witheither the biological father or, if the biological father is not involvedwith the child, a 'social' father when the child is 24 and 36 months old.'Social' fathers are identified by the mother as 'being like a father' totheir child. We will present findings from the 24-month-old datacollection period. Preliminary findings demonstrate a variety of ways that low-incomefathers participating in the EHS study are involved in the lives of theirvery young children. This presentation will focus on: Demographiccharacteristics (E.G., employment, age, education, ethnicity) of thefathers in EHS How many of the fathers are biological (resident versusnonresident), kin (uncles, cousins, grandparents), or social (mother'spartner, neighbors, friends)? How does the amount of involvement vary byfather type and demographic characteristics? In addition to fathers' data, the EHS father study asks mothersabout the involvement of their child's biological and social fathers.Mothers' reports when the children were 14 months old suggests that 48percent of the children live with their biological fathers and 8 percentlive with a father-figure. Over 85 percent of the children have a father orfather-figure in their lives. The preliminary data presented in this paperwill be compared to the data obtained from the fathers to determine thedegree of agreement between the two reports. These findings are important in at least two ways. First, thisinformation will advance our understanding of the type, frequency, andnature of paternal involvement in the lives of low- income children, andsecond, these data will challenge the notion that fathering is ahomogeneous concept. Understanding cultural and ethnic variations in howmen father and how children are fathered is critical for both researchersand policy makers who aim at fostering positive parental involvement.
paper
Contemporary efforts to identify the critical factors affecting early human development are driven by systemic organizational models. Such models force investigators to look beyond the mother-infant dyad in their efforts to capture the multidimensional influences that structure human development. From a systems perspective, constructing theories of early human development primarily on the basis of the mother-infant dyad, minimizes the impact of other caregivers on child development. These impacts can either be direct or indirect, and in either case, may contribute significantly to the primary relationships the child forms with significant caregivers. One caregiver for whom surprisingly little is known, is the child's father. A key reason why so little is known about the impact of fathers is that they are infrequently involved in studies of early development. Recently, investigators have identified six focal issues to guide research on fathers into the 21st century: 1) focus on direct assessment of fathers' parenting behavior, rather than relying on maternal report, 2) focus on the effects of father presence on early child development, rather than the effects of his absence, 3) focus on individual differences among fathers, including within-culture and cross-cultural determinants of fathering and their impact on child outcomes, 4) focus on the father's role in gender socialization, 5) focus on conceptualizing family as more than a dyad, regardless of whether a biological or social father is part of the family unit, and 6) focus on inclusion of fathers in psychotherapeutic interventions involving families with infants and young children. The national evaluation of Early Head Start (EHS) in the United States provides a vehicle for direct assessment of fathers' involvement with their young children.. To date, data from nearly 450 biological or social fathers of two-year-olds have been collected. In this portion of the symposium we present descriptive data related to Father-Child Activities (play, verbal interactions, social-community engagement, caregiving), Disciplinary Actions, Fathers' Perceptions of their Roles, Fathers' Perceptions about Child Rearing. Three general trends best describe the current data as reported by fathers: 1) fathers are involved with their toddlers in more diverse ways than currently represented in the literature, 2) fathers' involvement is consistent with the literature with respect to play activities, 3) fathers' perceptions about child rearing and caregiving seem discordant with contemporary stereotypes about their involvement with their children.
paper
The role of fathers in infants' lives has received increasingresearch attention over the past two decades. Fathers have also attractedthe attention of policy makers and practitioners concerned about familieswith infants and young children. Understanding the characteristics offathers who are involved with infants may be particularly important forprograms aimed at promoting the early development of infants in familiesconsidered 'at risk' because of poverty. However, we know the least aboutthis population of fathers. The presenters in this symposium report data about fathers in theEarly Head Start (EHS) research project, a multi-site evaluation of anearly intervention program for infants in low-income families. At 17 sitesaround the US, EHS programs use a variety of strategies to promote earlydevelopment and support the involvement of both mothers and fathers intheir infants' lives. In addition to program evaluation data, the researchproject also collects longitudinal data on these infants and their parents.As part of this project, fathers have been interviewed and observed withtheir infants at ages 24 and 36 months. Additional information aboutfathers comes from interviews with mothers at the same time points. We alsopresent information about how intervention programs are involvinglow-income fathers based on surveys of EHS program directors. The first paper in this symposium describes demographiccharacteristics of fathers in the national sample. The characteristics ofthese low-income fathers of toddlers are presented in relation to theirresidence, marital status, and relation to their infant (biological father,step father, or other father figure). These data paint a portrait oflow-income fathers of infants in a wide range of locations and settingsacross the US. The second paper presents data about the involvement ofthese fathers in their toddlers' lives. Involvement is defined as spendingtime, providing caregiving, and doing specific activities (e.g.,reading,playing, feeding, etc.). Data about father involvement comes directly fromfathers as well as from mothers. The various ways in which fathers areinvolved with infants are described in relation to barriers to theirinvolvement and techniques used by EHS programs to enhance theirinvolvement. The third paper presents a local view of fathers from onesite that has conducted additional interviews at earlier points in theirinfants' lives. Longitudinal patterns of fathers' knowledge about earlydevelopment and involvement with their infants are explored. Finally, wedescribe EHS program strategies for increasing father participation inprograms and encouraging father involvement with infants. These papers reflect extensive collaboration among researchers andpractitioners across the US in studying low-income fathers of 2-year-olds.The context of fatherhood for these families and the meaning of fatherinvolvement for these fathers and their toddlers are discussed as is thedevelopment of appropriate services for this population.
paper
no abstract