Interpreting the Data on Father Involvement: Implications for Parenting Programs for Men

The authors examined the relationship between parental attitudes toward and perceptions of father involvement in families according to the degree of paternal participation in child rearing. Subjects consisted of 8 families drawn from a sample of 100 families participating in a longitudinal study of parental involvement. Focus-group interviews were used to collect data regarding high-father-involvement fathers, high-father-involvement mothers, low-father-involvement fathers, and low-father-involvement mothers. Results indicated that different processes may influence men's participation in child rearing in these high- and low-paternal-involvement families.