Resident Fathers' Perceptions of Their Roles and Links to Involvement with Infants

Using a sample of resident fathers in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (nine-month study), this study examined how fathers’ perceptions of the importance of the father role to children are associated with father involvement with infants in five domains: caregiving activities, paternal warmth, nurturing activities, physical care, and cognitively stimulating activities. Results indicated that there are differentials in fathers’ role perceptions based on fathers’ sociodemographic characteristics such as race, marital status, education, and SES. Results of Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS) models indicated that more positive role perceptions are generally positively associated with father-child activities in five domains. Results from this study may have important implications for the development of parenting programs intended to assist fathers in meeting societal expectations for fatherhood and for enhancing the development of children.