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GETTING DADS INVOLVED: PREDICTORS OF FATHER INVOLVEMENT IN EARLY HEAD START AND WITH THEIR CHILDREN

L.A. Roggman, L.K. Boyce, L.K., G.A. Cook, and J. Cook
Utah State University
(Supported by grant 90-YF-0004 from the Head Start Bureau Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services and a contract with Bear River Early Head Start, Logan, Utah)

Bear River Early Head Start, serving northern Utah and southern Idaho, emphasizes father involvement with the program and with their infants. Understanding the characteristics of families and fathers that are related to father involvement may help program staff develop more-focused strategies for working with hard-to-involve fathers. Family and father characteristics were examined as predictors of father involvement both in the program and with their infant. Variables examined as potential predictors were selected based on the program's emphasis on building relationships as their primary intervention strategy.

The 72 Early Head Start fathers (or father figures) studied were predominantly white (78 percent) and were married or living with the child's mother (94 percent, 75 percent of mothers were married or living with partner). Of these fathers, all were contacted and interviewed before enrollment in the program, and the Early Head Start staff rated 57 after at least one year of enrollment in the program (no ratings in cases with staff turnover or family dropout). Preenrollment interviews included questions about depression (CES-D; Radloff 1977), attitudes about relationships (Adult Attachment Scale; Simpson et al. 1992), use of social support (F-COPES; McCubbin and Patterson 1982), work hours, religion, and religious activity. Home-visiting staff rated each father's participation in Early Head Start and engagement with his child using a Likert scale, based on direct observation and maternal report. Although home visits were scheduled when fathers were at home and could be observed directly, some ratings of engagement with the child were based on the mother's report to the home visitor.

Fathers who rated high on quality of relationship with home visitor are those who home visitors say interact during visits, answer questions, and show interest; those rated low do not participate in visits or interact with the home visitor. Fathers rated high on program participation are often at the home visits and are involved in other ways, such as in group activities; fathers rated low participate rarely or not at all. Fathers rated high on engagement with child play with their children, talk to them, read to them and tell them stories, take care of them, and seem to enjoy being with them; fathers rated low have few or mostly negative interactions with their children. An overall involvement score combining these ratings had a reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) of .93. (See descriptive data in Table 1.)

Statistical analysis showed that fathers' characteristics before enrollment were related to their later involvement in expected ways (see Table 2). (All reported relations were statistically significant at the .05 level.) Fathers with more education were rated as having better relationships with home visitors, participating more in the program, showing more improvement over time in program participation, being more engaged with their infant, and being more involved overall. Fathers were more involved overall when they were less depressed, less anxious about close relationships, more likely to use social support (especially spiritual support), and more active in their religion. Depression was also related specifically to poorer relationships with home visitors, less participation in the program, less engagement with their child, and less improvement over time in engagement with child. Relationship anxiety-in particular, relationship ambivalence-was related to poorer relationships with home visitors. Fathers' use of social support for coping with problems, particularly informal and spiritual support, was related to all the specific rating scales.

One implication of our results is that it appears that "the rich get richer." That is, those fathers who are already good at relationships, trusting, able to turn to others, and living with their children are the same ones who participate more in Early Head Start programs and are more engaged with their children. In contrast, the fathers who are not functioning well psychologically or socially may be the ones who most strongly resist participating in Early Head Start programs but who perhaps could benefit the most. These results are especially salient in view of this Early Head Start program's theory of change that emphasizes the quality of relationships between staff and families and between parents and children. The relation of father involvement in Early Head Start to fathers' attitudes about close relationships is therefore not surprising.

Local Early Head Start program staff discussed our results and considered how to get depressed or withdrawn fathers more involved. Staff members made several suggestions to respond positively to fathers by showing a genuine interest in them, accepting them as they are, not stereotyping them, being sensitive to their circumstances and limitations, appreciating their interests, praising small accomplishments, and "never, never" giving up on them. Making appropriate referrals for mental health services may also help encourage father involvement. By identifying possible barriers to father involvement when a family first enrolls, Bear River Early Head Start hopes to be better able to promote father involvement to enhance children's early development.

References

Radloff, L. "The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population." Applied-Psychological-Measurement, vol. 1, no. 3, 1977, pp. 385-401.

Simpson, J., W. Rholes, and J. Nelligan. "Support Seeking and Support Giving Within Couples in an Anxiety-Provoking Situation: The Role of Attachment Styles." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 62, 1992, pp. 434-446.

McCubbin, H.I., and J.M. Patterson. "Family Adaptation to Crisis." In Family Stress, Coping, and Social Support, edited by H. McCubbin, A. Cauble, and J. Patterson. Springfield, IL: Thomas, 1982.

TABLE 1
MEANS, STANDARD DEVIATIONS, AND RANGES FOR RESEARCH VARIABLES

Father Variable	N	Mean	SD	Min.	Max.
Depression	72	1.5	.35	1.0	2.8
Relationship Anxiety (Total)	71	2.4	.51	1.3	3.6
Relationship Avoidance	71	2.6	.63	1.3	4.3
Relationship Ambivalence	71	2.1	.59	1.0	3.4
Social Support (Total)	72	3.0	.37	2.2	3.9
Informal Support	72	2.7	.57	1.4	4.2
Community Support	72	2.1	.72	1.0	3.8
Spiritual Support	72	3.2	1.1	1.0	5.0
Religious Activity	71	5.1	2.0	1.0	7.0
Overall Staff-Rated Father Involvement (Total)	57	2.7	1.1	1.0	5.0
Relationship with Early Head Start Home Visitor	54	2.9	1.3	1.0	5.0
Participation in Program (Current)	59	2.3	1.2	1.0	5.0
Participation in Program (Improved)	59	2.7	1.3	1.0	5.0
Engagement with Infant (Current)	59	2.6	1.2	1.0	5.0
Engagement with Infant (Improved)	59	3.0	1.2	1.0	5.0

TABLE 2
CORRELATIONS WITH FATHER INVOLVEMENT MEASURES

Father Variable	Relationship with Home Visitor	Program Participation (Current)	Program Participation (Improved)	Engagement with Infant (Current)	Engagement with Infant (Improved)	Overall Father Involvement
Education	.45**	.41**	.40**	.33*	.27+	.43**
Work Hours	-.36*	-.24	-.18	-.16	-.26+	-.27+
Depression	-.35*	-.32*	-.26+	-.37*	-.35*	-.38*
Relationship Anxiety (Total)	-.31*	-.05	-.12	-.11	-.13	-.16
Relationship Avoidance	-.23	.05	-.08	-.02	-.09	-.08
Relationship Ambivalence	-.31*	-.21	-.12	-.20	-.14	-.22
Social Support (Total)	.42**	.29+	.47**	.42**	.49***	.48**
Informal Support	.24	.18 .	36*	.25	.40**	.33*
Community Support	.29+	.19	.38*	.42*	.33*	.36*
Spiritual Support	.48**	.34*	.39*	.33*	.37*	.42**
Religious Activity	.44**	.23	.43**	.27+	.37*	.40**
+ p < .10 * p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001

 

 

 

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