Expanding our Co-Regulation Learning Agenda for Human Services: A Focus on Fathers and Connection

This Father’s Day, we are excited to share work we are doing to bring a focus on fathers and connection to OPRE’s learning agenda on co-regulation in human services.  Co-regulation is the interactive process by which caring adults:

1. Provide warm supportive relationships, 
2. Promote self-regulation through coaching, modeling, and feedback, and
3. Structure supportive environments. 

Examining the intersection between social connection and father engagement, as well as integrating lessons from OPRE’s ongoing work related to co-regulation, reveals an opportunity to apply a relationships-based frame to supporting fathers. 

Relationships and Connections Matter for Fathers

Meaningful relationships are a necessary part of the human experience and the need for connection is critically important to our health and well-being. The benefits of social connection — as well as the risks incurred to our behavioral and physical health with a lack of meaningful relationships — are far-reaching and well-known. 

Fathers, who play a unique and vital role in their families and communities, hold many different relationships throughout their lives. As loneliness has emerged as a major public health issue  (PDF) in recent years, and the field of social neuroscience has helped us better understand how connections shape the way we experience our environment, there is an opportunity to leverage and strengthen the many important relationships fathers have to provide holistic supports and services for fathers.  

Our New Paper Applies a Relationships-based Frame to Supporting Fathers

OPRE recently published the paper “Applying Insights From Human Connection and Co-Regulation: Supporting Fathers in Human Services Programs.” This paper extends our body of co-regulation work to fatherhood and integrates the science of human connection toward holistic and relationship-focused supports for fathers. OPRE staff published this paper in collaboration with coauthors Junlei Li and Thelma Ramirez from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. An important advancement of our learning agenda in co-regulation and of our fatherhood work, the paper synthesizes several years of engagement, including conversations with partners across ACF and other HHS program offices; a convening of individuals with academic, practice, and lived expertise across several sectors; and further reflection and analysis to integrate emerging themes with existing bodies of work. 

What Does Co-Regulation Look Like for Fathers?

From research, we know that co-regulation works best when it is adapted to match age groups, flexible to situational demands, and responsive to the values and goals of individuals and communities. For fathers, this means recognizing their important roles across contexts and relationships, as well as their values and goals.  Our new report includes an adaptation of Murray et al.’s (2019) co-regulation framework[1] for father engagement and tangible opportunities for application in practice and continued research. 

Taking Time to Think About Fathers and Father Engagement Across Human Services Programs 

In line with ACF’s Strategic Priorities for preventive and proactive actions to ensure child, youth, family, and individual well-being and for using whole-family community-based strategies, the paper provides insights and approaches to support fathers in ways that transcend program boundaries. Our hope is that this paper inspires new approaches, thinking, and inquiry across human services settings on how to apply relationship-based, holistic supports to fathers across the lifespan. Importantly, the frameworks we present focus on a father’s strengths, reflecting what we know about fathers’ motivation to be involved in the lives of their children, and particularly for fathers of color, their ability to overcome systemic challenges to do so. Furthermore, it builds on existing programming efforts, layering on structure and cohesion to validate and strengthen current practice. 

Opportunities for Co-Regulation and Connection Across Six Key Relationship Contexts 

The paper examines opportunities to apply co-regulation and connection concepts to support fathers across six key relationships in their lives. Foundational to how a father connects with others is his relationship with himself. Understanding and recognizing a father’s individual history and experiences, including strengths, resiliencies, as well as possible trauma and disconnection, can provide the context for other relationships. Program practitioners can also expand perspectives on father-child relationships to recognize the benefits for fathers themselves: these relationships can be a source of love, meaning, and connection for both the child and the father, as well as support child development. Strengthening the relationship a father has with his co-parent, regardless of whether they are romantically linked, can support a father’s well-being, provide a source of positive connection, and create an opportunity for co-regulation as co-parents navigate parenting decisions together. The interactions program staff have with fathers in their programs can shape a father’s experience in program services by creating warm and welcoming environments and providing opportunities to prioritize and mentor fathers. Past research has documented that relationships fathers develop with peers within programs as a positive experience. Peer connections in fatherhood programs can empower fathers by reinforcing feelings of worthiness and self-efficacy. Lastly, by considering the roles fathers may have in their communities, programs can support fathers as community leaders, cultivate their sense of belonging, and move beyond narrow perceptions of fathers as solely economic providers. 

An Organizing Matrix to Support Application Across Relationship Contexts

After synthesizing themes that emerged from foundational research and the convening with experts, the paper presents an adaptation of Beverly Tatum’s A-B-C framework[2] from the field of school-based racial identity to create a vision for engaging fathers across the human services system and offer an organizing matrix to support application across contexts. The matrix presents three interconnected goals: 

1. Affirming fathers’ identities,
2. Building a sense of belonging, and
3. Cultivating program and community leadership. 

The A-B-C goals represent the “what” of father engagement, the co-regulation strategies demonstrate the “how,” and the relationship contexts show the “where.” For example, at the intersection of Goal B, in the relationship context of father-program staff, we could examine what relationships currently exist that convey care and respect for fathers by the program staff, what staff might do to structure the program environment for fathers to feel welcomed, and how staff-father interactions might nurture fathers’ confidence and skills in building relationships within the program with staff and peers. ​​ 

Together, the goals, strategies, and relationship contexts describe programmatic opportunities to apply co-regulation strategies to analyze and strengthen relationships to further father engagement goals.​​

Learning Priorities for a Focus on Fathers, Connection, and Co-Regulation in Human Services 

To fully realize the potential of a co-regulation and connection approach to improve fathers’ experiences and outcomes in human services programs, some key questions and knowledge gaps remain to be addressed in further study. These include:

• Translating what has been effective in other public domains to human services as well as applying what is known from other fields to fathers in human services programs;
• Conducting descriptive studies to gain a better understanding of implementation challenges within human services program settings; 
• Identifying, modifying, and developing measures to understand the process and outcomes of co-regulation and connection in supporting fathers; 
• Developing and testing specific strategies across populations and settings; and 
• Documenting and disseminating existing successes and practical wisdom in integrating connection and co-regulation insights with father engagement in human services. 

In sum, our goal is to bring together insights from the fields of connection and co-regulation to engage fathers holistically and to identify opportunities that can be applied across human service settings. In taking a comprehensive approach to support fathers in the diverse and important roles they play, we hope to learn more about opportunities to focus on strengths, relationships, and connection throughout a father’s life, within himself, his community, and his family in human services. 

Learn more about our Co-Regulation in Human Services projects.