Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Supporting Fathers’ Relationships in Fatherhood Programs

Publication Date: February 18, 2022
cover image for the CHaRMED COVID brief

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  • Published: 2022

Introduction

Research Questions

  1. How has COVID-19 affected fathers’ romantic and coparenting relationships?
  2. How has COVID-19 changed the way fatherhood programs support fathers’ healthy relationships?
  3. What lessons can programs learn from the experiences of fathers and fatherhood programs during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Healthy relationships, including coparenting and romantic relationships, are critical to the health and well-being of fathers and families. Supporting these relationships is therefore a key goal of many fatherhood programs. During COVID-19, fathers have faced a number of challenges that may affect their romantic and coparenting relationships. These include increased unemployment, issues around child access and visitation, and difficulties navigating work-from-home arrangements. At the same time, COVID-19 created unique hurdles for fatherhood programs in providing services to fathers. In particular, many of these programs were required to swiftly shift from in-person to virtual service delivery.

The disruptions faced by fathers and fatherhood programs and the ways in which they have adapted have the potential to inform how fatherhood programs can better support fathers’ healthy relationships moving forward. This brief describes how COVID-19 affected fathers’ relationships and healthy relationship programming provided by fatherhood programs and offers strategies that these programs can adopt to better support fathers’ coparenting and romantic relationships.

Purpose

The purpose of this brief is to describe how COVID-19 affected fathers’ relationships and healthy relationship programming and explore lessons learned for fatherhood programs. This information can be used to improve healthy relationship programming in fatherhood programs moving forward.

Key Findings and Highlights

For fathers, COVID-19 had a number of implications for their relationships:

  • Many fathers faced economic and employment stressors, which had implications for their relationships.
  • Most fathers and coparents felt that their coparenting and romantic relationships were unchanged.
  • For some fathers living with their partners or children, COVID-19 led to improvements in their relationships.
  • For some fathers not living with their children, the pandemic affected their ability to spend time with their children.

For fatherhood programs, COVID-19 brought both challenges and benefits:

  • Programs used multiple methods to remotely deliver healthy relationship education and foster an environment where fathers were comfortable discussing their relationships.
  • Program staff increased one-on-one outreach to build and maintain personal connections.
  • Programs faced some challenges in delivering relationship services virtually, including increased distractions and disruptions.
  • However, virtual programming brought some unexpected benefits, such as reduced transportation and scheduling issues and increased participation by quieter fathers.

Methods

This brief is based on interviews with 36 fathers, six coparents, and 20 program staff at nine fatherhood programs across the United States. Interviews were conducted from March 2020 through December 2020 as part of the Coparenting and Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education for Dads (CHaRMED) study. The CHaRMED study aimed to better understand the approaches fatherhood programs use, or could use, to support fathers’ healthy romantic and coparenting relationships. Because the study timing overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic, the study team added additional questions specific to the pandemic to help contextualize results and explore lessons learned.  

Recommendations

Based on insights from fathers, coparents, and fatherhood program staff, fatherhood programs may consider adopting the following strategies to support fathers’ healthy relationships during and after COVID-19:

  • Continue delivering relationship programming alongside services that address immediate needs such as unemployment.
  • Support fathers in learning to slow down and focus on the importance of their relationships with their family and children.
  • Provide specific supports for fathers facing difficulty seeing their children amid strained coparenting relationships.
  • Use virtual platforms with live interaction to increase program reach while still preserving the safe space necessary for discussions about relationships.
  • Supplement programming with increased one-on-one support to help ensure strong connections and engagement in relationship programming.

Citation

Vazzano, Andrea, April Wilson, Mindy E. Scott, Samantha Ciaravino, Huda Tauseef, Sydney Briggs (2022). Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Supporting Fathers’ Relationships in Fatherhood Programs, OPRE Report #2021-259, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.