Let’s Support Families to be Part of the Change Process
Want proof that increasing men’s involvement in the care of children is good for their children, relationships and families? Read on.
The Supporting Father Involvement Research Study, was co-developed with researchers from Yale University (Kyle Pruett), Smith College (Marsha Kline Pruett) and UC Berkeley (Carolyn Pape Cowan and Phillip Cowan).
The purpose of the study was to promote the importance of the father’s role in their children’s lives; strengthen the relationship between the parents and with their children; and to enhance children’s development.
Over a series of 16 weeks, participants met in groups – some with just men, some with both parents (married and not married).
During the 2 hour meetings parents were encouraged to discuss: how they were feeling about themselves, what they hoped to change, parenting strategies and ideas, couple communication, three generational family patterns (eg. family rituals to be repeated or avoided in their current family), and identifying supports for dealing with life stresses.
What the researchers learned is that just as challenges within a couple “can nudge developing children and families into more dysfunctional or destructive patterns early in family formation, an intervention can help steer families with young children onto a healthier pathway of development that lasts over time.”
Gains for the couples group** (married and not married) included:
* Significantly increased father involvement
* Couple satisfaction maintained over time (when typically it declines)
*Lower parenting stress
* No increases in their children’s problem behavior (when the control group described this increasing over the same period of time)
Note: The couples group had even stronger gains than the father-only groups.
The intervention has also been proven equally effective for:
* Lower-income and higher-income participants
* Mexican American, African American and Anglo participants
* Married and cohabiting couples
* More and less depressed parents
* Partners more and less happy with their relationship as a couple
Another important resource for fathers is The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse which is an Office of Family Assistance (OFA) funded national resource for fathers, practitioners, programs/Federal grantees, states, and the public at-large who are serving or interested in supporting strong fathers and families.
The website www.Fatherhood.gov provides many interesting resources for fathers including:
- Dads looking for tips, hints and even deals for dads and kids – find them on the DadTalk Blog and in the “For Dads” corner
- Fatherhood programs looking to get started or expand – check out the “For Programs” section
- Researchers and policy makers looking for the latest on responsible fatherhood – check out the “Library”
- National Call Center for dads and practitioners (1-877-4DAD411)
The evidence is in – everyone gains when we support fathers to be more involved in the lives of their children.
If you want to hear more around involved fathers and families then click on the link below to listen to the edited version of our Thursdays with ThirdPath webinar spotlighting these two inspiring initiatives.