Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fathers’ Involvement with their Preschool-age Children: How Fathers Spend Time with Their Children in Different Family Structures

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Child & Youth Care Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe how fathers (n = 263) spent time with their preschool-age children and to compare it in different family structures. Data were gathered by structured questionnaires. The instrument included five categories of variables for the time spent: the quantity of time, physical activities, fathers’ attitude towards interaction with children, time spent on other activities and conflicts related to the time spent. Fathers’ family structure was associated with father–child involvement. Divorced fathers and fathers in non-traditional families appreciated interaction with children more compared with fathers in traditional families. The findings can be used to develop the knowledge base on fathers and to further develop practical measures and forms of support.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aldous, J., Mulligan, G. M., & Bjarnason, T. (1998). Fathering over time: What makes the difference? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 809–820. doi:10.2307/353626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, S., & Daly, K. (2002). The effects of father involvement: A summary of the research evidence. Father Involvement Initiative—Ontario Network. www.cfii.ca/fiion/fiionconvincers.pdf. Accessed 8 March 2009.

  • Almeida, D. M., Wethington, E., & McDonald, D. A. (2001). Daily variation in paternal engagement and negative mood: Implications of emotionally supportive and conflictual interactions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63, 417–429. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00417.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, D. G. (1991). Practical statistics for medical research. London: Chapman & Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R., & Gilbreth, J. G. (1999). Nonresident fathers and children’s well being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 557–573. doi:10.2307/353560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, C., & Fox, G. L. (1999). Accounting for patterns of father involvement: Age of child, father child coresidence, and father role salience. Sociological Inquiry, 69, 458–476. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.1999.tb00881.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, W. K., & Zick, C. D. (1996). An examination of parent-child shared time. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 227–237. doi:10.2307/353391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (1997). The practice of nursing research: Conduct, critique, & utilization (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabrera, N. J., Shannon, J. D., Vogel, C., Tamis-LeMonda, C., Ryan, R. M., Brooks-Gunn, J., et al. (2004). Low-income fathers’ involvement in their toddlers’ lives: Biological fathers form the early head start research and evaluation study. Fathering: A journal of theory, research & practice about men as fathers, 2(1), 5–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooksey, E. C., & Fondell, M. M. (1996). Spending time with his kids: Effects of family structure on father’s and children’s lives. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 693–707. doi:10.2307/353729.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crockenberg, S. (1993). Perspectives on research in the early years of family life: Costs and benefits of non-traditional variations. In P. A. Cowan, D. Field, D. A. Hansen, A. Skolnick, & G. E. Swanson (Eds.), Family, self, and society: Toward a new agenda for family research (pp. 287–294). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubowitz, H., Black, M. M., Cox, C. E., & Kerr, M. (2001). Father involvement and children’s functioning at age 6 years: A multisite study. Child Maltreatment: Journal of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 6, 300–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagan, J. (1998). Correlates of low-income African American and Puerto Rican fathers’ involvement with their children. The Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 351–367. doi:10.1177/00957984980243006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fagan, J. (2000). Head start fathers’ daily hassles and involvement with their children. Journal of Family Issues, 21, 329–346. doi:10.1177/019251300021003003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flouri, E. (2005). Fathering and child outcomes. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Flouri, E. (2006). Non-resident fathers’ relationships with their secondary school age children: Determinants and children’s mental health outcomes. Journal of Adolescence, 29(4), 525–538. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flouri, E., & Buchanan, A. (2002). What predicts good relationships with parents in adolescence and partners in adult life: Findings from the 1958 British birth cohort. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 186–198. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.16.2.186.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flouri, E., Buchanan, A., & Bream, V. (2002). Adolescents’ perceptions of their fathers’ involvement: Significance to school attitudes. Psychology in the Schools, 39(5), 575–582. doi:10.1002/pits.10055.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Formoso, D., Gonzales, N. A., Barrera, M., & Dumka, L. E. (2007). Interparental relations, maternal employment, and fathering in Mexican American families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 69, 26–39. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00341.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredriksen, K. I. (1999). Family caregiving responsibilities among lesbians and gay men. Social Work, 44, 142–153.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. M. (1997). Structural-functional theory. In M. M. Friedman (Ed.), Family nursing. research, theory, & practice (pp. 99–110). Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lange.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, M. J., & Altman, D. G. (1989). Estimation rather than hypothesis testing: Confidence intervals rather than P values. In M. J. Garder & D. G. Altman (Eds.), Statistics with confidence: Confidence intervals and statistical guidelines. London: British Medical Journal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerris, J. R. M., Deković, M., & Janssens, J. M. A. (1997). The relationship between social class and childrearing behaviors: Parents’ perspective taking and value orientations. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 834–847. doi:10.2307/353786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorsuch, R. L. (1997). New procedure for extension analysis in exploratory factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 57, 725–741. doi:10.1177/0013164497057005001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossmann, K. E., Grossman, K., Winter, M., & Zimmerman, P. (2002). Attachment relationships and appraisal of partnership: From early experience of sensitive support to later relationship representation. In L. Pulkkinen & A. Caspi (Eds.), Paths to successful development: Personality in the life course (pp. 73–105). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halme, N., Tarkka, M. T., Paavilainen, E., Nummi, T., & Åstedt-Kurki, P. (2009). The design and development of the Father-child instrument (FCI) for assessing the characteristics of father’s availability and engagement with their preschooler. American Journal of Men’s Health. Accepted for publication.

  • Hanson, S. M. T., & Boyd, S. T. (1996). Family nursing: An overview. In S. M. T. Hanson & S. T. Boyd (Eds.), Family health care nursing. Theory, practice, and research (pp. 5–40). Philadelphia: EA. Davis Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, C. D., & Moon, M. (1999). Women’s characteristics and gender role attitudes: Support for father involvement with children. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160, 411–419.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hurd, E. P., & Rogers, R. (1998). A friend and a brother. Understanding the role of African American men in child rearing. Journal of Family Social Work, 3(1), 5–23. doi:10.1300/J039v03n01_02.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain, A., & Belsky, J. (1997). Fathering and acculturation: Immigrant Indian families with young children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 873–883. doi:10.2307/353789.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jöreskog, K. G. (1979). Advances in factor analysis and structural equation models. Cambridge: Mass. Abt. Cop.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalmijn, M. (1999). Father involvement in childrearing and the perceived stability of marriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 409–421. doi:10.2307/353758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karigan, M. (2001). Ethics in clinical research: The nursing perspective. The American Journal of Nursing, 101(9), 26–31.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M. E., & Michael, E. (2000). The history of research on father involvement: An overview. Marriage & Family Review, 29(2/3), 23–43. doi:10.1300/J002v29n02_03.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manning, W. D., & Smock, P. J. (1999). New families and nonresident father-child visitation. Social Forces, 78, 87–117. doi:10.2307/3005791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsiglio, W., Amato, P., Day, R. D., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Scholarship on fatherhood in the 1990s and beyond. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1173–1192. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.01173.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, C. R., & Thompson, D. R. (2000). A psychometric evaluation of the hospital anxiety and depression scale in coronary care patients following acute myocardial infarction. Psychology Health and Medicine, 5(2), 193–202. doi:10.1080/713690189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride, B. A., & Mills, C. (1993). A comparison of mother and father involvement with their preschool age children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 457–477. doi:10.1016/S0885-2006(05)80080-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride, B. A., Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J., & Ho, M. (2005). The mediating role of fathers’ school involvement on student achievement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 201–216. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2004.12.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKenry, P. C., McKelvey, M. W., Leigh, D., & Wark, L. (1996). Nonresidential father involvement: A comparison of divorced, separated, never married, and remarried fathers. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 25(3/4), 1–13. doi:10.1300/J087v25n03_01.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moody, L. (1990). Randomized clinical trials. In L. Moody (Ed.), Advancing nursing science through research (Vol. 2). Califorinia: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnel, J. M. (2001). Paternal involvement in kinship foster care services in one father and multiple father families. Child Welfare, 80(Special Issue), 453–479.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okamoto, S. K. (2000). Instrument development: Practitioner fear of youthful clients: An instrument development and validation study. Social Work Research, 25, 173–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palkovitz, R. (1997). Reconstructing “involvement”: Expanding conceptualizations of men’s caring in contemporary families. In A. J. Hawkins & D. C. Dollahite (Eds.), Generative fathering: Beyond deficit perspectives (pp. 200–216). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palkovitz, R. (2002). Involved fathering and child development: Advancing our understanding of good fathering. In C. S. Tamis-LeMonda & N. Cabrera (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisicplinary perspectives (pp. 119–140). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patrician, P. A. (2002). Focus on research methods. Multiple imputation for missing data. Research in Nursing and Health, 25, 76–84. doi:10.1002/nur.10015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perloff, J. N., & Buckner, J. C. (1996). Fathers of children on welfare: Their impact on child well-being. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66, 557–571. doi:10.1037/h0080205.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pleck, J. H., & Masciadrelli, B. P. (2004). Paternal involvement by U.S. residential fathers. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 222–271). New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pocock, S. (1983). Clinical trials. London: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polit, D. F., & Hungler, B. P. (1999). Nursing research. Principles and methods (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redsell, S. A., & Cheater, F. M. (2001). The Data protection act (1998): Implications for health researchers… methods used in two studies to obtain access to subjects. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35, 508–513. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01867.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rhein, L. M., Ginsburg, K. R., Schwartz, D. F., Pinto-Martin, J. A., Zhao, H., Morgan, A. P., et al. (1997). Teen father participation in childrearing: Family perspectives. The Journal of Adolescent Health, 21, 244–252. doi:10.1016/S1054-139X(97)00115-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seiffke-Krenke, I. (2001). Recent research on fathers. Are fathers helpful, harmful or unnecessary for the development of their children?/Sind Vaeter notwendig, ueberfluessig oder sogar schaedlich fuer die Entwicklung ihrer Kinder? Psychoterapeut, 46, 391–397. doi:10.1007/s002780100166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shott, S. (1990). Statistics for health professionals. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Finland (1999). Families 1999. Finland in figures, www.tilastokeskus.fi/tk/tasku/taskue_vaesto.html, 02.02.2001.

  • Stewart, S. D. (2003). Nonresident parenting and adolescent adjustment. Journal of Family Issues, 24(2), 217–244. doi:10.1177/0192513X02250096.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, G., & McKenry, P. (1998). Nonresidential father involvement: A test of a midrange theory. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 159, 313–336.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Suppal, P., & Roopnarine, J. L. (1999). Paternal involvement in child care as a function of maternal employment in nuclear and extended families in India. Sex Roles, 40, 731–744. doi:10.1023/A:1018808718351.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Susser, M. (1973). Causal thinking in the health sciences. Concepts and strategies of epidemiology. London: Oxford Medical Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, B., & Daniel, L. G. (1996). Factor analytic evidence for the construct validity of scores: A historical overview and some guidelines. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56, 197–208. doi:10.1177/0013164496056002001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veneziano, R. A. (2000). Perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and rural African American and European American youths’ psychological adjustment. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62(1), 123–132. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00123.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wand, M. P. (2002). Vector differential calculus in statistics. The American Statistician, 56(1), 55–62. doi:10.1198/000313002753631376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whiteside-Mansell, L., Bradley, R. H., & Rakow, E. (2001). Similarities and differences in parental investment for mothers and fathers. Journal of Family Issues, 22, 63–74. doi:10.1177/019251301022001003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wikander, B., & Theorell, T. (1997). Father’s experience of childbirth and its relation to crying in his infant. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 11, 151–158.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woodworth, S., Belsky, J., & Crnic, K. (1996). The determinants of fathering during the child’s second and third years of life: A developmental analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 679–692. doi:10.2307/353728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolson, R. F. (1987). Statistical methods for the analysis of biomedical data. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Worrel, F. C. (2000). A validity study of scores on the multigroup ethnic identity measure based on a sample of a academically talented adolescents. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60, 439–448. doi:10.1177/00131640021970646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeung, W. J., Sandberg, J. F., Davis-Kean, P. E., & Hofferth, S. L. (2001). Children’s time with fathers in intact families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63(Special Issue), 136–154. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00136.x.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing Science, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Nina Halme, Päivi Åstedt-Kurki & Marja-Terttu Tarkka

  2. Research Unit, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland

    Nina Halme & Päivi Åstedt-Kurki

  3. The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

    Nina Halme

Authors
  1. Nina Halme
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Päivi Åstedt-Kurki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marja-Terttu Tarkka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nina Halme.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Halme, N., Åstedt-Kurki, P. & Tarkka, MT. Fathers’ Involvement with their Preschool-age Children: How Fathers Spend Time with Their Children in Different Family Structures. Child Youth Care Forum 38, 103–119 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-009-9069-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-009-9069-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation