Part 1: Introduction
- 1.1 Developmental benefits of involved fathering
- 1.2 Australian fathers' time with children
- 1.3 Determinants of father involvement
- 1.4 Engaging men in child and family services
- 1.5 Strategies for improving engagement with a father client group
This study describes father participation in selected Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS) 2004-2009 programs and services. The SFCS is an initiative of Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). The study is part of the themed study component of the national evaluation of the SFCS, included to explore priority issues in-depth. The choice of fathers was informed by an understanding among policy makers, academics and community service professions, that despite best intentions, engaging fathers with child and family services can be difficult and that research, practice and policy development in this area is required to improve fathers' access to services.
This introduction provides an overview of the fathering literature including the nature, extent and determinants of father involvement, and the impacts of father involvement on child wellbeing. This provides the context for a discussion of how well fathers are included in child and family services, and their engagement in programs specifically designed to enhance parenting competencies and relationships. The study used a mixed methodology, employing a survey to identify the extent of father engagement with services funded under the SFCS, and using survey replies to form a sample for in-depth fieldwork with professionals and fathers. The fieldwork aimed to highlight the perceptions and experiences of services managers and facilitators working with fathers and to provide insight into how fathers who are involved in services understand and explain their engagement. A central aim of the study was to highlight good practice and the strategies that appear to be successful in facilitating engagement with different groups of fathers in diverse service environments.
1.1 Developmental benefits of involved fathering
Benefits for children
Recent research has focused on the parenting contributions men make to children's development and family cohesion (Fletcher, Fairbairn & Pascoe 2004)1. Fathers are seen to contribute to children's development through their ongoing investment and participation in care giving (Frey 2003; Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda 2004). Studies have indicated that men are as capable as women of providing children with sensitive, responsive, nurturing and stimulating parenting, and that this is favourable for child development (Ryan, Martin & Brooks-Gunn 2006). However, inadequate or abusive fathering can impact negatively on children. If resident fathers (or father-figures) display a high level of antisocial behaviour, this can adversely influence child behaviour (Jaffee et al. 2003). Earlier studies (for example, Leinonen, Solantaus & Punamaki 2003; Phares 1996) also show that negative developmental outcomes are associated with poor parenting or mental health issues in the father.
Understanding the effects of father involvement also requires an understanding of the direct and indirect ways fathers can influence child development. Father involvement has been developed as a concept to describe men's engagement and participation with care giving across a whole raft of tasks and activities. Lamb (ed. 2004) developed the classic three-dimensional definition of father involvement-interaction or engagement (time spent in one-to-one interactions with the child), accessibility (time spent engaged in domestic tasks or in close proximity to the child but not interacting one-on-one) and responsibility (the extent to which the father takes responsibility for the child's wellbeing, for instance organising child care or doctor's appointments, taking the child to buy clothes, and so on). Fathers not only influence children through the quantity, type and quality of father-child interactions, but also through the emotional and physical support they provide to their partner, as well as through the provision of economic resources and participation in domestic labour and child care (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda 2004; Tamis-LeMonda et al. 2004).
The relationship between high levels of positive father involvement and positive self-esteem in children (Culp et al. 2000), for example, is thought to operate via the positive effects of the co-parental relationship. A more harmonious family context, as well as secure attachment relationships between children and parents, provides an optimal context for healthy child development (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda 2004). Similarly, Ryan, Martin and Brooks-Gunn (2006) found that the relationship between highly supportive fathers and higher scores on cognitive tests at 24 and 36 months were related to the quality of fathers' relationships with their children, the family context in which children lived, as well as fathers' participation in day-to-day child care (see also Cummings, Goeke-Morey & Raymond 2004; Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda 2004).
Notwithstanding the mechanisms for the effects, which still require some unravelling, studies have consistently found that children with highly involved fathers experience positive outcomes in socio-emotional, behavioural and cognitive/educational domains (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda 2004). In the realm of behaviour, mothers with highly involved partners report that their 6 year-old children exhibit fewer internalising (for example, depression and anxiety) and externalising (for example, violent behaviour and defiance) behaviour problems than mothers with less involved partners (Culp et al. 2000). Other findings suggest that this effect is ongoing throughout childhood and adolescence (Amato & Rivera 1999; Flouri & Buchanan 2002a).
In terms of educational achievement, research findings indicate that fathers are less likely than mothers to be involved in all aspects of their children's schooling but that fathers' interest and involvement in children's learning can be linked to better educational outcomes as well as better social and emotional outcomes (National Literacy Trust 2007). There is also evidence linking fathers who read to children from an early age to improved literacy and school readiness in their children (Gadsden & Ray 2003). It is unclear whether this effect operates via the father's role modelling or through the amount of exposure to books and reading the child receives. Studies have also found that supportive play interactions between fathers and their young children can enhance cognitive development and reduce cognitive delay among disadvantaged children (Shannon et al. 2002).
Research evidence suggests that fathers continue to have important effects on their children into adolescence and young adulthood. The quality of father-child relationships and father involvement in adolescence has been related to adolescent self-rated mental health (Videon 2005), academic and employment achievement (Harris, Furstenberg & Marmer 1998), an absence of bullying behaviours towards other children in adolescents (Flouri & Buchanan 2003), and the quality of adult children's relationships with their partners (Flouri & Buchanan 2002b). Further, high involvement combined with a close father-child relationship appears to offer adolescents some protection from engaging in delinquent behaviours and experiencing emotional and psychological distress, although the size of these effects are small in comparison to other determinants such as marital conflict, poverty and parental education (Harris, Furstenberg & Marmer 1998).
Benefits for men
Many men put a lot of thought and reflection into the type of father they want to be, how they interact with their children and the role they take in their children's lives. Although individual responses to becoming a parent vary, for many adults, male or female, having a child broadens their sense of responsibility and brings profound changes to their lives, relationships and identities (Lupton & Barclay 1997; Palkovitz 2002).
From a developmental perspective, the sense of responsibility most men (and women) develop in relation to their children is an aspect of healthy adult development (Marsiglio, Day & Lamb 2000). Coined 'generativity' by developmental theorists, taking responsibility for caring for the next generation is thought to be an important life stage where the individual moves beyond self-interest to a broader conception of care (Bradford & Hawkins 2006). Involved fathering is thought, therefore, to lead to positive individual growth, building 'both better men and better children' (Brotherson, Dollahite & Hawkins 2005).
1.2 Australian fathers' time with children
There is a strong sense in the literature that the experience and practice of fatherhood in modern industrialised societies like Australia has undergone major transformations in recent decades.
While the majority of Australian fathers continue to define their role with reference to breadwinning (Russell et al. 1999), there is an expectation that contemporary fathers will be more involved in the lives of their children than men of previous generations. For example, in 1999, Russell and colleagues published their findings from a national audit of perspectives on fatherhood in Australia. As part of this study they constructed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 fathers with children aged 17 years or less. During telephone interviews the majority of the fathers reported that they believed that men and women should share the responsibilities of child rearing equally. Men also rated being accessible to children, offering guidance and teaching children as the most important aspects of their role as fathers (Russell et al. 1999).
Alongside indications that constructions of fatherhood have significantly shifted to place greater value on involved fathering, there is also reason to suggest that traditional notions of parenthood (for example, mother as carer and nurturer and father as protector and provider) continue to exert powerful effects on how men and women approach and negotiate parenting roles.
While men may seem more visibly involved in child care (it is not uncommon to see fathers out by themselves or with their partners pushing strollers or carrying young babies), the available Australian evidence suggests that there are still large differences between the amounts of time mothers and fathers spend with their children and the types of care giving activities they engage in, and minimal change has occurred (Craig 2003).
In the study conducted by Russell and colleagues (1999), fathers were asked when they provided care to their child on a specific day. Only 15 per cent of fathers said they had been the main care giver for a period of time on the day they were asked to report on (Russell et al. 1999). Moreover, fathers shared child care equally in only about 1 to 2 per cent of families, and fathers were highly involved in about 5 to 10 per cent of families (Russell et al. 1999).
More recent time-use data from Growing Up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), also suggests that while fathers' work demands are a big factor, fathers of infants (aged 3-19 months) and 4 year-old children spend considerably less time with their children than mothers. For example, on a typical weekday, infants spend seven hours and 48 minutes with their mother and two hours and 57 minutes with their father. On weekends these figures are seven hours and 55 minutes with their mother and five hours and 27 minutes with their father. On weekdays, 4 year olds spend six hours and 50 minutes with their mothers and two hours 48 minutes with their fathers, and on weekends mothers and children spend seven hours and 54 minutes and fathers and children spend five hours and 59 minutes. Moreover, mothers were more likely to share warm, positive interactions and activities with their children than fathers (Baxter, Gray & Hayes 2007).
1.3 Determinants of father involvement
Many men clearly want to be involved in their children's lives and invest heavily in their family relationships-yet there are substantial gaps between attitudes and actions. The following outlines some of the major determinants (and barriers) to father involvement.2
Social construction of fathers' roles
Social discourses surrounding involved and traditional constructions of fathering can be understood as the overarching context shaping how contemporary men practice fathering. Fatherhood and motherhood have historically been defined dichotomously in terms of contrasting and complementary roles, identities and traits (that is, the 'breadwinner' father and 'stay-at-home' mother). These broad stereotypes deeply penetrate cultural scripts about parenting and affect (consciously and subconsciously) how parenthood is performed and constructed at individual, interpersonal and institutional levels (Lupton & Barclay 1997). Traditional ideas about parenting affect men's predisposition and ability to be involved parents, and women's ability to let men be more involved, often referred to as 'gatekeeping' (Gaunt 2008).
Motivation and identity
Fathers exercise considerable self-determination in the extent to which they involve themselves in the care of their children. Cook et al. (2005) found that fathers who had strong expectations of being highly involved with their infant were more involved in care giving than men who did not anticipate being highly involved. Bouchard et al. (2007) explored fathers' self-motivation using identity theory and found that men engage in activities with their children because they feel that it is important to be involved and because they gain personal satisfaction from it. They found that fathers were more interested in being involved with their children's emotional and educational needs and less interested in responsibility for children's basic care needs (Bouchard et al. 2007).
The value to which both men and women assign the role of fathers is also thought to determine levels of father involvement. The internal investment in the identity (father) relative to other identities (that is, worker, son, husband) can explain levels of father involvement (Habib & Lancaster 2006). Investment in an identity is reinforced when others support and encourage behaviours and self-perceptions that fit within that identity (Henley & Pasley 2005). In this context the support of mothers, family members, family services, community members and work colleagues is important for promoting involved fathering.
Research also exists to suggest that the extent to which men invest in their identity as fathers varies according to economic factors, education, martial status and cultural background. In one United States study, Bronte-Tinkew, Carrano and Guzman (2006) found that economically disadvantaged fathers, less educated fathers, unmarried fathers and fathers from non-white American cultural groups tended to have less positive perceptions of their role.
Paid employment
Increased father involvement in contemporary societies is often associated with decreasing family sizes and increased female employment (Lupton & Barclay 1997). Volling and Belsky (1991), for example, argued that a significant factor determining levels of father involvement is the extent to which the father has to compensate for the unavailability of the mother. In their study of dual and single-income families, Volling and Belsky found that fathers whose partners were in paid employment engaged in more child care, taking up tasks that mothers were unavailable to perform (see also Sanderson & Sanders Thompson 2002). Conversely, in single-income families, the extent to which the father was engaged with his children relied upon his personality and attitudes about parenting.
Fathers also tend to perceive work and lack of job flexibility as a major impediment to spending time with their children. Russell et al. (1999) found that Australian fathers felt they experienced more difficulty than their female partners in balancing life and work, and that work often left them tired, preoccupied and stressed, and less able to engage with their family (see also Hand & Lewis 2002). LSAC data also show that while others factors are important, such as mothers' time in employment, family income and so on, fathers' shared time with their children tends to decrease when fathers spend long hours in paid employment (Baxter 2007).
Interpersonal factors
Commentators (for example, Lamb & Lewis 2004) have argued that family context, particularly the quality of the relationship between parents, is a key determinant of levels of father involvement. In one United States study, Henley and Pasley (2005) explored the role of parental relationships in father involvement among married and divorced men. They found that fathers in highly cooperative parental relationships were highly involved with their children, regardless of their satisfaction or investment in their father identity. Further, divorced fathers experiencing high levels of interparental conflict and little support, or active discouragement to enact their father identity had lower levels of involvement with their children. In another study of French Canadian fathers in dual-income families, more highly involved fathers had partners who displayed confidence in their parenting ability. This increased the father's sense of his own competence, his motivation to engage in parenting activities and, in turn, his levels of involvement with his children (Bouchard et al. 2007).
1.4 Engaging men in child and family services
Benefits of father engagement in child and family services
It is in the context of emergence of father involvement as a social value, and in the light of research indicating the positive outcomes associated with father involvement, that family and child-centred services are called upon to include a greater focus on fathers in their activities.
Although only a handful of formal evaluations have been conducted (see Cabrera & Peters 2000; Fletcher, Fairbairn & Pascal 2004), the available evidence suggests contact with services can be beneficial for increasing parenting skills and involvement among fathers (for example, Doherty, Erickson & LaRossa 2006; Fagan & Stevenson 2002; Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001; Lloyd, O'Brien & Lewis 2003; Magill-Evans et al. 2007; UnitingCare Burnside 2003). Child and family services therefore have an important role to play in supporting fathers to be positively involved with their children and families, particularly in terms of building men's skills and confidence.
Levels of father engagement in child and family services
Engaging with fathers is a challenging task for many services and programs. In the United Kingdom, the evaluation of the Sure Start initiative produced a theme study exploring father participation in local Sure Start programs and the use of successful strategies for engaging men (Lloyd, O'Brien & Lewis 2003). The study found that successful engagement of fathers was shown to be the exception rather than the rule, although many fathers did have 'arm's length' contact with programs, through their partners. Moreover, fathers did show a tendency to participate at a higher rate in fun activity-based sessions rather than discussion groups, and father participation in male-only sessions was higher than in mixed sessions. Few male workers were employed in contact roles.
It would also appear that the men who do access family and child support services are not necessarily the population who might benefit the most from them. The evaluation strategy employed in conjunction with the United States programs, Early Head Start and Head Start, found that fathers who were more likely to be involved in Early Head Start programs came from better functioning families, were more likely to be married, more likely to be involved in their child's education, had less dysfunctional interactions with children, and had female partners who rated as warmer in their interactions with children (Raikes, Summers & Roggman 2005).
Many reasons have been offered as to why fathers engage so little with child and family services. Some commentators (for example, Fletcher 2003; McAllister, Wilson & Burton 2004) suggest that the traditional dominance of women as the primary carers of children and thus service users, as well as the preponderance of women as service providers, has produced a service culture that actively excludes men. There is also the fact that fathers are much less likely than mothers to seek out health workers, community welfare professionals and parents' groups if they need support in their role as a carer (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001; Russell et al. 1999; Summers, Boller & Raikes 2004), and are likely to be unaware of services that could assist them (see Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001 for a comprehensive overview of the barriers affecting men's participation with family and parenting services).
There is a need, therefore, for child and family services to adapt in order to increase men's participation. This includes addressing operational issues as well as attitudes among professionals and fathers. Specifically, increasing father engagement means becoming more responsive and skilled at engaging fathers, delivering services that appeal to men's styles of interacting, focusing on what men can contribute to child wellbeing, involving male workers, and providing father-specific programs. For services to move forward in this way requires training, planning, action and shifts in thinking at multiple levels-for both practitioners and service users (Fletcher 2008). Various strategies advocated in the literature for enhancing men's access to family, parenting and child-orientated services are discussed below.
1.5 Strategies for improving engagement with a father client group
Improving engagement with a father client group relies on the ability of services and programs to promote a father-friendly image and market themselves as relevant to the interests and needs of fathers.3
Policy and training
Often services targeted at fathers are driven by highly motivated individuals or subject to short-term funding. As such, programs for men have a tendency to be a sideline operation to main service activities. To address this, father involvement needs to be integrated into core targets and activities (McAllister, Wilson & Burton 2004) and become a higher, planned-for priority on the agenda of service providers and staff (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001).
Evaluation data from the Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the United States have indicated the services that do best at engaging fathers have a well-developed and strategic approach for attracting men to their activities. These services had made an organisation-wide commitment to increasing father participation, providing staff with training on engaging fathers, and creating staff positions dedicated to involving fathers in the service's activities (Raikes, Summers & Roggman 2005).
Professional attitudes and staffing
Ambivalent and negative attitudes towards fathers are relatively common among welfare, health and education workers (Russell et al. 1999). By facilitating managers and staff to be more aware of fathers and to understand the positive effects that fathers can have on child wellbeing via discussion, training and policy, negative attitudes and preconceptions that act as a barrier to fathers' access to services can be addressed.
Engaging well with fathers also relies on the ability and willingness of professionals to form relationships with fathers. While female staff are able to engage well with fathers, it is often argued that the best way to engage fathers is through providing male workers, or through mentor learning where groups are facilitated by men who share common experiences (King 2005; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004).
Adopting a strengths-based perspective
A strengths-based approach emphasises fathers' existing skills and their status as important people in the lives of their children and families. It also uses language that is relevant to the service users' needs, communicates faith in their abilities, acknowledges the importance of family relationships in men's lives and is honest and direct about important issues faced by service users (King 2005; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004). A strengths-based approach uses solution-focused thinking and seeks to build on men's desire to have good, caring and moral relationships with their children (King 2005). This framework is useful not only in cases where specific problems exist, such as family violence, but also in the way in which general parenting and family services can assist men to recognise their competence as care givers, increase their confidence and build their skills.
Making services male friendly
Getting men in the door is often a major barrier for services wanting to set up or extend their activities to fathers, as men assume that the service is for women and children (O'Brien & Rich 2003). General services can use strategies such as displaying positive images of men and children at their facilities, developing brochures that target fathers, personalising correspondence to fathers (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004) and branding the service to appeal to fathers (O'Brien & Rich 2003). The presence of men in contact roles within an organisation may also help to impress upon service users that both men and women have a stake in family and child outcomes, and that both parents are welcome at the service.
While research relating to the extent to which fathers actually desire male-only services is conflicting, there is an assumption that men are more likely to share experiences and express feelings, views and concerns in the company of other men (Lloyd, O'Brien & Lewis 2003; O'Brien & Rich 2003). Male workers, it is argued, are also better equipped to provide 'male friendly' resources, put men at ease when first coming into contact with a service, and build trusting relationships with father service users. Seeking to recruit more men in family and child-centred services is therefore an important issue. It is also important that appropriate males are available to work with specific groups such as indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) fathers for whom receiving information about parenting from a woman or man outside of their cultural group may be undesirable or inappropriate.
Providing services only during working hours is thought to be a barrier to fathers' engagement with services (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001). Holding sessions in the evenings or on weekends is an effective means of responding to this. In relation to transition-to-fatherhood services, research suggests that men are more receptive to receiving information about parenting after their baby has arrived (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001).
The literature also suggests that it is important to tailor services to men's learning and interaction styles. Men are not attracted to services they perceive as being for women (O'Brien & Rich 2003). It has also been argued that men are discouraged by professional interaction that they perceive to be hierarchical or judgemental (King 2005). As discussed above, improving engagement with men requires service provision that is based on notions of equality, highlights service users' existing strengths and is non-judgemental (O'Brien & Rich 2003). Men are also felt to benefit from peer-group learning and task-based activities firmly anchored in observable outcomes and results (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001).
Raising awareness
Where men are unaware of services, it is important to advertise in the places where they are likely to be. Workers can also seek to engage with fathers through incidental contact such as at community events, through their contact with the child and the mother, during home visits, or when the father picks the child up from school or day care. Recruiting enthusiastic fathers to promote the services through word-of-mouth and existing community networks can also be effective (King 2000).
Staff also require time to plan ways to access their specific population of fathers and need to be willing to trial different approaches. An experimental, community-based attitude to engaging with fathers is required (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001). Holding reference groups to identify fathers' needs and networking with existing services and community groups may be useful (King 2000; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004).
Assessment and evaluation
There is no single model for meeting the needs of fathers. A service working with men on family violence issues has to be different to one working with new fathers. Similarly, indigenous and CALD fathers should be approached with their distinct needs in mind. The best approach a service can adopt is to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of their particular client group and treat engaging with fathers as a process that requires flexibility and ongoing assessment, evaluation and adjustment (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001). It is also extremely useful for services and programs to include in their service provision ongoing assessment and evaluation of father engagement. In this way they can measure success and build a knowledge base about what works in engaging with fathers (Fletcher, Silberberg & Baxter 2001, see also King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004).