Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Publication Title
Parenting
Abstract
Objective.
In fatherhood research, a large gap has emerged between correlation-based studies and the design of interventions to increase the quantity and quality of fathers’ involvement in their families. The correlational research suggests that all family members could benefit from fatherhood intervention designs that attempt to reduce risks and strengthen protective conditions in multiple family domains—an approach consistent with family systems theories and ecological theories of child development. But most fatherhood interventions have been designed solely for fathers and focus primarily on parenting. Even in rare instances in which both parents are included in a father-focused parenting intervention, the curriculum rarely attends to the quality of relationship between the co-parents, despite the fact that this relationship is a prime correlate and predictor of father involvement and father-child relationship quality.
Design.
This narrative review describes the current gap between multidimensional correlational studies of fathers and families and the restricted designs of most father involvement interventions. We describe a family systems ecological intervention approach to bringing the correlational and intervention streams of fatherhood research closer together.
Results.
Evidence from empirical studies of correlations between risk/protective factors and outcomes supports a family systems ecological model of five domains relevant for inclusion in fatherhood intervention curricula and measurement protocols. Evaluations of interventions based on these five domains show that when both parents participate, the intervention shave greater impact than interventions directed only to fathers. Fathering is not simply behavior that occurs between a father and his child. In addition to the quality of his direct interaction with his child, fathering is a dynamic product of his well-being, the quality of the relationship between the co-parents, the transmission of behavioral patterns across generations, and the balance between outside-the-family stressors and the supports available to cope with them.
Conclusions.
This family systems ecological approach has implications for theory testing, future intervention research, and policy decisions about father-hood services.
Volume
25
Issue
4
First Page
367
Last Page
397
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Rights
© 2024 The Author(s).
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Cowan, Philip A.; Cowan, Carolyn Pape; Pruett, Marsha Kline; and Pruett, Kyle D., "Navigating the Gap Between Correlational and Intervention Studies of Fatherhood and Children’s Development: A Family Systems Ecological Perspective" (2025). School for Social Work: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/ssw_facpubs/81