Father involvement and child and adolescent ... - University Library

What we know about children and adolescents, aged from birth to 18, in Canada is
based, to a large extent, on the mother-child interaction. Despite significant research
interest in the environments, especially families, in which children are raised, most
examinations of child development have focused on the centrality of the mother-child
relationship, while essentially ignoring the father-child relationship. In fact, much of the
understanding of parental influences has remained at the level of limited indicators,
such as income and educational attainment. Where more in-depth parental
characteristics and behaviour are incorporated into models, the paradigm is very much
centered on the mother. This skewed view of parental influence has been questioned in
more recent research in the United States and other national contexts (Waldfogel,
2006).
The literature in this area uses the term “father involvement” or “fathering” to describe
fathers’ interactions with their children and the impact of that interaction on
developmental outcomes (Lamb, 1981; Lamb et al., 1985; Pleck et al., 1985). Father
involvement occurs throughout a child’s life and is not limited to the early years (e.g. 0-
6). Components of father involvement include, but are not limited to, positive
engagement, warmth-responsiveness, control-monitoring, participation, and knowledge
sharing.
Much of the current knowledge of child and adolescent development in Canada is
based primarily on two sources: (1) mothers’ accounts of children’s characteristics and
behaviour, and (2) direct assessments on children (e.g. PPVT, Who am I, number
knowledge). While it may have been the case that mothers’ accounts were found to be
more reliable due to closer observation and time spent with the child, to date, very little
information both within Canada and internationally on child and adolescent development
is based on fathers’ accounts. One reason for this situation in Canada is because the
National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) 1 collects information on
children from the person most knowledgeable (PMK) who for the majority of cases, is
the biological mother of the child. In over nine out of ten cases this is the individual who
provides the information. Thus, we do not know how fathers report on their children’s
development as well as their interaction with them.
Our current understanding of child development is also problematic because analyses
of factors associated with child development overly-focus on the mother’s
characteristics, style and practices (e.g. educational attainment, engagement,
breastfeeding, health and lifestyle behavior, etc). Moreover, little information is collected
on fathers themselves. Such an approach has provided an incomplete understanding of
the environments in which children are raised (i.e. Coté et, al, 2007).
Public policy and academic knowledge in the area of fathers and child development in
Canada represents a significant research gap. Although there are studies of this
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Document #: 18458
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