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

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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 1 http://www.statcan.ca/cgibin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4450&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2http://www.statcan.ca/cgibin/imdb/p2SV_f.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4450&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis = Document #: 18458 2
elationship in other contexts, such as the United States, for example the Fragile Families 2 project (Lewin-Bizan, 2006; Waller, 2007), this area remains relatively unexplored in Canada. Two recent developments make this area particularly salient at this time. First, there has been an increase in the number of lone fathers in Canada, up from 62,000 in 1981 to 119,000 in 2001 (Galameau, 2005). In 2001, lone fathers accounted for approximately one in six lone parent families. And second, since the introduction of the new parental leave policy in the province of Quebec in January 2006, 56% of eligible men have taken paternal leave after the birth of their children - an increase from 32% in 2005 (Marshall, 2008). This project would contribute to HRSDC’s understanding of an important and understudied area in child and adolescent development and provide us with a fuller picture of the environments, specifically familial, in which children are growing up. 6. Research Project Requirements: The project consists of four required elements: 1. an in-depth and critical review of the literature – focusing on empirical findings – across various disciplines (e.g. psychology, health, sociology, social work and economics), examining the relationship between father involvement and child and adolescent outcomes (aged 0-18 years of age), 2. a synthesis of the Canadian and international empirical findings, 3. an analytical framework for organizing the empirical findings, 4. recommendations for how to improve on the empirical understanding of the relationship between fathering and developmental outcomes, including the identification of data gaps. In the present context, the term “empirical” refers to analysis of data or information that is based on the measurement of actual experiences and/or behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, surveys which ask parents about their children’s health, well-being, behavior and/or skills; surveys which pose questions directly to children or youth; experiments with children that focus on impacts of various programs or interventions; observational studies of children and youth (e.g. in the classroom, in community settings); qualitative studies of child and youth development; focus groups interviewing parents about their children or directly with children or youth; and direct assessments (e.g. math and reading tests, PISA 3 , PPVT 4 ). More specifically, the paper will respond to the following research questions: 2 http://www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/index.asp 3 Programme of International Student Assessment http://www.pisa.gc.ca/ Le Programme international pour le suivi des acquis des élèves http://www.pisa.gc.ca/quoi_pisa.shtml 4 Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Document #: 18458 3
Page 1: Document #: 18458 TERMS OF REFERENC
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Page 7 and 8: Other: HRSDC reserves the right to
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Page 11 and 12: QUALIFICATIONS OF THE CONTRACTOR 5.
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