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Engaging Fathers of Young Children in Low-Income Families to Improve Child and Family Outcomes: A Preventive Intervention Perspective

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Handbook of Fathers and Child Development

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Abstract

Despite the benefits for children and families of fathers who are involved positively with their children, most parenting programs in the USA and globally focus on and collect evaluation data from mothers almost exclusively. Engaging fathers is still viewed as a complex endeavor that is only somewhat successful. In this chapter, we summarize what is known about engaging fathers in parenting programs and then argue that programs are most effective when coparenting is the early focus in family formation. We rely on two decades of the Supporting Father Involvement (SFI) program as an example of an initiative that has been effective at recruiting and retaining fathers and mothers in various cultural and national contexts. When programs are inclusive in content and focus on process, are sensitive to differences within and across families, and recognize parents as experts on their children, they are more successful in recruiting and retaining diverse groups of fathers and families.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thanks to Phil Cowan for the data analysis for this observation

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Study Center, Northampton, MA, USA

    Kyle Dean Pruett

  2. School for Social Work, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

    Marsha Kline Pruett

Authors
  1. Kyle Dean Pruett
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  2. Marsha Kline Pruett
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kyle Dean Pruett .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Hiram E. Fitzgerald

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany

    Kai von Klitzing

  3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Natasha J. Cabrera

  4. Graduate Program in Educational Psychology, Centro Universitário FIEO, Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil

    Júlia Scarano de Mendonça

  5. Division of Mental Health, Akershus University Hospital HF, Lørenskog, Norway

    Thomas Skjøthaug

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Pruett, K.D., Pruett, M.K. (2020). Engaging Fathers of Young Children in Low-Income Families to Improve Child and Family Outcomes: A Preventive Intervention Perspective. In: Fitzgerald, H.E., von Klitzing, K., Cabrera, N.J., Scarano de Mendonça, J., Skjøthaug, T. (eds) Handbook of Fathers and Child Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51027-5_38

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