Participants
The main sample (Sample 1) consisted of 589 practitioners who worked in services or organizations that delivered parenting programs in Australia. They were recruited as part of a study examining the effectiveness of a father engagement training program, Engaging Fathers in Parenting Programs: A National Training Program for Practitioners, which was delivered either face-to-face or online. Of the sample, 85.7% reported that they worked directly with families, 4.4% were support staff (e.g., administrative staff and managers), and 8.8% reported they did not currently work with families but had done so previously. Furthermore, 84.5% were female and 14.5% were male (0.8% did not indicate their gender). The mean age was 38.56 (SD = 11.27). The dominant profession was psychologist (38.7%), followed by social worker (16.5%), and, thirdly, family support worker (9.4%). The remaining professions included counselor, caseworker, nurse, psychiatrist, general practitioner, occupational therapist, educator/teacher, family dispute resolution practitioner, director/manager, and administrative worker. Of the sample, 42.4% indicated that they worked in a non-government organization, 32.0% in a child and family mental health service or other government organization, 15.0% in private practice, 4.7% in a university-based clinic, and 5.1% indicated ‘other organization’. The mean years of experience working with families was 8.89 (SD = 7.95, range = 0–40), and the majority (80.5%) had not received previous training in father engagement.
Procedure
All participants in Sample 1 completed all measures prior to receiving the father engagement training intervention. They completed the measures using either traditional paper-and-pencil versions (if they attended the training in person) or online, administered using QualtricsTM online survey software (if they participated in the online training). No differences in results were expected based on mode of administration, as previous research has established the psychometric equivalence of traditional paper-and-pencil and online versions of self-report questionnaires (e.g., Riva et al. 2003). The current study included only the pre-training data. The questionnaire took approximately 15 min to complete, and participants did not receive any incentives.
A separate sample of practitioners (N = 32; Sample 2), who were not involved in the father engagement training program, were recruited to complete the FEQ twice to assess the test–retest stability. The second questionnaire was completed approximately two weeks (mean = 14 days; range = 14–25 days) after the first completion. To ensure a high rate of completion on the second testing occasion, participants were given a $20 gift voucher to thank them for their time. Of the 32 practitioners who completed the first questionnaire, 28 (87.5%) (25 females and 3 males) completed the second questionnaire. These practitioners had a mean age of 40.75 years (SD = 15.20), and on average had 9.5 years of experience (SD = 6.18, range = 1–25) working with families. They worked primarily as a psychologist (46.4%) or social worker (21.4%). The practitioners were employed variously in a non-government organization (46.4%), a child and family mental health service or other government organization (25.0%), a university-based clinic (14.3%), private practice (10.7%), or other (3.5%). The majority (82.1%) had not previously participated in specific training for working with or engaging fathers. The study (including Sample 1 and Sample 2) was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Sydney. All participants read a Participant Information Statement and gave their consent prior to completing the measures: online participants indicated their consent by clicking a box and face-to-face participants signed a consent form.
Measures
Father Engagement Questionnaire
The Father Engagement Questionnaire (FEQ) was developed by a team of researchers and clinicians at the University of Sydney. The questionnaire items were developed through a review of the literature related to father engagement, including barriers to participation, practitioner competencies, and potential father engagement strategies at the practitioner and organizational levels; and in consultation with a team of 10 researchers and clinical psychologists with extensive experience in delivering parenting interventions with families. The items (in both paper-and-pencil and computerized online format) were then pilot tested with a small convenience sample of 30 researchers and practitioners. Based on feedback from the pilot test, the items were then revised to improve clarity in wording before inclusion in the questionnaire. After pilot testing, this questionnaire contained 49 items that assessed 5 content areas.
For the first content area, a set of 15 items asked practitioners to rate how confident they felt regarding various aspects of working with fathers. These items included process issues (e.g., eliciting fathers’ expectations of treatment and goals, and understanding fathers’ needs), client vulnerabilities (e.g., working with separated/divorced parents), knowledge of the literature about father-child relationships, and encouraging their team/service/organization to use father-inclusive practices and policies. Practitioners rated all items on a Likert-type scale from not at all confident (1) to extremely confident (5).
The second, third, and fourth content areas assessed practitioners’ ratings of perceived effectiveness of, competence in using, and frequency of implementing 10 specific father engagement strategies respectively (e.g., listening to fathers and exploring barriers to engagement, and directly inviting fathers who are reluctant to attend). The 10 items regarding perceived effectiveness asked practitioners to rate each of the strategies using the prompt, “To what extent do you believe the following strategies are effective for increasing the engagement of fathers?” using a Likert-type scale from not at all effective (1) to extremely effective (5). The 10 items regarding competence asked practitioners to rate the same strategies using the prompt, “To what extent do you feel competent to implement the following strategies with fathers?” using a Likert-type scale from not at all competent (1) to extremely competent (5). The 10 items regarding frequency of strategy use asked practitioners to rate the strategies using the prompt, “Over the last two months, to what extent have you used the following strategies when working with fathers and families?” using a Likert-type scale from never (1) to always (5).
Lastly, pertaining to the fifth content area, practitioners were asked to rate four items regarding the degree to which their service/program uses father engagement strategies. Each item contained the stem, “How often does your service/program use the following strategies to engage fathers?” Practitioners then rated four strategies—emphasizing the importance of father attendance at intake, offering sessions outside work hours, advertising that the program/treatment is for fathers as well as mothers, and obtaining data from fathers as well as mothers—on a Likert-type scale from never (1) to always (5).
Current Rates of Father Attendance
Practitioners were asked to indicate which statement best reflects their work with fathers over the past two months: fathers never attend sessions, fathers rarely attend sessions, fathers sometimes attend sessions, fathers often attend sessions, and fathers always attend sessions. Given the small proportion of practitioners that indicated fathers never attend sessions (2.5%), this category was combined with fathers rarely attend sessions (27.4%) in subsequent analyses. Similarly, given the small proportion indicating fathers always attend sessions (3.9%), this category was combined with fathers often attend sessions (13.4%) in subsequent analyses. Of the sample, 38% indicated that fathers sometimes attend sessions. A small proportion (13.5%) of practitioners indicated that they had not worked with families in the past two months, and their responses regarding current rate of father attendance were excluded from subsequent analyses including this variable.
Data Analyses
All analyses, with the exception of the test–retest stability, were conducted on Sample 1. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted to examine the factor structure of the FEQ. The inclusion of items in the questionnaire was revised according to the results of the EFAs to obtain a clear solution that was also theoretically sound. To determine the number of factors to retain, we used parallel analysis (O’Connor 2000), Velicer’s Minimum Average Partial (MAP) test (Velicer et al. 2000), and Kaiser’s (1960) criterion, along with inspecting the screeplot. The scales based on the factors derived from the final EFA solution were then examined for internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha reliability and test–retest stability using intraclass correlations (for Sample 2). To examine predictive validity, multinomial logistic regression was conducted to examine the prediction of practitioner-reported father attendance rates using mean ratings on the FEQ scales as predictors. All analyses were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics Version 23.