Poster #137 - Father Involvement and Parenting Styles in a Sample of Portuguese Families. Are Mothers Being Gatekeepers?

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

During the last years progressive changes have occurred in the way men’s roles in the family and particularly on child development are perceived, leading to a renewed bulk of research. Yet, there is much to understand in terms of how the parenting system is organized and variables that may facilitate or hinder father involvement (what and how much they do) and its quality. This is not only important for the study of child development per se, but also for the development of parenting interventions, promoting father involvement and child adjustment. In this study, father’s perceptions of his parenting competence, beliefs about his role, as well as age, educationand working status/hours were considered as predictors of father involvement in Care and Play activities, as well as the quality of parenting styles of interaction. To explore mothers’ regulatory role, we looked at her beliefs about fathers’ role (moderator). Child’s age and sex were controlled.
248 parents (married or living together) with children attending day-care (122 girls) participated in the study. Fathers answered the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Johnston & Mash, 1989) and the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson et al., 2001). The Parental Involvement Scale: Participation in Care and Socialization Activities (Monteiro et al., 2009) and “What Is a Father?” Scale (Schoppe, 2001) were independently answered by mothers and fathers.
Results: ICC (>.7) between parents’ responses allowed to create composite measures showing that mothers are still the main caregivers, although Play is shared. Father participation in Care is associated with his education, paternal Efficacy and Satisfaction, as well as mother’s Beliefs about father's role. Play is positively associated with paternal Efficacy and Satisfaction; with father’s and mother’s Beliefs about father's role. Negative associations were found between the fathers’ Connection with the child and father, mother and child’s age; and positive associations with paternal Efficacy and Satisfaction, as well as father’s Beliefs about his role. Fathers’ Regulation and Autonomy were associated with paternal Efficacy and father’s Beliefs. Physical Coercion and Punishment are negatively correlated with paternal Satisfaction and father’s Beliefs. Multiple linear regression models were tested to explain fathers’ involvement in Care (F(11,132)= .864; p= .577; R2a= -.01) and Play (F(11,132)= 1,680; p= 0.084, R2a= -.05), with Sociodemographic, paternal Efficacy and Satisfaction, and fathers’ and mother’ Beliefs about the father role as predictors. None of the models or predictors were significant. Similar models were tested to explain the Dimensions of Parenting style of interaction, although they were statistically significant, the explained variance was low. For father’s Connection only Paternal Efficacy (β=.178; t= 1.991, p= .049) and Father's beliefs were significant predictors (β= .223;t= 2.546, p= .012). For Autonomy fathers’ educational (β= .301; t= 2.907, p= .004) and his beliefs (β=.255; t= 2.890, p= .005) were significant predictors. For Punishment only mother's age (β= -.330, t= -2806, p= .006) and paternal satisfaction (β= -.317, t= -3.170, p= .000) were significant predictors. Results will be discussed regarding predictors for what and how much fathers do, and quality of parenting.

Authors

• Rita Amaral, ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
  Presenting Author

• Ligia Monteiro, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa; CIS-IUL
  Non-Presenting Author

• Madalena Ramos, ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa; CIES-IUL
  Non-Presenting Author