What Predicts Parental Involvement by Young Fathers at Psychosocial Risk

Abstract

Personal, relational, and contextual characteristics were examined to explain paternal involvement by an ethnically diverse sample of young men at-risk for poor parenting due to psychosocial factors. Ninety-one young fathers (M= 21.6 years) of young children (M = 17.1 months) participated at Time 1; 64 were in the longitudinal sample. Half did not have a high school education; incomes were working poor levels or below. Data were collected at two time points 8 months apart through interviews and questionnaires administered in the participants’ homes. Level of paternal cognitions was the strongest predictor of father involvement. Fathers reported that job/school was often a barrier to involvement; the children’s mothers were seen as gatekeepers or gateopeners and own mothers were seen as facilitators of involvement.