POSSIBLE SELVES AND PRENATAL FATHER INVOLVEMENT

Research increasingly indicates that father involvement during pregnancy influences outcomes for mothers, fathers, and children. However, little is known about what factors are associated with prenatal involvement. Here, the idea of fathers’ possible selves was used to guide an investigation of the importance fathers assign to becoming a parent and mothers’ expectations of father competence, and their individual and interactive associations with father reports of prenatal involvement. Neither variable was associated with prenatal involvement individually, but the interaction term was significant. When mothers viewed fathers as competent parents, fathers were uniformly highly involved. However, when mothers reported low levels of perceived father competence, then the level of prenatal involvement was significantly associated with fathering importance. Findings are discussed in terms of the need for dyadic research as well as their implications for interventions.