Barriers preventing involvement between nonresident African American fathers and their biological children

Previous research has shown a connection between inadequate Nonresidential African American Father (NAAF) involvement and a disproportionate level of consequences amongst their children that has led to impoverished single mother households, poorer academic, emotional, social development, greater interaction with the judicial system, and their children experience more internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Positive NAAF involvement can shape the academic and emotional state of their children's development. Thus it is important to understand the barriers NAAFs face to parental involvement. The research problem focuses on the need to expand the existing knowledge regarding barriers NAAFs experience to involvement from the NAAFs themselves. Contextual family theory (CFT), which focuses on relational ethics in horizontal (child's parents) and vertical (intergenerational) relationships provided the theoretical framework for the study. The instruments used to measure these processes included the Relational Ethics Scale (RES) (Hargrave, Jennings, & Anderson, 1991) and the Fatherhood Scale (FS) (Dick, 2004). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine whether the number of barriers NAAFs experience to involvement, a NAAF's relationship with his father, and the relationship NAAFs had with their children's mothers were predictors of NAAFs' parental involvement. It was hypothesized that NAAFs with multiple barriers, poor relationships with their fathers, or poor relationships with their children's mothers would have lower levels of involvement than those with fewer barriers and good relationships with their father/father figure or children's mother. Analysis of a sample of 93 Nonresidential African American fathers found that NAAFs' perceived barriers and relationships with their fathers (good or bad) were not significant predictors of NAAFs' parental involvement with their children. Additionally, NAAFs' relationships with their children's mothers were found to be a significant predictor of parental involvement.