The effect of fathering skills training on the parental self-efficacy of single African American fathers

Within many African American communities, there has been a permeating stereotype that fathers are uninvolved. However, over the past 40 years, the numerous contributions fathers make to their children's academic, social, emotional well-being has been better understood. To help fathers increase their parental self-efficacy and decrease stress, fathering skills training programs have been developed. One such program is the 24/7 Dad Fatherhood program which addresses topics and issues specific to fathering. This study involved a quantitative pre- and post-test comparison design to examine the effect of the 24/7 Dad Fatherhood program on the self- efficacy and stress levels of 60 single African American fathers. Thirty fathers served as the comparison group and 30 fathers completed the 24/7 Dad program. Both groups completed the Parenting Stress Index- Short Form (PSI-SF) and TOPSE (Tool for Measuring Parental Self- Efficacy) at the beginning and end of the study. Data were analyzed using a paired sample t-test. Due to the non-equivalency of the comparison and intervention groups; instead of comparing the two groups, score gains from the pre-and post-test for each group were compared. Results indicated fathers who completed the 24/7 Dad fatherhood program had higher self-efficacy and lower stress level mean scores. In addition, fathers in the comparison group also had higher self-efficacy and slightly lower stress levels at the post-test.