A longitudinal examination of father involvement and its effects on the social, emotional and economic outcomes of adult offspring

The current study aimed to examine how early childhood intervention moderates the effect of father involvement on the long term social, emotional and economic outcomes of participants in the Abecedarian Project. Treatment was expected to buffer against the negative effect of low father involvement. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the interaction between Abecedarian treatment status and father involvement (through childhood and adolescence), and their effect on five outcome measures of participants at age 30: adaptive functioning, problem behaviors, education attainment, job prestige and income-to-needs ratio. The results indicated that the interaction between early childhood intervention and father involvement did not predict any of the social, emotion or economic outcomes of participants. No relationships were observed between treatment status, father involvement and any of the outcomes measures. Continued research is needed to determine whether early childhood intervention may provide additional social supports for children and families experiencing limited father involvement.