| Father involvement has been linked to children's physical health, intellectual development, social development, and moral development as well as to paternal self-esteem, self-confidence, and marital satisfaction. Yet relatively little is known about the factors that influence fathers' level of involvement in childrearing. The present study examined several potential predictors of paternal involvement including father's perceived skill at childcare tasks, father's attitude toward gender roles, father's marital satisfaction, father's ethnicity, and the salience of the father role. Participants were 137 fathers of children between the ages of two and six who were currently living with their child and their child's mother. Multiple hierarchical regression and analyses of variance were used to examine father identity salience, gender role identity, ethnicity, perceived skill at childcare tasks, and marital satisfaction as predictors of paternal involvement. Ethnicity, gender role identity, and perceived skill at childcare tasks were all found to influence paternal involvement in childrearing. African American ethnicity, androgynous gender role identity, and higher perceived skill were found to be predictive of higher levels of involvement. Clinical and social implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research. |
