Fathers' Involvement And Children's Academic Performances At The Kindergarten Level In Ghana

Fathers' involvement in childcare has historical disparities with mothers.More fathers,generally,have been found to spend less time than mothers in child care and education,especially,at the kindergarten level.Meanwhile,recent studies illustrated fathers' involvement plays a significant role in children's education(academic performance).Very few studies investigated the direct relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances.Significant correlations between fathers' involvement and children's performances were illustrated in the Western context.In the African contexts,studies accessed revealed that irrespective of the status fathers' involvement,children were socially,emotionally,academically competent.In the Ghanaian context,the researcher could not access any study findings on the relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances especially,at the kindergarten and Wa Municipality in particular.In addition,during the researcher's teaching service in four(4)Kindergarten schools within the Wa Municipality,He observed that less fathers than mothers,aunties brought or picked up children from school and or read to or assisted them in homework.However,accessed study studies on the general parental involvement initiative illustrated significant relationships.On such basis,the current thesis investigated the relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances at the kindergarten level in the Wa Municipality of Ghana.It also explored the dimension(s)in which fathers were involved in children's kindergarten education and factors that contributed to fathers' involvement.The purpose of the study was to find out if fathers of the Wa Municipality were involved in children's kindergarten education.To investigate the dimension fathers were involved,it was necessary to investigate the factors that may affect fathers' involvement.The findings of the study would therefore,provide for literature in Ghanaian context the relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances in the Wa Municipality of Ghana.It would also bridge the literature gap on the dimensions fathers of the Municipality were involved in children's kindergarten education and the factors that affect their involvement in the Ghanaian context.A mixed research approach(QUAL + quan + QUAN)was used for the study.Concurrent and sequential designs with triangulation and expansion rationales were used to study the relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances.The study was conducted in two phases.The first phase consisted of both methods(QUAL + quan)where concurrent design and triangulation rationale were used.The approaches were intended to converge the findings of phase one to answer research question one.The second phase also made use of only a QUAN approach with sequential design and expansion rationale to extend the study to investigate research questions one and two.A sample of 240 participants from 80 families participated in the study;fathers(N = 80,aged 21 – 50),mothers(N = 80,aged 20 – 34),children(N = 80,aged 4 – 6).Semi-structured interviews and series of questionnaires were used to collect the data for the study.The data collected was analyzed using multidata multianalysis mixed research analysis approach.They included;thematic and protocol coding(for qualitative data)and one-sample t-test,Pearson correlations,and linear multiple regression(for quantitative data).The study showed that,firstly,there was a significant relationship between fathers' involvement and children's academic performances.Secondly,it was illustrated fathers of the Wa Municipality were involved in children's kindergarten education in the dimension of responsibility.Thirdly,the study showed characteristics of children and fathers(temperament,age of children and fathers,fathers' stress,and occupation)had no relationship with fathers' involvement in the Wa Municipality of Ghana.This illustrated the Belsky's parenting process model tested was insignificant in the Ghanaian context.Finally,the study showed that child temperament also had a significant relationship with the performances of kindergarten children.