Enhancing Father Engagement in Parenting Programs: Translating Research into Practice Recommendations

Abstract

Objective: Given the increasing research and practice interest in father engagement, this article aimed to develop a clinical narrative integrating the extant research literature to distil key practice recommendations for enhancing father engagement in parenting interventions for child wellbeing. Method: A narrative review of research on father engagement in interventions for child wellbeing was conducted, to identify and distil evidence-based policies and practices to enhance father engagement for practitioners and organisations. Results: Six broad policy and practice recommendations are provided that pertain to: engaging the parenting team, avoiding a father deficit model, increasing father awareness of parenting interventions, ensuring father-inclusive program content and delivery, increasing organisational support for father-inclusive practice, and increasing professional father engagement training. Conclusion: This review provides practitioners with guidelines for enhancing father engagement based on the available research. It also provides recommendations for further research regarding the effectiveness of strategies to enhance father engagement.

Towards a global framework for assessing male involvement in maternal health: results of an international Delphi study

“…Both communication and shared decision-making as MI measurements became much more common from 2015 onwards within the literature. [42][43][44] Today, the importance of assessing communication within MI research seems to be generally recognised, and there was also high agreement among experts in our study for the inclusion of indicators related to communication. The main drawback of using communication to assess involvement, noted by respondents within our study and other researchers, 24 is the risk of assessing male dominance rather than involvement.…”

Crenças sobre o papel do pai numa amostra de homens Portugueses

“…O estudo reveste-se, ainda, de um potencial prático para o delineamento de programas de promoção do envolvimento e bem-estar parental, dado o impacto positivo das crenças nas práticas e comportamentos dos pais (Freeman et al, 2008;Grusec & Danyliuk, 2014), o que poderá ser particularmente relevante na intervenção com famílias em risco e sinalizadas (Freeman et al, 2008;Scott & Crooks, 2007). Finalmente, ainda que seja fundamental considerar especificamente o pai, há que integrar a mãe nestas análises, de modo a obter uma verdadeira compreensão do que é a parentalidade, dos fatores que a influenciam, e do seu impacto no desenvolvimento infantil (e.g., Lechowicz et al, 2019).…”

Improving Parenting Practices Among Fathers Who Misuse Opioids: Fathering Through Change Intervention

“…Second, strength-based treatments increase engagement, whereas interventions based on deficit models (i.e., emphasize fathering flaws needing corrective action) are averse to fathers and threaten participation (Panter-Brick et al, 2014 ; Lechowicz et al, 2019 ). Programs that raise awareness of fathers' developmental effect on their children build father motivation.…”

“…Thus, providing parenting supports independent of the fathering context is likely to be unsuccessful to achieve optimal parenting and recovery outcomes. For example, initial and ongoing engagement for fathers who misuse opioids can be particularly challenging (Lechowicz et al, 2019 ), therefore, there is growing integration of peer support specialists into addiction recovery services. Peer support specialists can also be trained as a coach to help problem-solve life challenges and are also effective for increasing the likelihood of abstinence (Barlow et al, 2014 ; Ashford et al, 2018 ).…”