Father Involvement and Early Intervention: Effects of Empowerment and Father Role Identity

Abstract

The family‐centered service delivery model used in early intervention is meant to empower families of children with disabilities. The present analysis examined the effects of empowerment and father identity on father involvement with children with disabilities. Father involvement was measured using three indices: attachment (i.e., feeling a strong connection to the child), engagement (i.e., participating in activities with the child), and responsibility (i.e., meeting the child's needs). Father empowerment and father identity, measured as salience, satisfaction, and reflected appraisals, consistently predicted higher levels of father involvement in hierarchical regression models. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that father identity partially mediated the relationship between empowerment and father involvement. These findings support the family‐centered service delivery model and suggest that it may be able to improve the lives of children with disabilities by enhancing father role identity and subsequent fathering activities.

Parent Empowerment in Pediatric Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies

“…The majority of articles (n=32) did not include a formal definition of empowerment. Among those that did, recurrent elements of the definition include acquisition of skills and/or knowledge leading to increased confidence and control interacting with and ultimately navigating the health care environment [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Often, empowerment was defined, at least in part, by anticipated outcomes such as involvement in decision making [17,22,23], providing care [15,24], and service delivery [21].…”

Evidencias y retos de la Atención Temprana: el modelo centrado en la familia

“…Evidencia que también respalda Espe-Sherwind (2008), la cual halla la divergencia entre la investigación teórica y la práctica. Además, existe la necesidad de analizar los programas locales para demostrar las relaciones entre los modelos y los resultados favorables de los niños y la familia (Gavidia et al, 2015), así como estudios enfocados a la práctica profesional y a la evaluación de los programas de Atención Temprana (Epley et al, 2010;Fox et al, 2015).…”

“…Emerge la clara evidencia de que la gravedad del diagnóstico implica diferente grado de satisfacción. Un ejemplo es que los padres otorgan mayor puntuación al apoyo recibido cuando menor es el grado de discapacidad de su hijo (Barcells, Giné, Guàrdia, Olmos y Summers, 2016;Fox et al, 2015). Sin embargo, solo se ha demostrado la relación indirecta de las prácticas centradas en la familia y los resultados del desarrollo del niño (Hughes y Gavidia, 2019), por lo que "la investigación debe aclarar algunas de las relaciones entre las diferentes y complejas variables de las prácticas de Atención Temprana y los resultados de familia y niño" (Fernández, Serrano, McWilliam y Cañadas, 2017, p. 2).…”

“…Paralelamente, se une la carencia de formación de los profesionales para llevar a cabo dicho modelo (Cañadas, 2012;Dias y Cadime, 2019;Dunst et al, 2019;Escorcia et al, 2018;Espe-Sherwind, 2008;Gavidia et al, 2015;Mas et al, 2018;Marco et al, 2018;Pereira y Serrano, 2014). Además, los servicios han de apostar por los principios de calidad (Millá, 2005;Minard, 2018;Pereira y Serrano, 2014) evaluando, constantemente, los programas de intervención (Epley et al, 2010;Fox et al, 2015) a partir de la percepción de los progenitores (Davis y Gavidia, 2009;Dias y Cadime, 2019;Gavidia et al, 2015;Hughes y Gavidia, 2019;Pighini et al, 2014).…”

Process evaluation of text-based support for fathers during the transition to fatherhood (SMS4dads): mechanisms of impact

“…Fathers are now recognised as an appropriate target for early intervention services aiming to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for families [1][2][3]. This recognition arises from a body of evidence demonstrating that a father's health-related behaviours and his relationships with the mother and his child, from the point of conception, up to and after the birth, are important determinants of family wellbeing [4,5].…”