Session: Fathering in Different Contexts (Society for Prevention Research 27th Annual Meeting)

The father-child interaction during the early and middle childhood period is a salient factor in predicting later child outcomes. The literature on involved fatherhood demonstrates that children growing up with fathers who were warm, sensitive, and spent high quality time with their children, show fewer behavioral problems and better attachment security. Children of involved fathers also had better communication skills with their peers, higher language abilities, better mathematical abilities, higher academic achievement, and better self-regulatory abilities. The goal of this symposium is to address which factors contribute to the fulfillment of these highly crucial positive fathering practices in substantially different contexts.

The first paper investigates the joint effects of parenting time, fathers’ and mothers’ parenting quality, and interparental conflict on child mental health problems in a sample of high conflict divorcing or separating families participating in a randomized trial of a court-based preventive program. Authors critically examine how shared parenting time can benefit children through high-quality parenting by fathers and discuss implications for decision makers about allocations of post-divorce parenting time.

Guided by the Monitoring and Acceptance Theory, the second paper examines how trait mindfulness influences parenting in a sample of combat-deployed National Guard/Reserve fathers. Using a multi-method longitudinal cascade model, authors investigate the importance of emotion regulation and cognitive control as mediators for the relationships between mindfulness and positive fathering practices over 2 years.

Consistent with ecological systems theory and heuristic model of parental behaviors dynamics, the third paper explores the risk and protective factors for involved fatherhood using a representative sample of fathers of preschoolers in a traditional patriarchal culture, Turkey. Authors examine both individual and contextual factors that contribute to involved fatherhood by focusing on its three dimensions as care, control, and affection.

The symposium aims to highlight the importance of fathers in child development and extend our understanding about the factors contributing to involved fatherhood so to inform policy and practice in diverse settings.