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Fatherhood Research

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project has been conducting research relating to the role low-income fathers play in the lives of their infants and toddlers, in their families, and in the Early Head Start programs in which they participate. The Early Head Start father studies are among the first to investigate involvement of low-income fathers in children's lives, together with mother involvement, in the context of both an intervention program for infants and toddlers and a longitudinal study. The Early Head Start father studies focus on biological fathers and father figures (sometimes referred to as "social fathers").

Fatherhood studies within Early Head Start represent a coordinated effort by a number of governmental and nongovernmental groups, working together in the spirit of the Fatherhood Initiative, begun in 1995. Early Head Start father studies were funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and Evaluation (ASPE), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF); and the Ford Foundation.

Study Objectives

The father studies increase our understanding of how fathers and mothers, in the context of the family, influence infant and toddler development. The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project assessed how programs worked with low-income families to enhance children's development and well-being, but data collection originally centered on mothers as the primary source of information. The father research enables us to learn more about how programs support fathers' relationships with their children and with the children's mothers. Quantitative and qualitative studies of fathers are being carried out in Early Head Start research sites for better understanding of:

  • The characteristics of the social and biological fathers in Early Head Start communities;
  • How father involvement affects children's developmental trajectories; and
  • How Early Head Start programs involve fathers and mothers in program activities and as the primary educators of their children.

Fatherhood Research: Four Study Strands

The father studies were added to the evaluation research design in response to efforts within Early Head Start to involve fathers in program activities and in response to the federal Fatherhood Initiative. Father studies within Early Head Start are coordinated by the Early Head Start Research Consortium's Father Studies Workgroup. The workgroup is conducting four father study strands:

  1. Interviews with Fathers. Approximately 750 fathers at 12 of the 17 research sites were interviewed when the children were 2 and 3 years old and again in the spring before their kindergarten year. Workgroup members investigated how fathers influence child and family outcomes in Early Head Start and beyond; the personal and contextual factors in the lives of fathers that contribute to their involvement in and enjoyment of fathering; whether services for fathers affect their involvement in their children's lives; program and individual characteristics that are associated with program participation; and the cultural, demographic, and regional variations in father involvement in programs and in children's development. The interview protocol paralleled many of the questions asked of mothers in their interviews. Because of the Early Head Start evaluation's experimental design, this research strand was able to measure program impacts on father involvement. In addition, the study included a core set of qualitative questions that will generate new hypotheses about fathers and their involvement. This study also collected data on father-child interactions in a subsample of families in 7 sites, using videotaping procedures comparable to those used to assess mother-child interactions at 2 and 3 years and in the spring before kindergarten as part of the Early Head Start national evaluation. Interaction data provide information on the quality of the father-child relationship that is difficult to glean from self-report or maternal interviews. The Early Head Start father-child videotaping procedures add greatly to the methods used in previous research on father-child interactions in low-income families.

  2. Study of Mothers and Fathers of Newborns. The study of newborns, supported by the Ford Foundation, follows 200 fathers and mothers of newborns. Fathers and mothers were interviewed when their children were 1, 3, 6, 14, and 24 months of age to provide an in-depth look at the evolving nature of fatherhood and father involvement in children's lives. A subset of families is being interviewed when the children are 3 years old and in the spring before kindergarten. This study also includes interviews that contain qualitative questions and videotaped observations. The research with fathers of newborns allows us to learn about the early experiences of fatherhood.

  3. Practitioner Study. Components of the practitioner study are funded by ACF, the Ford Foundation, and NICHD. This study focuses on understanding:

    1. The strategies that Early Head Start programs use to engage fathers and father figures in the program;
    2. The goodness of fit between these strategies and the perceived needs and preferences of fathers;
    3. The successes programs achieve and the barriers they encounter;
    4. How programs change over time in response to their experiences with low-income fathers and their children and families;
    5. How Early Head Start programs influence fathers and their relationships with their children and families; and
    6. The roles of fathers and fathers' influences on their children and families.

The practitioner study used survey and qualitative methods to study father involvement in program activities as part of an iterative process that builds on the depth and complexity of research questions from one phase to the next. Specific practitioners study components include:

  • Focus groups with fathers, mothers, and Early Head Start staff members (1997);
  • An in-depth study of father involvement in one program (1998-1999);
  • A survey of father involvement in the 17 Early Head Start research sites (1997);
  • In-depth interviews with directors and father involvement coordinators in the 17 research sites (1999-2000);
  • Qualitative questions about support needs as part of interviews with about 750 fathers (1998-2001);
  • Focus groups with fathers and mothers in Head Start and Early Head Start (1999);
  • A survey of father involvement in 261 Wave I to Wave 4 programs (1999-2000)
  • Focus groups with Early Head Start staff members (2000); and
  • Continuing analyses of program-related data (2002-2004).
  1. Local Research Studies. The university researchers engaged in the Early Head Start father studies are conducting a variety of special studies focused on fatherhood issues of particular significance to their program partners and the populations served in their communities. Examples include studies with a special focus on father-child interaction in the context of play, a study of father-child teaching with biological fathers, and intensive case studies with small numbers of fathers and families.

Fatherhood Research: Workgroup Members

 

Organization / University     Members
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Columbia University   Kimberly Boller (workgroup co-chair)
Cheri Vogel (workgroup co-chair)
John Love, Welmoet van Kammen, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Rebecca Ryan
NICHD   Natasha Cabrera (now at University of Maryland) and Michael Lamb
ASPE   Linda Mellgren and Martha Moorehouse
ACF   Helen Raikes, Rachel Chazan-Cohen, and Frankie Gibson
University of Arkansas  

Robert Bradley
University of California, Los Angeles   Carollee Howes and Allison Fuligni
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center   JoAnn Robinson
Colorado State University   Jeffrey Shears
Harvard University   Barbara Pan and Elisabeth Duursma
Iowa State University   Carla Peterson
Michigan State University   Hiram Fitzgerald, Rachel Schiffman, and Lorraine McKelvey
New York University   Catherine Tamis-LeMonda and Jacqueline Shannon
University of Kansas   JeanAnn Summers
University of Nebraska-Lincoln   Brian Wilcox
University of Pittsburgh   Carol McAllister and Patrick Wilson
University of Tennessee-Knoxville   Gina Barclay-McLaughlin
University of Washington, School of Education   Eduardo Armijo
University of Washington, School of Nursing   Susan Spieker and Anthippy Petras
Utah State University   Lori Roggman and Lisa Boyce


Fatherhood Research: Dissemination Plan

Many scholarly papers have been produced from the Early Head Start father studies work group. These presentations and papers can be viewed under the Early Head Start Reports section at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html.

Reports from the father studies include practitioner study findings, which can be viewed at http://ccfl.unl.edu/projects/cprojects/ecp/ehs_study.html, a special issue of the journal Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice About Men as Fathers, edited by Natasha Cabrera (Winter 2004, 2-1), which is devoted to findings from the Early Head Start study and can be viewed at http://www.mensstudies.com/tocfat2_1.html and a report on fathers of newborns, which can be viewed at http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/ehsnewborns.pdf.