Father involvement is a critical protective factor for child well-being, yet policy and practice rarely incorporate fathers’ voices and experiences. It is time to include fathers in their narrative.
Fathers are important resources for children, with increasing research evidence describing their unique contributions to children’s development. Particularly in underserved communities, fathers can provide critical resources to children and serve as protective factors against risks. However, fathers in these communities are also challenged in their involvement due to systemic factors. In the face of such barriers, fathers also describe resilience and commitment to involvement in their children’s lives.
In this research series, we discuss how fathers experience involvement in their children’s lives, and how they describe the factors that support their involved fatherhood.
Brightpoint conducted community-based participatory research with fathers and will launch a father-led policy agenda informed by the research findings and fathers’ voices and experiences.
Our research series is guided by these questions:
Over the last 25 years, fathers have significantly increased their participation in support groups focused on fatherhood. What has motivated fathers to seek supportive spaces with other men, and how do these spaces impact how fathers involve themselves in their children’s lives?
We asked fathers to describe their experiences receiving support from other fathers through supportive groups.
We found that fatherhood peer support positively impacts parenting, including developing and strengthening their mental health, communication skills, and relational skills. The fathers achieved this growth from sharing their experiences, owning their emotions, feeling motivated, and engaging in self-development.
Fathers are actively seeking support and recognition for the role they play in their children’s lives. Fathers are also seeking spaces where they can share their emotional life and receive support around parenting challenges.
Despite being highly motivated to be involved, fathers described several systemic barriers that they believed restricted their involvement and discussed the various resources that they utilized to overcome these barriers. Educators and policy-makers should acknowledge Black fathers’ unique approaches to involvement as well as the contextual factors that shape their efforts to support their children’s academic success.
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