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The Role of Child's Age, Sex, and Temperament in Father Involvement during the Pre-School Years

Carolina Santos1, Lígia Monteiro1, Nuno Torres2

  • 1Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|September 23, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Child characteristics like temperament influence father involvement in teaching and play. Fathers engage more with extroverted daughters and in discipline with boys exhibiting negative affectivity.

Area of Science:

  • Child Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Family Studies

Background:

  • Understanding father involvement is crucial for child development.
  • Child characteristics may influence paternal engagement patterns.
  • Previous research has not fully explored these associations in preschool-aged children.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between child characteristics (age, sex, temperament) and father involvement.
  • To identify specific child traits that predict different types of father engagement.
  • To inform interventions supporting positive father involvement.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 410 bi-parental families with preschool children.
  • Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models used to analyze data.
  • Sample divided into two age groups (3-4 years and 5-6 years) for analysis.

Main Results:

  • Fathers of younger children (3-4 years) were more involved in teaching/discipline and play with extroverted daughters.
  • Fathers of older children (5-6 years) showed higher involvement in teaching/discipline and play with children high in negative affectivity.
  • An interaction effect indicated fathers' increased teaching/discipline involvement with boys high in negative affectivity.

Conclusions:

  • Children's characteristics significantly impact fathers' involvement, especially in teaching and discipline.
  • Findings highlight the importance of considering child temperament and sex in understanding fathering.
  • Results can guide the development of targeted programs to enhance father engagement.

Keywords:
child’s agechild’s sexchild’s temperamentfather involvementpreschool

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