The role of child’s age, sex, and temperament in father involvement during the pre-school years

(1) Background: The aim of the study was to explore how child’s characteristics (age, sex, and temperament) were associated with father’s involvement in child-related activities. In a sample of 410 bi-parental families with pre-school age children. (2) Methods: Dividing the sample into two age group...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor principal: Santos, Carolina (author)
Outros Autores: Monteiro, Lígia (author), Torres, Nuno (author)
Formato: article
Idioma:eng
Publicado em: 2022
Assuntos:
Texto completo:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/8809
País:Portugal
Oai:oai:repositorio.ispa.pt:10400.12/8809
Descrição
Resumo:(1) Background: The aim of the study was to explore how child’s characteristics (age, sex, and temperament) were associated with father’s involvement in child-related activities. In a sample of 410 bi-parental families with pre-school age children. (2) Methods: Dividing the sample into two age groups, OLS regression models were conducted for each dimension of father involvement with child characteristics as predicting variables. (3) Results: for the younger children (3 and 4 years) fathers were more involved in teaching/discipline and played with their more extroverted daughters. With older children (5 and 6 years), fathers were more involved in teaching/discipline and played when children were higher on negative-affectivity. An interaction was found with boys’ higher negativeaffectivity, predicting fathers’ higher involvement in teaching and discipline. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that children’s characteristics have an impact on what fathers do, particularly in a dimension salient to pre-school years such as teaching/discipline. This can help build tailored empirical-sustained programs aiming to encourage and support fathers’ positive involvement.