Tully, L., Collins, D., Piotrowska, P., et al. (2018). Examining practitioner competencies, organizational support and barriers to engaging fathers in parenting interventions. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 49, 109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-017-0733-0
In this study, the authors sought to examine rates of father attendance, practitioners’ competencies in engaging fathers, the barriers to engaging fathers in parenting interventions, and organizational support for father-inclusive practice.
Following pilot testing, 210 practitioners working with families to provide parenting treatment for child externalizing behaviors completed a survey with questions regarding demographics, rates of father attendance, competencies, training experience, perceived barriers, and organizational policies or practices around engaging fathers in treatment. Psychologists (39%), family support or case workers (21%), and social workers (18%) were the most common respondents, and most participants worked for either a non-government organization (40%), government child and family mental health service (24%), or private practice (16%).
For families with a father residing in the home, 17% of practitioners reported that fathers often attended, 53% reported that fathers sometimes attended, and 29% said that fathers rarely attended services. While practitioners agreed that services were more effective if fathers were involved (93%), only 27% were rated high in father engagement competence (a combined measure of practitioner confidence and reported usage of father engagement strategies). A similar percentage of practitioners (27%) reported receiving specific training in working with or engaging fathers.
Regarding barriers to engagement, the most frequently reported obstacles from the practitioners’ perspective were fathers’ work commitments (81%), fathers not having time (55%), fathers’ discomfort asking for or receiving parenting assistance (54%), and fathers feeling that it is a mother’s role to parent children (47%). Cost of service was the least endorsed perceived barrier (4%).
Practitioners viewed their organizations as supportive of father-inclusive practice (23% “extremely” and 37% “very”) with only 5% reporting that their organization was not very supportive; however only 41% of practitioners reported that their organization regularly offered sessions outside regular working hours to accommodate the identified barriers to engagement.
Results of a logistic regression indicated that practitioners who had received training in father engagement were 2.25 times more likely to be in the high versus low competence category. Regarding practitioners reporting moderate levels of father attendance (“sometimes” attended versus “rarely”), for every additional year of experience, practitioners were 1.05 times more likely to report that fathers sometimes attended relative to rarely attended.
For father attendance ratings of “often” attended when compared to “rarely” attended, there were two additional predictors: high levels of organizational support (6.28 times more likely than those with low levels of support to report that fathers often attended) and practitioners with high competence levels (5.68 times more likely than those with low competence to report that fathers often attended).