Dad’s the Word: The long-term impact of paternal involvement on children’s psychosocial outcomes in childhood and adolescence

Abstract

It is now well established that fathers play an important role in the adaptive development of their children. Paternal involvement, or more specifically, paternal accessibility (proximity to their children), and engagement (one-to-one interaction) are increasingly examined predictors in longitudinal cohort studies. Though the evidence regarding paternal accessibility and engagement in longitudinal cohort studies is expanding, it has been limited by short periods of follow up. Longer-term follow-up studies are required to examine whether paternal involvement, particularly early in life, has significant effects throughout childhood and into adolescence. Moreover, the paternal involvement literature remains divided on the degree to which paternal involvement affects the psychosocial development of boys and girls equally. The broad aim of this thesis was to investigate the nature of early paternal accessibility and engagement as predictors of children’s psychosocial functioning over time. Data from the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative longitudinal study was used. Considering paternal involvement as part a wider system of developmental bioecology (Bronfenbrenner, 1994), this thesis examined the effects of paternal accessibility and engagement on children’s experience of significant behavioural difficulties and depression symptoms in childhood (11 years) and adolescence (16 years). A variety of socio-demographic factors were included in analyses as covariates. Results indicated that reduced paternal accessibility (measured as departure from the family household) prior to the age of 3.5 predicted significant increases in behavioural difficulties and depression symptoms for children at 11 years of age. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no significant effects of paternal engagement (hours of one-to-one play per week) over time, and no effects of paternal involvement on the experience depression symptoms at 16 years of age. Results also showed that paternal engagement moderates the relationship between paternal accessibility and behavioural difficulties at 11 years of age. Children whose fathers were highly engaged in their first year of life then subsequently left the family household by the time they were 3.5 experienced greater behavioural difficulties at 11 years of age than their peers. Overall, the body of work presented in this thesis expands the literature on the long-term effects of paternal accessibility and engagement. Most importantly, it introduces the possibility that paternal involvement may not be exclusively, positively associated with superior psychosocial outcomes for children over time.