Fathers’ home-based and school-based involvement and its determinants based on an interview study

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the patterns and factors which influence fathers’ home-based and school-based involvement using qualitative interview method. The international literature suggests that paternal involvement has similar effects on children’s development as maternal involvement, but fathers are less involved than mothers, and their involvement takes different forms. Following Epstein and Sanders, we distinguish two dimensions of parental involvement, namely school-based and home-based involvement. In addition, we rely on Pleck’s model to identify in the interviews the factors which influence involvement. Deductive coding in the thematic analysis of our interviews is based on these dimensions. In the present empirical study 14 fathers raising young children participated. The interview materials were processed using manual hybrid coding. Our results show that fathers’ involvement was affected the most by the paternal model experienced in childhood and the wife’s supportive behaviour. In addition to identifying the influencing factors in Pleck’s model, inductive coding indicated that school-based involvement was hindered if the father had lower educational level and therefore could not be an equal partner to the teacher. Furthermore, if the father perceived school as a unidirectional channel of information with the mother intermediating, he considered his own involvement unnecessary. Fathers’ greater involvement in school-based activities could be achieved by organising more father-friendly events (sports, outdoor cooking) or by convincing mothers of the need for fathers’ more active participation in school.