Fathering Indicators Framework

 
 

Introduction

In a recently developed report, The Fathering Indicators Framework: A Tool for Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, the National Center on Fathers and Families(NCOFF) provides a detailed overview of the research and theory that informed the development of the Fathering Indicators Framework (FIF). The FIF was designed to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers conceptualize, examine, and measure change in fathering behaviors in relation to child and family well-being. It may be adapted for multiple purposes and used with different populations of fathers.

The report provides a background summary of what we know—and what we need to know—about father involvement by following fathering behaviors in relation to each of six categories (see the table below) as identified in the research literature, through evaluations of programs, and by policy reports. The report also considers how the FIF could be used to inform research, practice, and policy, as well as considerations for using the framework.

NCOFF is also preparing a Practitioners’ Guidebook to the Fathering Indicators Framework. It will provide programs and practitioners with step-by-step exercises and guidelines for applying the framework in their settings as a tool for program planning and development, benchmarking activities, self-evaluation, or program improvement.

The full FIF instrument, which contains the complete set of indicators for each category, is available for evaluators’ use with permission from NCOFF.

Background on the Fathering Indicators Framework

Over the past ten years, there has been unprecedented attention to issues related to fathering and family support, particularly in relationship to children’s well-being. One of the emerging challenges for the field of fatherhood and family studies—perhaps its greatest challenge—is to determine whether the new policies and concepts regarding responsible fathering either are making a difference or have the potential to do so. The questions are fundamental ones:

  • What counts as positive change?
  • How do we measure and understand the effects of that change for children, families, and communities?

Recognizing a need for a measurement construct that could be used with diverse populations and draw upon mixed methods of analysis, The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the National Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF) convened a group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to initiate a conversation about the measurement and evaluation of positive fathering. The group, which came to be called the NCOFF Working Group on Fathering Indicators, met for the purposes of identifying and developing a set of themes and indicators that could be used to evaluate father-focused programs, efforts, and activities, as well as to guide research—both inquiries of small field studies and analyses of large, national datasets—on fathering behaviors and practices.

Fathering Indicators Framework (FIF) Categories
Fathering Indicator Category Operational Definitions
Father Presence A three-part process involving father
engagement, availability, and responsibility in relationship to children
Caregiving Providing nurturance and performing
routine tasks necessary to maintain
children’s emotional well-being, physical health, and appearance
Children’s Social Competence Actively engaging with children
and Academic Achievement and others in developing and enhancing
their social competence and academic
achievement
Cooperative Parenting Fathers, mothers, and other caregivers
establishing a supportive, cooperative
interdependent relationship aimed at
optimal child development
Fathers’ Healthy Living Providing a role model through healthy lifestyle, education, and appropriate social behaviors that teach work and personal ethics, as well as social norms, to help children grow and become productive members of society
Material and Financial Contributions Engaging in consistent activities that provide material and financial support to children

In order to validate, extend, and refine the FIF, we conducted a series of focus groups with field practitioners in the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, and West whose programs address the needs of a wide range of fathers and families, including early childcare and education programs, early/teen fatherhood support services, divorce support services, abusive household support services, services to incarcerated fathers, and parenting services.

The FIFís final set of categories and indicators that emerged from the groupís review of the literature and testing with practitioners in focus groups of practitioners will help the fathers and families field to:

  • Identify the broad themes of father involvement that lend themselves to assessment through quantitative, qualitative, or ethnographic approaches, or through some combination of these methods;

     

  • Increase the likelihood that the information needed for measurement will be collected in primary domains (for example, policy, practice, research, communities, and families); and

     

  • Determine the best ways to obtain information regarding changes in father involvement.

Use of the FIF by Practitioners, Researchers, and Policymakers

The FIF is intended to provide a useful schematic summary of data sources, methods, and variables. It provides information about the effects of a program on a father; the effects of a father’s participation or change of behavior on a child or family; and the ways in which these effects—on fathers, children, and families—are threaded together to enable men to become positively involved with their children, the mothers of their children, and families in general. It is designed specifically to be a tool that can be used by or adapted for different audiences:

 

  • Practitioners. The FIF can inform practitioners’ particular concerns about a variety of program and intervention issues, as well as support internal formative evaluations and the monitoring of participant progress. For example, family therapists can use the framework to guide cooperative parenting training by examining the appropriate indicator, reviewing the relevant literature, and developing plans that facilitate a family becoming more oriented toward a cooperative arrangement.

     

  • Researchers. Researchers who are conducting studies on fathers or who are engaging in process or outcome evaluations of fathering programs can use the FIF to launch discussions of innovative topics regarding fathers. Further, researchers can examine the potential sources of information provided in the framework and develop studies with similar data sources and research designs, leading to better evaluations of program outcomes. For example, researchers who wish to contribute to the knowledge base of fathering behaviors and child development could use the framework to construct theoretical models of developmental outcomes and family processes.

     

  • Policymakers. The FIF also provides the flexibility and comprehensiveness for policymakers who need to assess particular policy initiatives, such as child support enforcement and its possible effects on fathers’ involvement with their children.

 
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