ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
The father's presence and involvement in a child’s development are as important as the mother's role in nurturing the child. A positive father involvement is essential to healthy social, emotional, and academic development at all stages of a child’s development. However, in Malaysia, data on fathers’ impact on children’s psychosocial development are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to obtain views from children and parents on the need to develop a fatherhood module. The data were collected through a survey using a set of questionnaires comprising the Father Presence Questionnaire (FPQ), Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI), and needs analysis questions to parents. A total of 483 children and 60 parents participated in the study. For the father’s presence, the children’s response has the highest mean (42.96) on the father’s relationship with his father scale, and for father involvement, the highest mean is in the dimension of giving attention (25.01). Ninety five percent (95 %) of the parents who responded to the needs analysis questions stated that a father should take a specific course on fathering. The topics that should be covered include communication, the role and responsibilities of the father, fathering skills, child development, and the knowledge and skills of new fathers. The results of the study suggest the need to develop the fatherhood module, which can help fathers to enhance their understanding, knowledge, and skills to be effective fathers in the development of children.
Adamsons, K., & Johnson, S. K. (2013). An updated and expanded meta-analysis of nonresident fathering and child well-being. Journal of Family Psychology, 27, 589–599.
Aldous, J., & Mulligan, G. M. (2002). Fathers’ childcare and children’s behavior problems. Journal of Family Issues, 23(5), 624–647.
Allen, S., & Daly, K. (2002). The effects of father involvement: A summary of the research evidence. The FII-ONews, 1(1-11).
Baker, C. E., Kainz, K. L., & Reynolds, E. R. (2018). Family poverty, family processes and children’s preschool achievement: Understanding the unique role of fathers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(4), 1242-1251.
Bronte-Tinkew, J., Burkhauser, M., & Metz, A. J. R. (2012). Elements of promising practices in fatherhood programs: Evidence-based research findings on interventions for fathers. Fathering, 10(1), 6-30. doi:https://doi.org/10.3149/fth.1001.6
Coyl-Shepherd, D. D., & Newland, L. A. (2013). Mothers' and fathers' couple and family contextual influences, parent involvement, and school-age child attachment. Early Child Development and Care, 183(3-4), 553-569.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 4th ed. SAGE.
Downer, J., Campos, R., McWayne, C., & Gartner, T. (2008). Father involvement and children's early learning: A critical review of published empirical work from the past 15 years. Marriage & Family Review, 43(1-2), 67-108.
Fitzgerald, H. E., & Bocknek, E. L. (2013). Fathers, children, and the risk-resilience continuum. In Handbook of father involvement (pp. 175-192). Routledge.
Goodsell, T. L., & Meldrum, J. T. (2010). Nurturing fathers: A qualitative examination of child–father attachment. Early Child Development and Care, 180(1-2), 249-262.
Gurkan, T., Ummanel, A., & Koran, N. (2021). A qualitative study on the perception of fatherhood. European Journal of Educational Sciences, 8(2), 42-59.
Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1992). Are Japanese Families “Fatherless”? Sociology and Social Research, 76(3), 105-110.
Jia, R., Kotila, L. E., & Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J. (2012). Transactional relations between father involvement and pre-schoolers’ socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(6), 848.
Krampe, E. M., & Newton, R. R. (2006). The Father Presence Questionnaire: A New Measure of the Subjective Experience of Being Fathered. Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research & Practice about Men as Fathers, 4(2). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.839.9976&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Lamb, M. E. (2010). How do fathers influence children’s development? Let me count the ways. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The Role of The Father in Child Development (5th ed., pp. 1–26). Hoboken: Wiley.
Lamb, M. E. (2010). The Role of The Father in Child Development (Ed.5). John Wiley & Sons.
Lamb, M. E., Pleck, J. H., Charnov, E. L., & Levine, J. A. (1985). Paternal behavior in humans. American Zoologist, 883-894.
Lamb, M. E., Pleck, J. H., Charnov, E. L., & Levine, J. A. (2017). A biosocial perspective on paternal behavior and involvement. In Parenting Across the Life Span (pp. 111-142). Routledge.
Marino, C. D., & McCowan, R. J. (1976). The effects of parent absence on children. Child Study Journal.
Mazza, C. (2002). Young dads: The effects of a parenting program on urban African American adolescent fathers. Adolescence, 37, 681-693.
Meyers, S. A. (1993). Adapting parent education programs to meet the needs of fathers: An ecological perspective. Family Relations, 447-452.
Osborne, C., Michelsen, A., & Bobbitt, K. (2017). Fatherhood effect evaluation final report: A comprehensive plan for supporting Texas fathers and families. Child & Family Research Partnership, University of Texas at Austin. Available at: https://childandfamilyresearch. Utexas.edu/sites/default/files/CFRPReport_R0140817_FatherhoodEFFECT. pdf.
Parke, R. D. (2004). Fathers, families, and the future: A plethora of plausible predictions. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50(4), 456-470.
Perry, A. R. (2011). Man up: Integrating fatherhood and community engagement. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 4(1), 15-24.
Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement. The role of the father in child development. In Michael E. Lamb (edited). The role of the father in child development (pp. 58-93). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pruett, M. K., Pruett, K., Cowan, C. P., & Cowan, P. A. (2017). Enhancing father involvement in low?income families: A couples group approach to preventive intervention. Child development, 88(2), 398-407.
Sarkadi, A., Kristiansson, R., Oberklaid, F., & Bremberg, S. (2008). Fathers' involvement and children's developmental outcomes: A systematic review of longitudinal studies. Acta paediatrica, 97(2), 153-158.
Tamis-LeMonda, C., & Cabrera, N. (2002). Multidisciplinary perspectives on father involvement: An introduction. In C. S. Tamis-LeMonda & N. Cabrera (Eds.), Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (pp. xi–xvii). New York: Erlbaum.
In-Text Citation: (Yusof et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Yusof, S. N. M., Abdullah, H. S. L., & Aziz, A. R. A. (2023). Father’s Presence and Involvement in Child Development: A Survey to Develop A Fatherhood Module. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(13), 32–42.
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode