Inventory of Father Involvement and Fathers’ Perceptions of Family Life

Inventário de Envolvimento Paterno e Percepções dos Pais sobre a Vida Familiar

Inventario de Participación Paterna y Percepciones de los Padres sobre la Vida Familiar

Abstract

Cross-cultural comparisons of father involvement and related issues are still scarce, as are consolidated measures for its assessment. We examined relationships among father involvement and family-related variables, in Brazil, and then compared these results with findings from other countries. In total, 200 fathers with children aged 5 to 10 completed the Brazilian version of the Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI-BR), and measures of stress, marital satisfaction, parent-child relationship, children’s social skills and their behavior problems. Correlations among these variables were between .32 and .58, providing new evidence of validity for the IFI-BR. When comparing Brazilian results with correlations observed in other countries, the majority did not differ in magnitude, indicating that father involvement systematically influences the fathers’ well-being, family relationships, and their children’s socioemotional development, in different countries. In addition to the psychometric evidence for the IFI-BR, these results also indicate the potential for using the IFI in different cultures.

Keywords:
paternal involvement; culture; father-child relationship; family health; social skills