Unravelling Fathers’ Involvement in the Lives of Children With Special Needs: A Systematic Literature Review

The role of fathers in raising children with special needs is a crucial dimension that is often overlooked in family dynamics while fathers play a crucial role in providing emotional and practical support to their children, especially children with special needs. Fathers’ engagement in caring for children with special needs can strengthen family relationships, enhance the child’s well-being, and offer a model of resilience and positive adaptation. This research aims to understand fathers’ contributions, impact, and involvement in the care and development of children with special needs. It uses a literature review method with the search engines Science Direct, Research Gate, Sage Publications, Google Scholar, and Publish or Perish. The criteria used are articles in English or Indonesian that discuss the same topics and research subjects and were published from 2015 to 2024. In the ten studies, selected articles stated that there are four fathers involved in children with special needs: direct caregiving, education support, emotional support and advocacy, and engagement with external courses.