Factors of Paternal Involvement and Their Association with Developmental Outcomes of Nine-Month Olds

Literature concerning paternal involvement has grown over the past thirty years due, in part, to the changing structure of the American family. Many researchers have published articles on the different ways fathers are involved in their children's lives and how fathers affect their children's development. The current study combined these two largely separate bodies of literature by using the same sample of fathers and children to examine the ways in which fathers were involved in their children's lives and how that involvement affected their development. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) 9-month old dataset was used to investigate whether higher scores on the paternal involvement factors would be associated with better child development scores. ECLS-B is a large-scale, longitudinal study designed to provide detailed information about children's early life experiences and was funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). An Exploratory Factor Analysis conducted on the ECLS-B Resident Father Questionnaire resulted in a six factor structure. The present study tested the relationship between these factors and the Bayley Short Form-Research Edition (BSF-R) Mental and Motor Scale scores as well as the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCA TS). The Bayley Motor Scale score was associated with the paternal involvement factor One-on- one Play. This finding is especially interesting considering there is little published literature connecting paternal involvement and physical development in infants. The Bayley Motor Scale is comprised of tasks that assess eye-hand coordination, sitting, pre-walking, walking, and balancing; all things cultivated by One-on-one Play activities.