Research to Practice

 
Father and baby

Research continues to emphasize the important role that fathers play in promoting healthy child development. In 2007, HFNY began a focused effort to promote the development of a father inclusive culture and increase involvement of fathers in all aspects of home visiting.

Initial exploration of our data determined that we were not adequately capturing fathers' participation in home visits. This led to a revision to our data collection forms and our management information system. We subsequently undertook additional analyses to learn more about how fathers are involved in HFNY.

We found that father participation in home visits has increased since the beginning of our Fatherhood Initiative. In 2007, 13% of visits had a father present, compared to 19% of visits in 2015. We learned that when fathers are present from the very beginning of services, they participate more frequently. Families where fathers attend visits also remain enrolled in the program longer than families with fathers who did not attend any visits. Additionally, father involvement in visits influences family stability, with participating fathers being more likely to remain in or move into the home.

These findings suggest that programs should focus their efforts on engaging fathers from the very beginning and requesting their presence during the assessment process and at initial visits. Family support specialists should be educated as to the benefits of father presence, family stability, and how to balance engaging fathers against concerns they may have about issues like domestic violence.