Measuring multidimensional father involvement: validity of the Brazilian version of the inventory of father involvement

• Grant number: 14/01671-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2014
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Joan Barham
• Grantee: Ligia de Santis
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/22965-0 - Measuring multidimensional father involvement: analysis of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the inventory of father involvement, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Given recent changes in the routines of couples with young children, researchers are studying new patterns of father-child interaction. Existing research indicates that when fathers are actively involved in raising their children, there are benefits for the children's development, the marital relationship and the fathers' sense of his competence as parents. However, the absence of a valid instrument to directly measure father involvement, in Brazil, hampers the evaluation of parent intervention programs that aim to strengthen father-child relationships, in this country. As such, the objective of this research program is to continue the work of validating the Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI), which has already been translated and adapted for use in Brazil (IFI-BR). In the current study, a factor analysis will be conducted using an existing data set, from a previous study in which the IFI-BR was completed by 200 fathers, to improve the precision of this instrument. Data will then be collected using the new version of the IFI-BR with an additional 60 fathers who have children between the ages of 3 to 10, to examine evidence for the external validity of this instrument, on the basis of correlations between the IFI-BR scores and other measures. To examine indicators of the predictive validity of the IFI-BR (potential effects of father involvement), the fathers will rate their children's academic and social development (Social Skills Rating System-BR), their marital satisfaction (marital satisfaction questionnaire), and some aspects of their personal wellbeing. In addition, to evaluate the influence of potential antecedents of father involvement, the respondents will complete the Brazilian socioeconomic criteria scale and a questionnaire to obtain other sociodemographic data as well as basic information about their employment situation. In this way, it will be possible to advance with the validation of the IFI-BR, in an effort to better equip professionals to evaluate their interventions with fathers. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LIGIA DE SANTIS; ELIZABETH JOAN BARHAM. Envolvimento Paterno: Construção de um Modelo Teórico Baseado em uma Revisão da Literatura. Trends in Psychology, v. 25, n. 3, p. 941-953, 2017-09-00. (14/01671-9)