Measuring multidimensional father involvement: analysis of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the inventory of father involvement

• Grant number: 14/22965-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: February 09, 2015
• End date: August 08, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Joan Barham
• Grantee: Ligia de Santis
• Supervisor: Anne Marie Germaine Fontaine
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade do Porto (UP), Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/01671-9 - Measuring multidimensional father involvement: validity of the Brazilian version of the inventory of father involvement, BP.MS

Abstract

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, we intend to use the IFI-BR with 160 fathers who have children between the ages of 3 to 10. A factor analysis will be conducted to improve the precision of this instrument. To examine evidence for the conceptual validity (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. (AU)