Effects of Father’s Involvement on Men’s Attitudinal Measures Regarding Parenting

Presenter Information

Keith Smith

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

SURC Room 137A

Start Date

15-5-2014

End Date

15-5-2014

Keywords

Parenting, Fatherhood, Absent

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out if the way that a man perceived his father would have direct impact on how he viewed an ideal father. This study measured if being an involved father was self-perpetuating. Thirty male students from around the CWU Lynnwood campus, as well as sixteen male participants contacted through the internet were surveyed. The men were given a survey that measured how they perceived their father’s involvement within their own lives, and what they perceived to be an ideal amount of father involvement. The men were ranked by the father involvement scores and split into quartiles (There was also a third absent father group). The top and bottom quartiles were then compared for ideal father involvement scores. Contrary to what was expected, there was very little difference between the groups’ scores. In fact, the absent father group showed slightly higher scores than the others. This would point to the opposite effect than expected. Very little work has been done comparing a man’s views on his father, and his view of an ideal father. Hopefully this work will inspire others to look at that interaction. While this work suffers from a small sample, a homogenous sample, and variables that could have been better operationalized, it is still informative to know that men’s views on parenting may not just be the result of what they saw growing up. It is also possible that with a more finely tuned survey, a positive correlation can be found.

For this presentation, Keith Smith received a College of the Sciences Best Oral Presentation Award for 2014.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Moore, Robert

Additional Mentoring Department

Law and Justice

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May 15th, 9:10 AM May 15th, 9:30 AM

Effects of Father’s Involvement on Men’s Attitudinal Measures Regarding Parenting

SURC Room 137A

The purpose of this study was to find out if the way that a man perceived his father would have direct impact on how he viewed an ideal father. This study measured if being an involved father was self-perpetuating. Thirty male students from around the CWU Lynnwood campus, as well as sixteen male participants contacted through the internet were surveyed. The men were given a survey that measured how they perceived their father’s involvement within their own lives, and what they perceived to be an ideal amount of father involvement. The men were ranked by the father involvement scores and split into quartiles (There was also a third absent father group). The top and bottom quartiles were then compared for ideal father involvement scores. Contrary to what was expected, there was very little difference between the groups’ scores. In fact, the absent father group showed slightly higher scores than the others. This would point to the opposite effect than expected. Very little work has been done comparing a man’s views on his father, and his view of an ideal father. Hopefully this work will inspire others to look at that interaction. While this work suffers from a small sample, a homogenous sample, and variables that could have been better operationalized, it is still informative to know that men’s views on parenting may not just be the result of what they saw growing up. It is also possible that with a more finely tuned survey, a positive correlation can be found.

For this presentation, Keith Smith received a College of the Sciences Best Oral Presentation Award for 2014.