Father’s Involvement and Health: What is the Connection?

1. Father’s Involvement and Health:What is the Connection? Jessica Ball, MPH, PhD School of Child and Youth Care University of Victoria

2. Does father’s involvement directly affect child health? Fathering defined: more than paternity Father involvement: direct father-child interaction e.g. care-giving, playing, taking to dentist What are direct impacts on child health?

3. Does father’s involvement indirectly affect child health? Father’s contributions to child’s environment e.g. generating family income, relationship with child’s mother, housing, community interface What are indirect impacts of father’s behaviour beyond the child on the child’s health? On father’s health?

4. Is being involved as a father good for men’s health?

5. What do we know? ‘Common knowledge’: it’s self-evident Values-driven assumptions or biases: “Fathers play essential roles in children’s lives” “Every child needs a father” Little research based evidence Why?

6. It’s a mom’s world after all…. Mother- centrism: research, policies & programs focus on maternal-child well-being Burden of care for children falls more to women (traditionally & with increase in lone mother households) Priority for investments (e.g., Maternal Child Health programs, Canadian Prenatal Nutrition and Pregnancy Outreach Program)

7. Limitations of how we are looking at fathering Problems with measuring ‘fathering’ • Father absence: separation, divorce, non-custodial • Father’s time spent with child: quantity vs quality • Direct involvement vs indirect contributions

13. Focus of more research on development than on health. But a health-based rationale for supporting father’s involvement is likely to attract more social investments. How would we measure health outcomes separate from developmental outcomes?

15. Focus of research on effects of father absence rather than effects of varying forms of father presence

16. Some evidence of positive effects of fathering on the father

17. What other ways could we ask questions about father’s contributions to child & family health?

20. Multiple impacts … Multi-generational implications

21. To find out more…www.ecdip.org