Father involvement and children's literacy outcomes
Dr Christina Clark

Many recent policy initiatives highlight the important role of fathers. But what does the research evidence say? Dr Christina Clark, senior policy and research analyst at the National Literacy Trust, provides an overview of current published findings.

Research in the past few decades has established a clear link between parental involvement and children's educational attainment (Fan and Chen, 2001). Much of this research has focused on maternal involvement in their children's outcomes. However, in recent years increasing attention has been paid to the specific influences fathers and other male caregivers have on their children's development. This surge of interest is reflected in the number of books, reports and articles published on this subject; the number of websites dedicated to fathers and their children; and the number of conferences and seminars that have been held on this issue in the last few years.

Much of the research on father involvement and child outcomes has focused on educational attainment, both in the UK (for example, Flouri and Buchanan, 2004) and internationally (for example, Lamb, 2004). This research has shown that when fathers take an active role in their children's education by volunteering at school, helping children with their homework or attending school meetings, children are more likely to do better academically, to participate in extra-curricular activities and to enjoy school (Nord, Brimhall and West, 1997). Children also benefit from involved fathers in numerous other ways, including increased cognitive abilities, higher self-esteem and greater social competence. Overall, children are more likely to reap these benefits the earlier fathers become involved with their children's learning (Clarke-Stewart, 1978).

However, with the exception of studies into the facilitators or barriers of father involvement in family literacy interventions, the relationship between fathers' engagement and children's literacy outcomes has rarely been explored in detail. This is surprising since fathers' reading habits can have a substantial influence on their children's ability to read, their levels of interest and their reading choices (Lloyd, 1999). Shared literacy activities can also strengthen the bond between fathers and their children. Indeed, it has been suggested that the lack of male role models involved in reading and other literacy-related activities during children's early years is one of the possible causes for the declining rates of school achievement for boys (Wragg, Wragg, Haynes and Chamberlain, 1998).

So, what is known about fathers' level of engagement with their children's literacy practices? Time-use surveys (Fisher, McCulloch and Gershuny, 1999) indicate that parents spend more time with their children now than ever before. Although mothers continue to devote more time to caring for children, fathers' involvement in child-related activities has increased substantially in the past few decades. As part of these child-related activities, fathers are involved with their children's literacy activities. Research shows that fathers who share in childcare duties, such as both parents feeding and bathing the child, tend to be more involved in their children's reading and writing than fathers who do not participate in childcare duties (Ortiz, Stile and Brown, 1999).

Indeed, when asked who read most with their children, 37 per cent of fathers reported that they and their partners both read to their children in equal amounts, whilst 40 per cent conceded that their partners were more likely to read more with their children than they would (Millard and Hunter, 2001). Interviewing 26 fathers regarding their literacy involvement with their children, Ortiz and colleagues (1999) in their US study also found that the majority of fathers reported engaging in weekly school-related literacy practices with their children, while almost two-thirds of fathers also read with their children for recreational purposes. Common to these studies is the finding that fathers view reading as a way to maintain a relationship with their children, and believe that having books in the home and being seen as reading by their children as important (Lloyd, 1999).

There is also some limited evidence that father engagement has an impact on children's outcomes over and above that of mother involvement. Reviewing studies that controlled for mother involvement, Pleck and Masciadrelli (2004) found that the majority of studies indicated significant positive relationships between father involvement and children's development.

Flouri and Buchanan (2004) also explored the extent to which mothers' and fathers' involvement independently affected their children's schooling, and whether levels of father involvement were dependent on the degree to which mothers are involved. Their research was based on longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, a study of 17,000 children born between 3 and 9 March 1958 in England, Scotland and Wales. Flouri and Buchanan found that father and mother involvement at age seven independently predicted educational attainment when the child was 20. They also found that the impact of father involvement on children's later educational outcomes did not depend significantly on mother involvement, indicating that the impact of father involvement did not vary with the degree of mother involvement.

In a separate study, these researchers also found that engagement by both the father and the mother contributed significantly and independently to children's attitudes towards school (Flouri, Buchanan and Bream, 2002). Unfortunately, there is only indirect evidence that fathers have more of an impact on their children's reading skills than mothers have (Laosa, 1982).

While many fathers want to increase the amount of time spent with their children, there are familial, personal, structural and cultural barriers that may prevent greater involvement with their family (Lloyd, O'Brien and Lewis, 2003). Indeed, a number of studies have shown that time constraints, co-parental relations and work status of the mother, among others, are significant factors associated with engaged fathers (Ortiz, Stile and Brown, 1999). More specifically, fathers are more likely to be involved fathers when the overall family context is positive and when the mother is herself employed. It should also be kept in mind that fathers are more likely than mothers to report literacy problems at school and to be generally less inclined to participate in conventional print-related activities than mothers.

Several researchers have argued that the current emphasis on literacy has included a narrow view of book-based literacy practices, thereby neglecting media with which fathers are more comfortable. For example, Ortiz and colleagues (1999) list various activities in which fathers report they have participated, including reading environmental print such as road signs, logos, billboards and TV ads; reading newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, maps, telephone directories, manuals and bedtime stories; spelling and defining words; spelling names; colouring and tracing letters; and making use of the computer for spelling or writing activities.

The literature reviewed here indicates that fathers have an important role to play in their children's literacy development. However, this brief outline also clearly shows that there are several gaps in the literature that still need to be addressed by systematic research. In particular, what still needs to be established more concretely is whether father involvement is, in itself, contributing to literacy development or whether it is simply a marker for other family issues, such as co-parental relations, attention and amount of interaction.

Future research also needs to address some of the methodological issues that limit findings in this field, such as a lack of studies with adequate sample sizes, a reliance on self-reports and a US focus. Finally, a finding by Fagan and Iglesias (1999) is worth keeping in mind when studying father involvement. They found that actual changes in the quality of paternal behaviour are necessary for significant outcomes to come about, suggesting that an emphasis on increased father involvement may not be sufficient for bringing about change or beneficial impacts.

References

K.A. Clarke-Stewart (1978) And daddy makes three: the father's impact on mother and young child. Child Development, vol. 49, pp. 466-478.
J. Fagan and A. Iglesias (1999) Father involvement program effects on fathers, father figures, and their Head Start children: a quasi-experimental study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, vol. 14, pp. 243-269.
X. Fan and M. Chen (2001) Parental involvement and students' academic achievement: a meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, vol. 13, pp. 1-22.
K. Fisher, A. McCulloch and J. Gershuny (1999) British fathers and children: a report for Channel 4 "Dispatches". University of Essex: Institute of Social and Economic Research.
E. Flouri and A. Buchanan (2004) Early father's and mother's involvement and child's later educational outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 74, pp. 141-153.
E. Flouri, A. Buchanan and V. Bream (2002) Adolescents' perceptions of their fathers' involvement: significance to school attitudes. Psychology in the Schools, vol. 39, pp. 575-582.
M.E. Lamb (2004) The Role of the Father in Child Development. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
L.M. Laosa, (1982) Families as facilitators of children: intellectual development at three years of age: a causal analysis. In L.M. Laosa and I.E. Sigel (eds.) Families as learning environments for children. New York: Plenum Press.
T. Lloyd (1999) Reading for the future: boys' and fathers' views on reading. London: Save the Children.
N. Lloyd, M. O'Brien and C. Lewis (2003) Fathers in Sure Start. University of London: Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues.
E. Millard and R. Hunter (2001) It's a man thing! Evaluation report of CEDC's Fathers and Reading Project. Coventry: CEDC.
C.W. Nord and D. Brimhall and J. West (1997) Fathers' involvement in their children's schools. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
R. Ortiz, S. Stile and C. Brown (1999) Early literacy activities of fathers: reading and writing with young children. Young Children, vol. 54, pp. 16-18.
J.H. Pleck and B.P. Masciadrelli (2004) Paternal involvement by US residential fathers: levels, sources and consequences. In M.E. Lamb (ed.) The Role of the Father in Child Development. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
E.C. Wragg, C.M. Wragg, G.S. Haynes and R.P. Chamberlain (1998) Improving literacy in the primary school. London: Routledge.