IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v302y2022ics0277953622002398.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Father involvement and early child development in a low-resource setting

Author

Listed:
  • Garcia, Italo Lopez
  • Fernald, Lia C.H.
  • Aboud, Frances E.
  • Otieno, Ronald
  • Alu, Edith
  • Luoto, Jill E.

Abstract

Evidence on the role of father involvement in children's development from low-resource settings is very limited and historically has only relied on maternal reports of father's direct engagement activities such as reading to the child. However, fathers can also potentially influence their children's development via greater positive involvement with the mother, such as by offering interpersonal support or sharing decision-making duties. Such positive intrahousehold interactions can benefit maternal mental health and wellbeing, and ultimately children's development. We use data collected from mothers, fathers and children in the context of the cluster randomized controlled trial evaluation of Msingi Bora, a responsive parenting intervention implemented across 60 villages in rural western Kenya, to explore the various pathways through which fathers may influence their children's outcomes. In an endline survey in Fall 2019 among a sample of 681 two-parent households with children aged 16–34 months, fathers reported on measures of their behaviors towards children and with mothers, mothers reported on their wellbeing and behaviors, and interviewers assessed child cognitive and language development with the Bayley Scales. In adjusted multivariate regression analyses we found that greater father interpersonal support to mothers and greater participation in shared household decision-making were positively associated with children's development. These associations were partially mediated through maternal wellbeing and behaviors. We found no association between fathers' direct engagement in stimulation activities with children and children's outcomes. Inviting fathers to the program had no impact on their involvement or on any maternal or child outcomes, and fathers attended sessions at low rates. Overall, our results show the potential promises and challenges of involving fathers in a parenting intervention in a rural low-resource setting. Our findings do highlight the importance of considering intrahousehold pathways of influence in the design of parenting interventions involving fathers.

Suggested Citation

  • Garcia, Italo Lopez & Fernald, Lia C.H. & Aboud, Frances E. & Otieno, Ronald & Alu, Edith & Luoto, Jill E., 2022. "Father involvement and early child development in a low-resource setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:302:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622002398
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622002398
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114933?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2005. "Stepwise Multiple Testing as Formalized Data Snooping," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1237-1282, July.
    2. James Heckman & Flavio Cunha, 2007. "The Technology of Skill Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 31-47, May.
    3. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    4. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Noora†Lisa Aberman & Julia Behrman & Regina Birner, 2018. "Gendered perceptions of power and decision†making in rural Kenya," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(4), pages 389-407, July.
    6. Maselko, Joanna & Hagaman, Ashley K. & Bates, Lisa M. & Bhalotra, Sonia & Biroli, Pietro & Gallis, John A. & O'Donnell, Karen & Sikander, Siham & Turner, Elizabeth L. & Rahman, Atif, 2019. "Father involvement in the first year of life: Associations with maternal mental health and child development outcomes in rural Pakistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Story, William T. & Burgard, Sarah A., 2012. "Couples’ reports of household decision-making and the utilization of maternal health services in Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2403-2411.
    8. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Richard U. Agesa, 2004. "One Family, Two Households: Rural to Urban Migration in Kenya," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 161-178, June.
    10. Orazio Attanasio & Costas Meghir & Emily Nix, 2020. "Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(6), pages 2511-2541.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lebedinski, Lara & Carneiro, Pedro & Urzua, Tamara Arnold & Perng, Julie & Boudet, Ana Maria Munoz & Sosa, Katia Herrera, 2024. "Experimental Impacts of a Virtual Parenting Program with Mothers and Fathers," IZA Discussion Papers 17028, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amaral, Sofia & Dinarte-Diaz, Lelys & Dominguez, Patricio & Perez-Vincent, Santiago M., 2024. "Helping families help themselves: The (Un)intended impacts of a digital parenting program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. Monteiro Amaral,Sofia Fernando & Dinarte Diaz,Lelys Ileana & Dominguez,Patricio & Perez-Vincent,Santiago M., 2021. "Helping Families Help Themselves ? Heterogeneous Effects of a Digital Parenting Program," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9850, The World Bank.
    3. Michele Giannola, 2024. "Parental Investments and Intra-household Inequality in Child Human Capital: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(658), pages 671-727.
    4. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Berger, Eva M. & Fehr, Ernst & Hermes, Henning & Schunk, Daniel & Winkel, Kirsten, 2020. "The Impact of Working Memory Training on Children's Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 13338, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Huebener, Mathias & Kuehnle, Daniel & Spiess, C. Katharina, 2019. "Parental leave policies and socio-economic gaps in child development: Evidence from a substantial benefit reform using administrative data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 61.
    7. Meghir, Costas & Palme, Mårten & Schnabel, Marieke, 2011. "The Effect of Education Policy on Crime: An Intergenerational Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 6142, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Nicholas W Papageorge & Kevin Thom, 2020. "Genes, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1351-1399.
    9. List, John A. & Momeni, Fatemeh & Zenou, Yves, 2020. "The Social Side of Early Human Capital Formation: Using a Field Experiment to Estimate the Causal Impact of Neighborhoods," IZA Discussion Papers 13966, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Piza, Caio & Zwager, Astrid & Ruzzante, Matteo & Dantas, Rafael & Loureiro, Andre, 2024. "Teacher-led innovations to improve education outcomes: Experimental evidence from Brazil," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    11. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2023. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 349-388, September.
    12. Bütikofer, Aline & Mølland, Eirin & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2018. "Childhood nutrition and labor market outcomes: Evidence from a school breakfast program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 62-80.
    13. Hashibul Hassan & Asad Islam & Abu Siddique & Liang Choon Wang, 2024. "Telementoring and Homeschooling During School Closures: a Randomised Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(662), pages 2418-2438.
    14. Charles Ka Yui Leung & (single author only), 2021. "Handbook of Real Estate and Macroeconomics: An Introduction," ISER Discussion Paper 1137, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    15. Greta Morando & Lucinda Platt, 2022. "The Impact of Centre‐based Childcare on Non‐cognitive Skills of Young Children," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(356), pages 908-946, October.
    16. Joachim Freyberger, 2021. "Normalizations and misspecification in skill formation models," Papers 2104.00473, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    17. Akabayashi, Hideo & Ruberg, Tim & Shikishima, Chizuru & Yamashita, Jun, 2023. "Education-oriented and care-oriented preschools: Implications on child development," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    18. Alexandra de Gendre & Nicolás Salamanca, 2020. "On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2020n19, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    19. Lopez Garcia, Italo & Luoto, Jill E. & Aboud, Frances E. & Fernald, Lia C.H., 2023. "Group Meetings and Boosters to Sustain Early Impacts on Child Development: Experimental Evidence from Kenya," IZA Discussion Papers 16392, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Houmark, Mikkel Aagaard, 2023. "First Among Equals? How Birth Order Shapes Child Development," MPRA Paper 119325, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:302:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622002398. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.