A team of researchers in Australia has developed and tested a measure of father engagement for use by services working with families: the Father Engagement Questionnaire.

The questions neatly describe what effective father engagement entails and could be adapted for maternal healthcare. They set a very high standard compared to current norms!

Confidence

How confident do you feel in the following?

• Dealing with resistance from fathers
• Engaging fathers who are reluctant to attend
• Managing conflict between myself and fathers
• Managing distress from fathers
• Communicating with fathers
• Managing conflict between mothers and fathers
• Understanding fathers’ needs
• Eliciting fathers’ expectations of treatment and their goals
• Working with separated/divorced parents 

Organisational practices

Over the last two months, to what extent have you used the following strategies when working with fathers and families?

• Exploring feelings underlying anger, hostility or blame when it arises
• Managing conflict (practitioner-client and mother-father)
• Listening reflectively and creating a shared understanding about both parents’ perspectives (even when they differ)
• Negotiating shared goals and expectations (practitioner-father-mother)
• Listening to fathers and exploring their barriers to engagement 

Perceived effectiveness

To what extent do you believe the following strategies are effective for increasing the engagement of fathers?

• Exploring feelings underlying anger, hostility or blame when it arises
• Managing conflict (practitioner-client and mother-father)
• Listening reflectively and creating a shared understanding about both parents’ perspectives (even when they differ)
• Negotiating shared goals and expectations (practitioner-father-mother)
• Listening to fathers and exploring their barriers to engagement

Competence

To what extent do you feel competent to implement the following strategies with fathers?

• Exploring feelings underlying anger, hostility or blame when it arises
• Managing conflict (practitioner-client and mother-father)
• Listening reflectively and creating a shared understanding about both parents’ perspectives (even when they differ)
• Negotiating shared goals and expectations (practitioner-father-mother)
• Listening to fathers and exploring their barriers to engagement 

Frequency of strategy use

How often does your service/program use the following strategies to engage fathers?

• Advertising that the program/treatment is for fathers as well as mothers
• Obtaining data (about parenting or child behavior) from fathers as well as mothers
• Emphasizing the importance of father attendance at intake
• Offering sessions outside work hours to enable fathers to attend

The measure was tested on 589 practitioners and found to be reliable. Higher scores on confidence, frequency of strategy use and organizational practices were associated with a higher likelihood of reported father attendance.

Jiang Y et al (2018), Development and psychometric evaluation of the father engagement questionnaire, Journal of Child and Family Studies 27

Photo: vgm8383. Creative Commons.