The Ecology of Early Development: Fathers’ Home Involvement and Child’s Later Educational Outcomes

This study examined the relationship between young children’s cognitive development and fathers’ engagement in early childhood. The study examined fathers’ home engagement patterns based on literacy, play, and caregiving activities when their children were 9-month-old and these patterns of engagement in 9-month-old were related to children’s cognitive development in preschool. Latent class analysis (LCA) procedure was used to create subgroups/classes of fathers based on their actual engagement. The study employed multiple data sources from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). The data sources include a self-administered resident father survey, direct child assessment, and parent interviews. The results of the study suggested that there were five distinct classes of fathers based on their actual engagement. A total of 6.200 fathers were included in the analysis to create father classes. In the regression analysis, a total 0f 4.800 children were included. Although father classes were mostly similar, there were two distinct father classes with different actual engagement patterns based on child’s gender. Although, the class of fathers with the highest likelihood of engaging their infant girls had a negative effect on girls’ literacy and mathematics scale score in preschool, the results regarding children’s later educational outcomes were mixed.