Children who experience positive father-child relationships have fewer behavior problems, lower occurrences of psychological distress, and are less likely to engage in antisocial behaviors. For many African American fathers in poor urban areas, obstacles stand in the way of positive relationships with their children. Additionally, parenting interventions are typically targeted at mothers, not fathers.
In collaboration with the CDC and the Fathers’ Support Center, Engaging Fathers in Positive Parenting seeks to develop new approaches to engage fathers in Triple P, an evidence-based parenting intervention particularly well-suited to vulnerable populations. In the second phase of this study, we will evaluate our Engaging Fathers strategy to assess whether fathers participating in Triple P who also received Engaging Fathers have better outcomes than fathers only receiving Triple P.
Patricia Kohl, PhD
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention