A multidimensional measure of father involvement following parental separation

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Karl Larouche,Tamarha Pierce,Sylvie Drapeau,Marie‐Christine Saint‐Jacques
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12809

RESEARCH

A multidimensional measure of father involvement

following parental separation

Karl Larouche

1

| Tamarha Pierce

1

| Sylvie Drapeau

1

|

Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques

2

1

School of Psychology, Laval University,

Québec, Canada

2

School of Social Work and Criminology,

Laval University, Québec, Canada

Correspondence

Karl Larouche, School of Psychology, Laval

University, Pavillon Félix-Antoine-Savard,

local 1248 2325, rue des Bibliothèques, Québec

(QC), Canada, G1V 0A6.

Email: karl.larouche.1@ulaval.ca

Funding information

We would like to thank the Fonds de recherche

du Québec –Société et Culture (FRQSC), the

Social Sciences and Humanities Research

Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the research

partnership Séparation conjugale

Recomposition familiale for its financial

support of the doctoral student.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to partially validate

the Father’s Relative Involvement Postseparation scale

(FRIPS).

Background: Separated fathers have time and accessibility

constraints to their children. To date, models and mea-

sures used to study separated fathers’parental involvement

have often focused on the amount of time they spend with

their child, not considering how they are involved. Pleck’s

(2010) model of father involvement and the “Who does

what”measure type may be relevant in this regard.

Method: This study is based on a representative sample of

656 fathers living in Quebec, Canada, who separated

between 2016 and 2018 and who have at least one child

under 14 years of age.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a

second-order model, including positive involvement activ-

ities, indirect care, and decision-making factors, fits the

data well. Convergent and divergent validity is demon-

strated with custody time, father–child relationship

quality and the father’s perceived parental competence.

Multigroup analysis showed that the FRIPS scale can be

used with confidence regardless of the child’s gender

and age.

Conclusion: The FRIPS is valid for assessing separated

fathers’involvement.

Implications: This measure can be used to assess separated

fathers’involvement, inclusive of nonresident, shared, and

sole custody fathers.

Author note: This article is being published as part of the first author’s doctoral thesis.

Received: 26 September 2021 Revised: 1 May 2022 Accepted: 11 September 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12809

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:3049–3066. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 3049

KEYWORDS

divorce, father involvement, father–child relationship, marital separation,

parental separation

Separated fathers are increasingly present in their children’s lives. Sole custody to mothers

(i.e., more than 60% of custody time) has declined in recent decades, representing 60.5% of child

support court orders in Quebec in 2008, compared to 79% in 1998 (Biland & Schütz, 2013).

Over the same period, the proportion of child support orders awarding the parents shared cus-

tody (i.e., each parent had the child 40% to 60% of the time) has increased from 8.1% to 19.7%,

and those awarding sole custody to the father rose from 5.4% to 13.5% (Biland &

Schütz, 2013). Although this means that children whose parents have separated tend to spend

more time with their father than before, the fact remains that by the time they turn 18, many

children (roughly 37% in the province of Quebec) will have experienced regular and sometimes

prolonged separations from their father (Desrosiers et al., 2018). The fact that fathers have been

found to uniquely contribute to children’s psychosocial development (Lamb, 2010) and that

father involvement after separation is beneficial for children’s adaptation to the separation

(Adamsons & Johnson, 2013) underscores the importance of understanding the father–child

relationship after a parental separation.

Despite the documented increase in the amount of time separated fathers are responsible for

the care of their child, little is known about the form that their involvement takes. Based on

Lamb et al.’s (1985) model of father involvement, measures used thus far to study father

involvement postseparation have focused on the amount of time fathers are involved with their

children instead of what they do with them (Hawkins & Palkovitz, 1999). Due to some fathers’

generally more limited access to their child as a result of the custody arrangement with the

mother, focusing solely on the level of involvement may underestimate and incompletely repre-

sent father involvement following parental separation (Hawkins & Palkovitz, 1999; Pasley &

Braver, 2004).

To help address this issue, the present study expands the research on the nature of father

involvement after separation by the validation of the Father’s Relative Involvement Pos-

tseparation scale (FRIPS), a multidimensional measure of separated fathers’involvement based

on Pleck’s (2010) model of father involvement that considers how fathers may be involved in

different spheres of their child’s life without specifically operationalizing involvement as the

amount of time spent in an activity. This new measure is constructed from items drawn from a

“Who does what”type of measure of the sharing of parenting activities and responsibilities

between separated parents developed for the Longitudinal Survey of Separated Parents and

Stepfamilies in Quebec (Saint-Jacques et al., 2018).

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Father involvement models

In 1985, Lamb et al. proposed what was to become a highly influential model of father involve-

ment that includes three dimensions. The first dimension, engagement, considers the amount of

time fathers take part in different father–child activities (e.g., games, physical care). The second

dimension, accessibility, measures the amount of time fathers are available to meet the child’s

needs (i.e., present to respond, but not in direct interaction with the child). The third dimension,

responsibility, assesses time spent in indirect care of the child and fathers’active role to ensure

that the child’s needs are met and that the latter has the resources he needs (e.g., making

appointments for the child, procuring necessities for the child; Lamb et al., 1985). However, this

3050 FAMILY RELATIONS