Father Involvement in Immigrant and Ethnically Diverse Families from the Prenatal Period to the Second Year: Prediction and Mediating Mechanisms

This longitudinal study focused on fathers’ involvement from the prenatal period through infants’ first year in Dominican immigrants (n=73), Mexican immigrants (n=65) and African Americans (n=66) residing in New York City. Fathers’ prenatal involvement, the quality of the mother–father relationship, fathers’ postnatal involvement with their 1and 6 month olds and fathers’ involvement with their 14 month-olds (i.e., time spent with infant; eating meals with infant; activities with infant) were examined. Father involvement was uniformly high and stable. Fathers’ prenatal involvement predicted involvement at 14 months, and the quality of the mother–father relationship mediated these associations. Father ethnicity and residency moderated associations between the father– mother relationship, father postnatal involvement and father involvement with 14 month olds.