1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«Both practitioners and researchers will find in this chapter a comprehensive and father-focused measure of father involvement and the different methods used to measure the implementation and evaluation of a participatory action research (PAR) project focusing on fatherhood.» (p. 93) Le principal projet analysé est l’initiative québécoise Prospère portant sur l’engagement paternel.

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«[R]esults indicated that the mothers and fathers at the intervention sites were less inclined to agree with the maternal instinct notion […], and were more inclined to assign a positive value to the specificity of the roles assumed by each parent […]. We noted no distinctions regarding the awareness of fathering behaviour […] or the perception of the mother’s resistance towards involvement […]. The sense of parental competence, as evaluated by the fathers, increased from Time 1 to Time 2 [of the project]. […] The father involvement dimension allowed us to verify whether there was a change in the fathers’ behaviour with their children during the reference period. The results showed no significant difference when a global measurement scale of father involvement was used […].» (p. 111) Finally, «except in the case of one item, the significant differences we observed in the group/time measurements corresponded to the expected effects […]. Second, the use of control sites provided an important advantage in that it allowed us to nuance results, which, in certain cases, had pointed to an effect of time, rather than of the intervention. Third, the pattern of the results obtained showed effects in both the cognitive sphere (attitude toward child rearing, perception of parental roles) and the behavioral sphere (father involvement).» (p. 111-112)