Research on Early Father’s and Mother’s Involvement and Child’s Later Educational Outcomes

In 2004, the British Journal of Educational Psychology releases a report on a research that was conducted by Eirini Flouri and Ann Buchanan dealing with the correlation of early interaction of parents and the future assessment of their children in school. Previous to this article, little research was given to the individual long-term contribution that early parent involvement had in a child’s success in school. Flouri and Buchanan had three particular goals in mind while completing this research: (1) To explore the role of early father involvement in children's later educational attainment independently of the role of early mother involvement and other confounds, (2) to investigate whether gender and family structure moderate the relationship between father's and mother's involvement and child's educational attainment, and (3) to explore whether the impact of father's involvement depends on the level of mother's involvement (www.Ingentaselect.com). The study was provoked by the considerable amount of research presented by the United States that suggested that early father involvement would lead to positive outcomes in children; Flouri and Buchanan wanted to evaluate if this was the case in the United Kingdom (www.literacytrust.org.uk). The researchers had positivistic basis for obtaining their study. It was solely an attempt to reveal patterns and regularities dealing with the subject manner. They gave a secondary analysis of work that was deductive of longitudinal data collected (started in 1958) by the National Child Development Study. The Data provided by the National Child Development Study sampled 7,259 cohort members with valid data on mother involvement at age 7, father involvement at age 7, and school-leaving qualification by age 20. Of those, 3,303 were included in the final analysis (www.ingentaselect.com). The participation of the of the mother/ father was conveyed as an independent variable; were as child factors such as: emotional/ behavioral problems, cognitive ability and academic motivation are labeled as being the dependent

variable. The study mainly monitored the interaction between fathers and children at the ages of 7, 11, 16, and 33. Being considered an involved father is describe as a father who reads to his child, takes outings with his child, is interested in his child's education and takes a role equal to mother's in managing his child. He may or may not live with the child's mother, and he may or may not be the biological father to the child (www.literacytrust.org.uk). They presented their findings in a qualitative manner. The results were as followed:

1. Father involvement in childhood is associated with both good father-child relations in adolescence and later marital satisfaction in adult life, even after controlling for mother involvement, mother-child relations and known confounds.

2. Father involvement in childhood was negatively associated with adolescent delinquency in boys, even after controlling for mother involvement and known confounds.

3. Father involvement in childhood protected both against psychological maladjustment in adolescents in non-intact families, and against psychological distress in women in adult life, even after controlling for earlier psychological problems, mother involvement and known confounds.

4. Father involvement in childhood was strongly related