Pacific Father Involvement and Early Child Behavior Outcomes.

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between father involvement and their child’s behavior outcomes amongst a birth cohort of Pacific children and fathers in New Zealand. A birth cohort was established in 2000 from births at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland where at least one parent was identified as being of Pacific ethnicity and a New Zealand permanent resident. This included 1,376 mothers, 825 fathers, and 1,398 children at baseline. At the 6-years measurement wave, father involvement was measured using the Inventory of Father Involvement, and child behavior measured using the Child Behavior Check-list. Internalizing and externalizing behavior was related to father involvement in crude and adjusted logistic regression and generalized estimating equation models. 571 Pacific fathers participated at the 6-years measurement wave; most of Samoan (42.9 %) or Tongan (33.5 %) ethnic identification. Overall, 190 (32.1 %) children exhibited clinical or border-line internalizing and externalizing behavior. Self-reported father involvement was generally high, but lower involvement was significantly related to increased odds of internalizing [adjusted odds ratio (or) approximately 1.9, p\0.001] and externalizing (aOR approximately 4.0, p\0.001) behavior. Father involvement was significantly associated with child behavior in Pacific families within New Zealand. Strategies that promote and enable increased father involvement may reduce negative child outcomes amongst Pacific families.