What Does It Mean When Fathers Are Involved in Parenting?

The present study examines fathers' direct engagement with children using experience sampling methods with 190 fathers in two-parent families in Austria with 1 to 5-year-old children. Father-child activities were sampled at random times over 1 week and three home visits were conducted to gather interview, questionnaires, and observational data. Latent Class Analysis uncovered three different profiles of father-child activities: (a) Enriched, (b) Balanced, and (c) Restricted. Boosted Classification Trees explored the associations between these profiles and the quality of father-child relationships and family functioning. Fathers who showed enriched, as opposed to restricted activities with the target children formed close attachments with them, displayed better interparental relationships and were less likely to be exposed to family stress, underlining paternal involvement as stronger affected by relationship dynamics in the family.