The Questionnaire on Paternal Engagement of Separated Fathers

The present contribution presents psychometric findings of a newly developed questionnaire on paternal engagement after parental separation based on a sample of 225 separated or divorced fathers living in the German part of Switzerland. Factor analyses led to the following five dimensions: educational responsibility, cognitive and social support, quality of the emotional relationship, temporal availability, and leisure activities. Internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach's Alpha) ranged from .86 to .91. The dimensions reflect significant differences of paternal engagement regarding child custody, living arrangements of the mother, and parental cooperation. These findings clearly indicate that paternal engagement after separation should be considered in a differentiated multidimensional way.