The influence of early intervention, informal support and the family environment on trajectories of competence for fathers raising children with developmental disabilities.
For dads in EI, good family relationships and positive home-visit support at age 3 predict higher parenting competence that holds steady into adolescence.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Crossman et al. (2018) followed fathers of children with developmental delays from age 3 to 15. They asked: does early family support predict how capable dads feel over time?
The team used home-visit notes and parent surveys. They tracked the same families for 12 years.
What they found
Dads who felt supported at age 3 kept the same high parenting confidence at 15. There was no overall rise or fall in competence across the years.
Warm family relationships and helpful home visits early on set the starting level. After that, scores stayed flat.
How this fits with other research
Rattaz et al. (2023) seems to disagree. They saw fathers' stress stay high three years after an autism diagnosis. K et al. found no change. The gap is time: Cécile stopped at three years, while K kept going to 15. Stress may linger short-term, yet competence holds long-term.
Ellingsen et al. (2014) showed moms gain parenting quality when they have more education and optimism. K et al. show dads' confidence stays steady without those gains. Together they hint mothers may climb, fathers may plateau.
Marsack et al. (2017) found early positive parenting helps kids regulate emotions. K et al. flip the lens: early support also stabilizes dads themselves.
Why it matters
You can relax a little. Once a father feels capable at intake, he is likely to stay that way. Spend your energy building a warm alliance in the first months. Schedule a father-focused home visit. Ask about his goals, give clear feedback, and encourage family teamwork. That early boost may carry him for the next decade.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Scant research disentangles the relationship between parenting competence, early intervention (EI) services, the family environment and informal support among fathers of children with developmental disabilities. AIMS: (1) To determine the trajectory of parental competence for fathers of children with DD from age 3 to age 15. (2) Controlling for child and family characteristics, determine the main effects of the family environment, informal support, and EI services on paternal competence when their child with a developmental disability was age 3. (3) To determine whether there were lasting effects of the family environment, informal support, and the EI service system on differences in paternal competence over time. METHODS: This study used multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal data from 93 American fathers from the Early Intervention Collaborative Study. RESULTS: There was no significant change over time in paternal competence after controlling for various covariates. Fathers who initially reported low levels of competence when their child was three reported continuously lower competence over time. Family relationships, positive supports, and perceived helpfulness of home visits were significant predictors of paternal competence at age three. CONCLUSION: Implications for programs and policy include developing and adopting rigorous ways to measure and carefully monitor service provision, including assessments of paternal competence, family relationships and informal supports at the start of early intervention, and fostering continuous collaborations between providers, researchers and clinicians to address challenges in data collection.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2018 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2018.04.025