Considerations for studying father involvement in early childhood among Latino families

Over the last three decades there has been a notable increase in interest about fathers and their role in the socioemotional, academic, and cognitive development of young children. Concurrently, there has been a shift in this nation's ethnic minority demography, where Latinos are now the nation's largest minority group. The father-involvement literature in early childhood is scarce, particularly the scholarship focused on Latino fathers. Furthermore, several conceptual and methodological shortcomings in the exploration of Latino fathers exist. This review explores the following questions: To what extent has the literature explored father involvement in early childhood among Latino fathers? What is the quality of the conceptual and methodological rigor of these studies? What are the salient themes of the literature? Finally, the review will present considerations for studying fathers of young children within Latino communities.