Father Involvement in Immigrant and Ethnically Diverse Families from the Prenatal Period to the Second Year: Prediction and Mediating Mechanisms

This longitudinal study focused on fathers' involvement from the prenatal period through infants' first year in Dominican immigrants (n = 73), Mexican immigrants (n = 65) and African Americans (n = 66) residing in New York City. Fathers' prenatal involvement, the quality of the mother-father relationship, fathers' postnatal involvement with their 1- and 6 month olds and fathers' involvement with their 14 month-olds (i.e., time spent with infant; eating meals with infant; activities with infant) were examined. Father involvement was uniformly high and stable. Fathers' prenatal involvement predicted involvement at 14 months, and the quality of the mother-father relationship mediated these associations. Father ethnicity and residency moderated associations between the father-mother relationship, father postnatal involvement and father involvement with 14 month olds.