engleski

Supporting Involved Fathering of Young Children in Croatia: Evaluation of the "Growing Up Together Fathers' Club"

Contemporary literature on parenting support programmes advocates for greater engagement of fathers and stronger evidence-base of programmes’ effectiveness. The aim of this study was to estimate the outcomes of a parenting support programme “Growing up Together Fathers’ Club” consisting of four weekly workshops with fathers of children aged 1 to 5 years. In total, 238 fathers who completed the “Fathers’ Club” programme in 25 sites throughout Croatia participated in evaluation. A pre-post intervention comparison of self-reported data, revealed that fathers reported higher self- efficacy, more frequent positive involvement with the child, less frequent shouting and hitting the child, more attempted understanding of a child’s perspective and less angry outbursts in response to child’s misbehaviour upon completion of the programme. Additionally, their beliefs were more tolerant of respecting child’s physical and psychological integrity. Fathers’ educational level did not moderate the results. Fathers also provided qualitative data about programme benefits for themselves and their children as well as suggestions for the improvement of the programme relevant for the future outline of the programme.

programme evaluation ; parenting support ; fathering ; father-child interaction ; father involvement

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