Father Involvement in Sweden: A Longitudinal Study of its Stability and Correlates

Abstract

A total of 116 two-parent Swedish families were followed from the time their first-born children averaged 16 months until they were 8.5 years of age. Parents provided time-diary estimates of paternal participation and independent estimates of their relative responsibility and their children’s preferences when the children were 16, 28, 40, 80, and 102 months of age. Children reported on their preferences and their parents’ responsibilities in the last two phases. Analyses showed convergence between parents’ and children’s estimates of paternal involvement and parental preferences, underscoring the reliability of the data. Although poorly correlated with one another, relative and absolute measures of paternal involvement were modestly stable over time, with higher stability evident on reports of relative rather than absolute levels of involvement.

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