Father role salience and socioeconomic status as predictors of father involvement

As fathers from socially disadvantaged populations have received little attention in the fathering research, this study attempts to identify the ways in which socioeconomic parameters influence father involvement. In addition, the influence of role salience is explored, in an attempt to identify possible motivational factors which shape the father’s role. The sample consists of 150 residents of Knox County, Tennessee, who are between the ages of 18 and 55 years, and are fathers of children who are 18 years old or younger. African-American fathers, lower-income fathers, and fathers with a high school education or less are represented in proportions which are adequate to provide substantive results in a multiple regression analysis, although the sample is not representative of Knox County on these parameters. The author draws three major conclusions from the study which address the influence of the following factors on father involvement: 1) The father’s race and its interaction with his sense of financial insecurity and the child’s residential status; 2) The residential status of the child and its interaction with the father’s level of income and his level of education; and 3) The degree to which the father role is salient to the father’s identity and its interaction with the age of the child. Implications for future fathering research, clinical work with fathers, and educational programs aimed toward fathers are drawn from these conclusions.