Understanding Fathers’ Roles: An
Evidence-Based Practice Guide for
Family Therapists
Purpose:
• To apply current fathering literature to
Family Therapy with adolescents
• To help close the Research-to-Practice
gap
• Offer a systemic framework for working
with fathers and their families.
Defining Father Involvement:
• Range of father involvement
Enmeshed
Absent
Controlling
Permissive
What is optimal?
Depends on individual fathers, families, and
context.
Father involvement can be both harmful and
helpful to children.
Elements of Control and Closeness parallel
to Olsen’s Circumplex Model.
Defining Father Involvement (cont.)
• Typically thought of as time spent with
children doing something (reading talking
working . . .) and the amount of authority a
father has.
• What about all the invisible stuff? Does
knowing kids schedule count as
involvement? Financial plans for their
future? How about worrying about kids?
Talking to mom?
Defining Father Involvement (cont.)
• Current literature defines father
involvement in terms of various domains
• Mainly cognitive, affective, and behavioral
• Fathering in its broadest terms is all the
activities, emotions, and thoughts involved
in men raising children.
• However direct involvement as a parent is
not the only way a father influences his
children.
Some examples:
• Social Capital—social networks,
reciprocity among peers—basically
connections, “How hooked up your dad is”
• Financial Capital— “Is your daddy rich?”
• Human Capital— “My dad is smarter than
your dad.”
According to Lamb (2004)
• "researchers, theorists, and practitioners
no longer cling to the simplistic belief that
fathers fill unidimensional and universal
roles in their families and in their children's
eyes. Instead they recognize that fathers
play a number of significant roles . . .
whose relative importance varies across
historical epochs and sub cultural groups"
(p.3).
In other words:
• There is no standard of perfection when it comes
to fathering.
• Good fathering changes depending on the
context, the child’s needs, and the resources
available
• Therefore as therapists we are best off
respecting a family’s autonomy by asking them
what their needs are and helping to activate their
resources to meet those needs
When to involve fathers in
therapy:
Abuse?
Mentally/ Physically Well?
Toxic Relationship with Mom?
Yes
No
Is the Presenting Problem
Best Treated Individually?
Is a Father Present in the
Family?
No
Is a Surrogate or Fictive Kin
Father Involved in the Family?
No
Is Dad Willing and
Able to Come to Therapy?
Yes
Address the Problem
Incorporating Dad’s Role Into the Solution!
No
Buffer for Absence of Father.
Encourage Mom to Utilize Support
Network.
Other Things to Consider
• How does gender of therapist affect
therapy?
• How does gender of children affect
therapy?
• Gatekeeping role on part of mother can
affect father’s willingness to participate in
therapy
• How do you get dad in the door?
Getting Dad to Therapy
• Most often a simple invitation from mom or
personal contact from therapist EARLY in therapy
is sufficient
• Also consider sending him a letter emphasizing
the importance of his role for his children
• Offer to help dad to “catch up” on therapy by
coming with the kids and leaving mom at home
• Consider meeting with the parents and no kids to
empower dad (enlist mom’s help ahead of time)
• Sometimes dad will be the one to initiate therapy
and mom will require your efforts if she is to
become involved
He’s here--now what?
• Fathers typically come to therapy for their
identified patient (I.P.) child
• From a systemic perspective fathers role
is therefore an appropriate entry point
• Have dad define his role (don’t want to be
limited by general trends in literature)
• Can work with entire family through roles
or the “structure” of the family
Other Possible Approaches
• Dad’s emotional
• Little empirical
connection to youth
evidence for what
works with fathers
• Solution Focused
emphasis on family
• General empirical
functioning rather
support for a theory
than on problem
does not generalize to
individual families
• Narrative restorying of
family problem and
• A positive process
individual roles
and helpful outcome
are the goal
• Your theory of choice
Positive Process
• Start working with dad ASAP
• Go at the client’s pace
– Some dads may need individual therapy prior
to family therapy
– Often times couples or co-parenting therapy
can greatly ease the family therapy process
• Some dads may relegate parenting to
mom
• Some moms may relegate parenting to
dad
• Some moms may occupy a gatekeeping