A systematic review of interventions that have the potential to foster engaged fathering to enhance children's health and development

Abstract

AbstractThis review aimed to identify and evaluate interventions that have the potential to foster engaged fathering to enhance children's health and development. Relevant articles published in the last 20 years were searched in Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Web of Science databases. The quality of studies was assessed independently by two reviewers using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklists. Thirty out of 3968 articles met the inclusion criteria and were subsequently reviewed. Studies were conducted in six countries (USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Vietnam and Taiwan). Twenty‐one studies were targeted interventions while nine were universal interventions. The interventions involved parenting education, physical activity, nutrition, father–child socialization, father delivered infant massage and father–infant skin‐to‐skin contact. Authors of the studies reported that the interventions led to significant improvements in positive parenting behaviours and fathers' engagement with their children and better physical health and developmental outcomes among children. Notwithstanding the reported benefits of the interventions, all 30 studies had one or more methodological problems that call in question the generalizability of the findings. Future, well‐designed, RCT studies with larger sample sizes and clear measures of fidelity are warranted to replicate and strengthen findings reported in this review.