Emotional Energy as an Explanatory Construct for Fathers' Engagement with Their Infants

Abstract

Objective. This goal of this study was to examine predictors of fathers' sensitivity and engagement with their young infants. Design. Predictors of the quality of father engagement during play and sensitivity during caregiving were explored in 73 middle-class families with a 6-month-old infant. Data were gathered through observation, self-report, and interviews. Results. Factors representing the exosystem (e.g., income and work characteristics) and microsystem (e.g., family and individual characteristics) were found to predict fathers' sensitivity during caregiving and engagement during play. Compared with father - infant play in the dyad, when mothers were present all types of interaction except social play decreased in frequency. Correlational and regression analyses supported the view that fathers were more sensitive and/or engaged with their infants when they did not suffer from job stress, possessed positive coping skills, held more child-centered beliefs, wanted to be like their own fathers, had wives who were more engaged when they played with their infants, and had male infants. Fathers were more affectionate toward their infants when they were in more harmonious marriages and the infants were temperamentally easy. Conclusions. These findings confirm the position that fathering behavior is best understood within an ecological, multilevel framework and that emotional energy is a reasonable explanatory construct underlying fathers' sensitivity and engagement.