Relationship between father parenting stress, marital satisfaction and father involvement

Abstract

Objective To examine the effect of father parenting stress and paternal marital satisfaction on father involvement, and to explore the mediating role of maternal perceptions of father involvement in father involvement and maternal marital satisfaction. Methods 300 children's fathers and mothers from 5 kindergartens in Beijing city, Dezhou city, Wuhu city were surveyed with the Chinese version of the PSI/SF, the father involvement questionnaire and the marital satisfaction questionnaire. Results The score of paternal marital satisfaction was (3.98±0.75), (3.84±0.76) for maternal marital satisfaction, (2.26±0.50) for father parenting stress, (2.60±0.49) for father involvement, (2.50±0.50) for maternal perceptions of father involvement.Correlation analysis showed that father parenting stress was negatively correlated with father involvement(r=-0.36, P<0.01), paternal marital satisfaction was positively correlated with father involvement(r=0.33, P<0.01), father involvement was positively correlated with maternal marital satisfaction(r=0.36, P<0.01), father involvement was positively correlated with maternal perceptions of father involvement(r=0.48, P<0.01). A structure equation model consisting of father parenting stress, father involvement and marital satisfaction had a better degree of fitting: GFI=0.99, NFI=0.99, CFI=0.99, RMSEA<0.001.Maternal perceptions of father involvement mediated the effect of father involvement on maternal marital satisfaction(effect value: 0.41, P<0.05). Conclusion Father parenting stress and paternal marital satisfaction could significantly predict father involvement, father involvement could significantly predict maternal marital satisfaction. These studies verified the spillover effect and the crossover effect between spousal subsystem and parental subsystem. Key words: Father involvement; Father parenting stress; Marital satisfaction