Supporting Father Involvement to Promote Co-Parent, Parent and Child Outcomes in a Canadian Context

This study describes a western Canadian implementation of Supporting Father Involvement (SFI), a California, U.S. evidenced-based intervention designed to promote couple and co-parenting relationships and father engagement. Unlike the more ethnically diverse, lower income California families, Alberta families were mostly Caucasian and middle class. Evidence from SFI Alberta showed positive changes in father involvement and reduced parenting stress, parental conflict, and both avoidant and violent problem-solving strategies. In addition, couple relationship quality and children's hyperactive and withdrawn behaviors remained stable (though they worsened in a previous control group study).Given the program's success among these families, SFI appears to be a useful and appropriate intervention with the Albertan families. These findings add to a growing body of evidence showing the importance of strengthening father involvement through a focus on co-parenting and couple relationships, in order to obtain positive results for parents and children.