Reflections on fathers and infant mental health

Our aim was to examine the rates and predictors of father attendance at nurse home visits in replication sites of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). Early childhood programs can facilitate father involvement in the lives of their children, but program improvements require an understanding of factors that predict father involvement. The sample consisted of 29,109 low-income, first-time mothers who received services from 694 nurses from 80 sites. We conducted mixed-model multiple regression analyses to identify population, implementation, site, and nurse influences on father attendance. Predictors of father attendance included a count of maternal visits (B = 0.12, SE = 0.01, F = 3101.77), frequent contact between parents (B = 0.61, SE = 0.02, F = 708.02), cohabitation (B = 1.41, SE = 0.07, F = 631.51), White maternal race (B = 0.77, SE = 0.06, F = 190.12), and marriage (B = 0.42, SE = 0.08, F = 30.08). Random effects for sites and nurses predicted father-visit participation (2.7 & 6.7% of the variance, respectively), even after controlling for population sociodemographic characteristics. These findings suggest that factors operating at the levels of sites and nurses influence father attendance at home visits, even after controlling for differences in populations served. Further inquiry about these influences on father visit attendance is likely to inform program-improvement efforts.