Ontogenic, Microsystemic, and Mesosystemic Factors Associated with Father Involvement in Their Preschool-Aged Children’s Lives: Paternal and Maternal Perspectives

Abstract

This study examined Greek fathers’ involvement with their preschool-aged children from both fathers’ and mothers’ perspectives, focusing on how ontogenic, microsystemic, and mesosystemic factors are associated with paternal engagement within Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework. Participants included 106 mother–father pairs with children aged approximately 38 months. Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires assessing beliefs about the father’s role, the frequency and quality of father involvement, parenting style, meta-parenting cognitions, and co-parenting quality. Overall, both parents reported relatively high levels of paternal involvement across the different measures. Mothers tended to assign slightly higher ratings than fathers on the overall Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI) and several of its dimensions; however, statistically significant differences were limited, with attentiveness being the only IFI subscale showing a significant difference between parental reports. Mothers also reported more authoritative parenting and higher levels of meta-parenting, whereas fathers reported slightly higher coparenting quality. Correlational analyses indicated that authoritative parenting, coparenting quality, and parents’ perceptions of the father’s role were associated with different dimensions of father involvement, while demographic characteristics showed more selective associations. The findings support the conceptualization of father involvement as a multidimensional construct shaped by ontogenic, microsystemic, and mesosystemic factors. They also highlight the value of obtaining information from both mothers and fathers when assessing paternal involvement, as each parent provides complementary perspectives on family functioning. These findings have implications for research, policy, and practice by supporting interventions and family policies that promote positive coparenting, shared caregiving responsibilities, and fathers’ active participation in early childhood.