Research on fatherhood reveals a wide range of factors that support or hinder fathers' positive engagement with their children. One such factor is the child’s mother. Mothers play a critical role in how fathers are involved with their children, whether they live together or not. Mothers can facilitate or hinder the father’s involvement, often serving as gatekeepers between fathers and children. This research summary explores the topic of maternal gatekeeping, why it is a significant issue for families and practitioners to consider, and just how mothers help or hinder father involvement.

A growing number of employers have jumped on the family-friendly bandwagon, persuaded especially by the business case for such practices. Many family-friendly initiatives are gender-neutral in theory, meaning they are equally available to men and women. Yet, the availability of such initiatives has not always translated to better balance for fathers in practice. This article summarises the individual-, family-, and organisational-level barriers that prevent fathers, or men, from optimising work-life initiatives.

The rise of dual-career families has focused discussions on fatherhood towards men’s changing role within families. Less examined are men’s experiences at work – a space that often still defines men’s identities and their fatherhood roles. While many working mothers continue to shoulder a larger share of family responsibilities than working fathers, an absent focus on fathers’ work-life experiences conceals and discourages the growth in the number of fathers who do (seek to) take on more family responsibilities. This research summary reviews international research findings on fatherhood and work.

Rising divorce rates have led to more children living apart from their biological fathers. Non-residency is a strong predictor of reduced father involvement. However, many non-residential fathers manage to stay connected with their children even after divorce and separation, with positive effects for child wellbeing. This research summary discusses the types of father involvement that make the biggest difference for children, and the circumstances that best enable non-resident father involvement.

Among the various challenges faced by non-residential fathers, or fathers who live apart from their children, those faced by fathers behind bars are perhaps the most pronounced. The number of children separated from their fathers due to imprisonment is far higher than those separated from their mothers due to the vast majority of prisoners being men. This article reviews research evidence on the impact of parental incarceration on children; the factors that make a positive difference to the father, child, and family; and implications for practice.

Initiatives aimed at preventing early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy tend to focus on educating teens, especially girls, about healthy teen sexuality, and the risks of teen pregnancy. This article spotlights an innovative programme, Dads Make a Difference (DMAD), which turns the focus towards a longer-term goal - of involved fatherhood – and puts this at the centre of teen pregnancy prevention, with some promising results.

Research highlights the importance of fathers’ participation in the child’s development. In Sweden, it is a public policy goal to involve fathers in infant care and to increase gender equality between parents. A key means of achieving this goal is through legislation that allows fathers to share parental leave equally with mothers.

A growing body of evidence suggests that fathers have a key role to play in nurturing healthy sexuality in teens.

This article summarises the work of the New Fathers Cluster of the Canadian-based Father Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA). This cluster focuses its research on the period from pregnancy through the first eighteen months of a child’s life. It is notable for its multi-sectoral and community-based approach to research, as well as for its findings through both quantitative and qualitative research on new fathers and those who work with them. Both the approach and findings of the New Fathers Cluster are discussed here.

First-time fathers often experience low self-efficacy and parenting dissatisfaction during the transition to parenthood. At the same time, research shows that this transition is a critical one: paternal caregiving patterns that develop during infancy often persist and influence the ways in which fathers interact with their children over time. This article reviews the findings of a pilot study to test the effectiveness of an Internet-based intervention, the New Fathers Network, in improving first-time fathers’ parenting self-efficacy and parenting satisfaction during the first eight weeks following their infants’ birth. Parenting self-efficacy and satisfaction scores for the intervention group significantly improved, while scores for the control group did not change significantly.