Father engagement with disability services: the perceptions and experiences of fathers and psychologists

Abstract

Background and Aims: This study sought to explore father engagement with disability services in Ireland by capturing the perceptions and experiences of fathers of children with an intellectual disability or developmental delay (ID/DD), and psychologists working in disability services. Disability services often consider the mothers’ perspective to be representative of both parents, which can leave fathers of children with an ID/DD feeling disengaged in their relationship with disability services (Curtiss et al., 2021; Docherty & Dimond, 2018). This contradicts the ideologies underpinning family-centred practice, which is a core principle of Ireland’s national programme of disability service reconfiguration known as ‘Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People in Ireland’.

Sample: Fathers were recruited from disability services, special schools, and social media parent groups through voluntary response sampling. Psychologists were recruited from disability services through purposeful sampling.

Method: A mixed-methods, sequential explanatory design was adopted. A newly developed questionnaire on father engagement with services (FEWS-Q) was completed by fathers (n = 77), followed by semi-structured interviews with fathers (n = 9) and with psychologists (n = 8). Internal reliability analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data, while thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data accrued. The bioecological model of human development (BMHD) and family systems theory were applied as theoretical frameworks to explore this multifactorial phenomenon Results: Survey and interview results highlighted feelings of exclusion from services from fathers, which were corroborated by psychologists. Fathers and psychologists described factors across all five systems of the BMHD that affect father engagement with disability services, and this was used as a framework to structure and explore the themes that were generated. Positive discrimination towards fathers, services offering father groups, and the establishment of an early relationship between fathers and services may help to improve engagement.

Conclusions: The findings of this study support previous research findings that fathers feel disengaged and unsupported by services which has implications for service delivery within the family-centred practice model and for intervention efficacy. The internal reliability and construct validity of the FEWS-Q is promising and this instrument merits further exploration with a larger sample size to determine its robustness.