The effects of father involvement training (FIT) on family functioning and peer relationships of 9th grade high school students


Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: ERCAN KOCAYÖRÜK

Danışman: ZEYNEP SÜMER

Özet:

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to design and determine the effect of Father Involvement Training (FIT), which is based on social-cognitive theory principals, on family functioning in father-adolescent relationships, and (b) to examine the effect of Father Involvement Training (FIT) on the quality of the peer relationships of 9th grade high school students, whose fathers participated in the study. The sample composed of twenty- six 9th grade students’ fathers. The 2x3 experimental design examined pre-training, post-training and six-month follow-up measurements of an experimental group and control group. Experimental group received a ten-week father involvement training which was developed by the researcher while the control group did not receive any training. Parent Success Indicator (PSI) was used to assess family functioning of fathers and Parent Adolescent Relationship Scale (PARS) was used to assess family functioning of children whose fathers participated in the study. In order to assess peer relationships of children, Peer Relationship Scale (PRS) was used. Data were analyzed by employing Mann Whitney U Test, Friedman Test, and Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test. The results revealed that the Father Involvement Training had significant effects on the father-child relationship and family functioning of experimental group’s fathers. The experimental group’s fathers had gained higher total scores both at the end of the study and at the follow-up measures in PSI. The adolescents, whose fathers participated in the experimental group, improved in close-relationship and sensitivity dimensions at the end of the study. However, the improvements were not maintained after the six months follow-up measurements. In addition, ratings of the children, whose fathers participated in the experimental group, decreased from pretest to follow-up measures on meeting expectations dimension of the PARS. Lastly, there was a significant improvement in trust and identification dimension of peer relationship levels of children whose fathers received the training compared to children whose fathers did not receive the training. The experimental group fathers’ evaluation reports indicated that fathers perceived improvement in different dimensions such as father child communication, behavioral changes in relationship with their children.