Testing Gender Applicability of Father Involvement Instruments Mark H. Trahan and Monit Cheung This study examines whether three existing instruments assessing fathering behavior can consistently and adequately measure father involvement when administered separately to fathers and mothers. Using a snowball sample method, the researchers surveyed mother and father respondents (N = 133) from 36 social services agencies across the United States about their perceptions of father behavior and factors pertaining to perception of the father role. Respondents answered questions related to expectations of fathering, satisfaction with per- formance, partner support for parenting, and perception of paternal self-efficacy. Results re- vealed high reliability of these instruments, with no gender differences on the three main scales, except three items in the subscales of one scale. Although sample size may limit gen- eralizability, this study provides preliminary evidence for the use of the Inventory of Father Involvement, the Partner Support for Father Involvement Scale, and the Self-Efficacy Sub- scale of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale when both parent genders report on father behavior. KEY WORDS: father engagement; fathering; gender-neutral instruments; mothering; parenting F ather involvement plays a significant role in child outcomes and family relationships (Flouri, 2005). Children with positive pater- nal relationships have reported fewer problems in behaviors and less distress when coping with inter- nalized and externalized issues (Dubowitz et al., 2001; Stocker, Richmond, Low, Alexander, & Elias, 2003). However, consistent measurement of posi- tive father behavior in the household can be diffi- cult to obtain. Existing research has suggested that nonresident mothers underreport fathers’ beha- viors, whereas resident mothers and fathers accu- rately report paternal involvement (Coley & Morris, 2002; Wical & Doherty, 2005). Recent studies have reported perceived differences between mothering and fathering behaviors, but with data collected mainly from children (Stolz, Olsen, Barber, & Clif- ford, 2010; Verhoeven, Bögels, & Bruggen, 2012). The primary aim of this study was to test the gender applicability of three commonly used instruments for measuring father behavior by comparing mater- nal and paternal respondents on perceptions of fathering behavior. These instruments are the Inven- tory of Father Involvement (IFI) (Hawkins et al., 1999, 2002), the Partner Support for Parenting Scale (Bouchard & Lee, 2000), and the Parenting Self- Efficacy subscale of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersmann, 1978; Johnston & Mash, 1989). WHY STUDY FATHER INVOLVEMENT Research has shown that father involvement con- tributes significantly to child outcomes, includ- ing mental health, education, aggressiveness and delinquency, family relationships, and social and economic status (Flouri, 2005). Fatherly love and engagement have been found to be significant pre- dictors of an adult son’s psychological adjustment, adolescent internalization of values, youth social ini- tiative, and social adjustment (Rohner & Venezia- no, 2001; Stolz, Barber, & Olsen, 2005; Veneziano, 2000). Youths who do not have interactions with a father or father figure have a higher risk of incarcer- ation, and youths living in father-absent homes are four times more likely to live in poverty compared with those living in father-present homes (Field, 2003; Harper & McLanahan, 2004). High-quality father interaction involving any type of fathering behavior has positively affected infant health (Carr & Springer, 2010). doi: 10.1093/swr/svw014 © 2016 National Association of Social Workers 203