Date of Award

11-2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

Abstract

Twenty-eight children (15 male, 13 female, mean age 11.36) and their fathers (mean age 43.11), from various communities in the Western United States, participated as dyads. Fathers completed demographic questions, the Short Version Seven Secrets Survey for Fathers (Roid & Can.field, 1994), and selected questions from the New Personal Fathering Profile (Roid & Can.field, 1999). Children completed a revised Short Version Seven Secrets Survey for Fathers and the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity (Francis, 1989). Fathers and children completed a shortened version of Factor IV: Emotional Stability from the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg, 1997). Children's fathering appraisals were anticipated to be superior to fathers' for predicting children's emotional stability and positive faith attitudes. The extent to which fathers' and children's appraisals of father effectiveness were associated was investigated. Revised measures were assessed for internal consistency. Children's positive fathering appraisals, both globally and with regard to spiritual input, were positively correlated (:e < .OS) with their faith attitudes (!: = .394; r = .435, respectively), but not with their stability. The fathers' self-appraisals were not associated with either children's stability or faith attitudes. Therefore, children's fathering appraisals were the better predictor for faith attitudes and neither groups' appraisals predicted children's stability. The responses to the two versions of the Seven Secrets Survey were partially associated. The two groups' total Father Effectiveness scores were correlated(!:= .55, 12. < .01). Additionally, four of their "same dimension" scores were significantly related (!'. = .48 - .68, 12. < .01 - .05). The 31-item children's version of the father effectiveness scale produced initial reliabilities ranging from .52 to .83. Deletion of two weak items increased the range to .61 to .83. Total Father Effectiveness reliability was .91. The selected New Personal Fathering Profile scales showed reliabilities ranging from .76 to .90. The 24-item Stability factor produced a reliability of .83 with fathers but only .60 with children. The reliability of the children's Stability factor increased to .70 with the removal of nine weak items.

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS