Difficult fathers; are there specificities in fathers' counterproductive behaviors? evidences from a multicultural research

In the last years, the idea that, beside mothers, also fathers contribute to the development and education of their children has gained consensus worldwide (Berger, 2004), and indicators from the field confirmed that levels of father engagement in children’ schooling are increasing (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Consequently, a growing number of fathers everyday interact with their children’ teachers; however, to our knowledge, studies on father-teacher “counterproductive” relations are still scarce. Since the role of fathers in education changes over time and across different cultures (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth & Lamb, 2000), it is possible to follow a key strategy in social sciences (Von Eye, Bogat, & Rhodes, 2006), i.e. comparisons between groups and contexts aimed at the recognition of any regular distinction of local conditions based on the data collected. The present paper is aimed at identifying “who” are the "counterproductive fathers”, and how their behaviors differ from those showed by mothers during interactions with teachers. Data were gathered through the Challenging Parent Standard Questionnaire (CPSQ, Prakke, Van Peet, & Van der Wolf, 2007), a research tool exploring from the teachers’ point of view the impact of parents’ behaviors on teaching. The CPSQ was administered, to a sample of in-service teachers of both elementary and middle school (N=3059). Data were collected on a national basis as follows: the Netherlands 6.9% (N = 212), Russia 21.6% (N = 661), Hong Kong 19% (N = 581), U.S. 9.5% (N = 290), Italy 34% (N = 1063) and India 8.2% (N = 252). As a result, a sample composed of 725 (14%) fathers and 2334 (86%) mothers showing counterproductive behaviors was obtained. Descriptive analyses were reported and between-groups gender differences in counterproductive behaviors were examined by using two series of general linear model analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) controlled first for the effects of parent’ education and then for the school grade. Results are relevant both for theory development and for planning parenting programs aimed at improving parent-teacher relationships.