Father involvement levels in preschool period and a examination of father-child relationship

The aim of this study is to examine fathers' involvement level whose children are in the preschool age and the relationships of fathers with their children; to determine whether there are statistically significant differences according to certain variables. Descriptive and relational analysis models were used in the research. The study group of the research consisted of 246 fathers who were residing in Antalya and Mersin city centers in the 2020-2021 academic year and had children in the pre-school period. The data of the research were collected with the "Paternal Involvement Scale" developed by Sımsıkı and Şendil, and the "Personal Information Form" created by the researcher, "Parent-Child Relationship Scale" adapted into Turkish by Aytaç, Çen and Yüceol, and the "Satisfaction With Life Scale" adapted into Turkish by Dağlı and Baysal. SPSS database was used to analyze the data. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U, Analysis of Variation and Regression models were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the research, the involvement levels of the fathers differed significantly according to the age of the fathers. It was observed that the participation levels of young fathers were higher. Involvement levels of fathers differed significantly according to the variable of educational status. Fathers with higher education degree were more involved in their children's lives. Fathers' involvement levels differed significantly according to fathers' employment status. Fathers working part-time were more involved than fathers working full-time. Fathers' involvement levels differed significantly according to the genders of their children. The involvement levels of fathers with only daughters were higher than those of fathers with only sons, and fathers with both daughters and sons. It was seen that there was no significant difference between the involvement levels of the fathers and their marital status. In addition, it was concluded that there is a positive correlation between fathers' participation levels, father-child relationship and fathers' life satisfaction. It was also found that fathers who had positive relationships with their children were more involved in their children's lives.