The examination of relationships between perceived father involvement and subjective well-being among university students

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between perceived father involvement and subjective well-being among university students. In this study Father Involvement scales developed by Finley and schwartz (2004) was used to measure father involvement perceived by young adults. These scales measure two levels of father involvement as Reported Father Involvement and Desired Father involvement retrospectively. It is also aimed to test the validity and reliability of these two scales and adapt the Desired Father Involvement Scale into Turkish. In addition this study will examine the relationship between Reported and Desired father involvement perceived by university students. Lastly, the gender difference has been analyzed for both the total and the dimensions of perceived father involvement. The sample of this study consisted of 287 university students including 152 females and 135 males aged between 18-29 (M=21, SD=1,8). All the participants were from intact families. The data was gathered through The Personal Information Form, Nurturant Fathering Scale, Reported Father Involvement Scale, Desired Father Involvement Scale and Subjective Well-Being Scale. The results indicate that Reported and Desired Father Involvement Scales are valid and reliable for this sample. It was assumed that there would be a strong negative correlation between reported and desired father involvement perceived by university students.The findings show that there is a moderately significant negative correlation between Reported and Desired father involvement perceived by young adults. Therefore, this finding supports the first assumption moderately. It has been also found that there is a gender difference not for the total scores of both reported and desired Father involvement perceived by university students but rather for Desired Expressive Dimension of Desired Father Involvement. It seems that female students desire more expressive involvement than males do. Finally, it was assumed that current subjective well-being among university students would be higher for those who reported higher father involvement retrospectively. The results indicate that reported father involvement predicts subjective well-being among university students with a 4% variance rate. This finding partially supports the second assumption. Key words: University students, perceived father involvement, desired father involvement, subjective well-being.