ABSTRACT
This chapter develops and empirically evaluates the impact of an intervention program designed to encourage and facilitate father/male involvement in state funded pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk children. The involvement of fathers is an important, yet often overlooked target in the effort to increase home-school partnerships in elementary and early childhood programs. The Attitudes Toward Father Involvement (ATFI) scale was used to assess teachers' ATFI in early childhood programs. An adapted version of the General Attitudes Toward Parent Involvement scale was used to assess teachers' attitudes toward parent involvement in early childhood programs. Early childhood educators will need to build a strong rationale for developing father/male outreach initiatives. Educators also need to be specific about the targets of their efforts to encourage father/male involvement. Efforts to build a culture of father/male involvement are much more likely to succeed if educators begin working with men in their comfort zone.
