What makes fathers involved? Fathers’ time, education, and cooperative coparenting

Father involvement is considered multidetermined, being influenced by personal and family characteristics. These variables, however, are rarely examined together, leaving unclear what makes fathers involved. A multilevel dyadic approach was used to examine the relationship between fathers’ and mothers’ demographics, parenting stress, coparenting, and father involvement among dual-earner couples (n = 311 dyads). Fathers (M_age = 39.33; SD = 6.04) and mothers (M_age = 36.81; SD = 5.96) of a young child (M = 4.36; SD = 1.69; 52.4% boys) reported on education, parental stress, and time committed to childcare (level 1 variables), work–family conflict, their child’s age, and coparenting (level 2). The findings revealed that, regarding individual variables (level 1), only father’s education and father’s time committed to child activities were related to a greater proportion of father involvement. At the family level (level 2), older children, more children in the family, and cooperative coparenting were related to a greater proportion of father involvement. The results highlight the importance of fathers’ perspectives and characteristics to their involvement. The findings may be used to promote father involvement and inform public policies on the topic.