The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship
between perceptions of the parenting alliance, marital quality, and th
e amount of involvement fathers have in raising their young children.
Subjects were 89 predominately White, two-parent families with prescho
ol aged children. Self-report and interview data were collected to mea
sure each parent's participation in three categories of parental invol
vement (interaction, accessibility, and responsibility), as well as pe
rceptions of the parenting alliance and marital quality. Multiple regr
ession procedures suggested that fathers' perceptions of spouses' conf
idence in their own parenting, as well as mother's emotional appraisal
of their partners' parenting and their shared parenting philosophy we
re significant predictors of father involvement in child rearing activ
ities. Results are discussed in terms of future research on paternal i
nvolvement, as well as for the development of intervention programs de
signed to facilitate increased levels of father. involvement in child
rearing.