This program is delivered to fathers who have physically or emotionally abused or neglected their children, their children’s mother, or both or are considered to be at high-risk for these actions and is intended to impact fathers, mothers, and their children.

Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value their Children (Caring Dads™), a community-based group-treatment program, is designed to foster healthy, child-centered fathering and co-parenting and promote the safety and well-being of children.

Results from males who participated in a single-group, pretest/posttest study indicated significant decreases in self-reported levels of hostility, denigration, and rejection of their child and decreases in self-reported levels of angry arousal in child and family situations. Results from a second single-group, pretest/posttest study demonstrated significant changes in self-reported parenting and co-parenting, including decreased over reactivity to children’s misbehavior and increased respect for partner’s commitment and judgment. However, there was not strong evidence of change in generalized aggression in this study. Results from one quasi-experimental study indicated participation in Caring Dads resulted in significantly greater rates of contact between fathers and child-protection workers and significantly fewer subsequent substantiations of maltreatment perpetration in the 2 years following referral to the program as compared to fathers on a waitlist.

Caring Dads uses a combination of motivational interviewing, parent education, skills training, and cognitive behavioral therapy and encourages men to examine their fathering practices and develop more child-centered fathering behaviors. The program consists of the following four modules:

• Engage men in examining their fathering practices;
• Teach awareness and application of child-centered parenting, including respectful treatment of children’s mothers and support of the mother-child relationship;
• Encourage awareness of and responsibility for abusive and neglectful fathering behaviors and the impact these actions can have on children through setting and monitoring behavioral change goals; and
• Discuss rebuilding trust with children and making plans for the future.

The program is not mandated, and fathers are generally referred by child-protection services, probation and parole personnel, mental health agencies, batterer-intervention programs, police, courts, or self-referral. There is collaborative case management of fathers with referral agents and other professionals who are involved with men and their families. In addition, the program conducts outreach to mothers via phone calls to ensure their safety and well-being.

Caring Dads was created in 2001 in London, Ontario, Canada, and there are currently providers located in the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

This program is delivered by accredited facilitators who have experience working with men who may be resistant to the intervention, knowledge of intimate partner violence and child development, and experience with motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. The developer recommends that one male and one female facilitator lead group sessions. Two-day, off-site, on-site, or online training is available and costs $1,000 (Canadian dollars) per person. Please visit https://caringdads.org/facilitator-training2 or use details in the Contact section to learn more.

Considerations for implementing this program include acquiring participant buy-in, recruiting suitable facilitators and making arrangements for them to complete training, ensuring the program is implemented with fidelity, locating space to hold sessions, and understanding sensitive and difficult topics could be discussed.

The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

If you are interested in implementing Caring Dads, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

There are 17-weekly, 2-hour sessions. Fifteen sessions are implemented in a group format, and there are two individual sessions in which goals are set and monitored. Facilitators contact mothers three times during the program to provide information about the program, refer mothers to support services, and ensure the safety of mothers and their children.

The cost of the Caring Dads Program Manual and course implementation materials are included in the training fee. An annual license fee costs $200.

To move Caring Dads to the Promising category on the Clearing Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation with a strong study design should be performed that demonstrates positive effects lasting at least six months from program completion.

The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu

You may also contact Caring Dads by mail 555 Southdale Road East, Suite 100, London, ON, N6E 1A2, Canada, phone 1-249-202-3237, email info@caringdads.org, or visit https://caringdads.org/contact-us

https://caringdads.org/; https://www.cebc4cw.org/program/caring-dads-helping-fathers-value-their-children/detailed; Crooks, Scott, Francis, Kelly, and Reid (2006); Hine, Meyer, McDermott, Eggins (2022); and Scott and Crooks (2006).