Socio-educational development of pre-school children in Eastern Cape: Factors militating against fathers’ readiness to participate

Abstract

Past studies on South African fathers’ less or non-involvement in their children’s development have either approached it qualitatively, with rural dwellers that are less educated than participants, or those that were quantitatively limited in terms of their focus and methodology. There is, therefore, a dearth of quantitative data on factors affecting South African fathers’ readiness to participate in their children’s development. It is precisely this realisation that has prompted this research paper. For this study, a descriptive survey research design with a sample of 300 university students was adopted. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.78 was used to collect data, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in the analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Absence of father at home (weighted average = 3.72), relationship with the mother of the child (weighted average = 3.63), and financial factors (weighted average = 3.46) are identified as those factors conspiring against South African fathers’ readiness, while fathering skills (weighted average = 3.41) are not one of these factors. The conclusion drawn, based on the findings of this research, is that counselling service units ought to be established in all communities in South Africa to work with families so as to help facilitate and maintain positive and cordial relationship amongst them.

Keywords: childhood education; father-mother relationship; fathering skills; fathers’ participation; financial factor; gender; pre-school children; race; socio-education development