# Examining characteristics of father-child relationship among diverse settings: A qualitative scoping review protocol

## TL;DR

This paper outlines a scoping review protocol to explore how fathers' involvement in parenting affects child development and mental health across diverse cultural and socioeconomic settings.

## Contribution

The study introduces a structured approach to synthesize existing research on father-child relationships, focusing on diverse contexts and neurodiverse children.

## Key findings

- The review will identify characteristics of father-child relationships in early and middle childhood across diverse settings.
- It will use PRISMA-ScR guidelines to structure findings and highlight gaps in understanding paternal involvement.
- The study aims to inform policies and practices to support fathers in diverse family contexts.

## Abstract

Fathers’ participation in parenting directly contributes to child development and mental health. Emerging evidence demonstrates that high-quality paternal involvement leads to positive child social, emotional, psychosocial and developmental outcomes. Despite growing recognition of the importance of father-child relationships in child development and well-being, there remains limited understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of this relationship, particularly in diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and family structure contexts.

This scoping reviewinvolves five stages: identifying research question/s, identifying relevant studies, study selection, data charting, collating, summarizing and reporting the results. Electronic database search will be performed on PubMed and PsycINFO using a combination of terms for the key phrases of father, involvement, child, child development and mental health in the title, abstract and keywords. Additionally, the ascendency approach will be used to look through other sources cited in the included studies. Rayyan software will be used to remove duplicates and complete the screening process. Data charting will be conducted using excel-spreadsheet. Two independent reviewers will screen 10% of records to achieve Inter-rater reliability (IRR) at each screening stage. Reviewers will conduct systematic data extraction independently using piloted forms, with discrepancies resolved through senior authors and team discussions along with the use of the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) quality assessment tool.

The scoping review will identify characteristics of father-child relationships in early and middle childhood among diverse settings and neurodiverse children. The reporting of findings will be structured according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.

The knowledge-base, synthesised by this review, will inform a framework for paternal involvement suitable for diverse backgrounds of families which can help develop contextually appropriate policies to improve father’s involvement and enhance child development and mental health, while highlighting areas for future research.

The proposed scoping review in this protocol paper aims to explore how fathers’ involvement in parenting affects child development and mental health, particularly across different cultural, socioeconomic, and family contexts. Research has shown that when fathers are actively involved in their children's lives, it leads to positive outcomes in areas such as social skills, emotional well-being, and overall development. However, there is still limited understanding of the complex nature of father-child relationships, especially when considering diverse settings and family structures.

The proposed review will follow a PRISMA-ScR guidelines structured approach to gather and analyze studies on father-child relationships across early and middle age groups and settings, including rural and urban settings, as well as among neurodiverse children and aims to fill this gap in knowledge. The research will involve systematically searching of scientific databases for relevant studies, focusing on keywords related to fathers, involvement, child development, and child mental health. A team of independent reviewers will screen and select studies based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure the quality of the review.

The goal of this review is to identify the key characteristics of father-child relationships during early and middle childhood, while also considering how paternal involvement differs in high versus low-resource settings and among neurotypical and neurodiverse children. The findings will be summarized according to established guidelines, and a clear (PRISMA-ScR) flow diagram will outline the process used to include and exclude studies.

Ultimately, the review aims to create a better understanding of how fathers’ involvement varies across different contexts, which can inform policies and practices to support fathers in their parenting roles. The review will also highlight areas that require further research, ultimately helping to improve child development and mental health.