Paternal Self-efficacy, Fathering, and Children’s Behavioral Problems in Korea

Objectives: With the introduction of co-parenting, Korean society has begun demanding that fathers share child-rearing responsibilities. In the present study, we examined the association between fathers’ parenting self-efficacy and children’s behavioral problems via fathers’ parenting behavior, after controlling for mothers’ parenting self-efficacy, to clearly identify the importance of fathers in child rearing. Method: We analyzed data from 1,463 children and their fathers, which were available from the 2014 Panel Study on Korean Children, by employing structural equation modeling. Results: The results were as follows. First, the results revealed that there was a significant association between fathers with parenting self-efficacy and both warm and positive controlling parental behaviors. Second, warm parental behavior was significantly associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, while fathers’ positive controlling behavior was not linked to children’s behavioral problems. Third, fathers’ parenting self-efficacy had significant indirect effects on both internalizing and externalizing problems via warm parental behavior. Conclusions: These findings imply the importance of the role of fathers in the family, father–child relationships for child development, and fathers’ parenting self-efficacy in child rearing.