Exploring Paternal Involvement from Greek, Greek-Cypriot and Turkish Fathers' and Mothers' Perspectives: Cross-National Differences and Similarities

Although European fatherhood is "in the process of reconstruction and transformation" (O'Brien 2004, as cited in Lero, Ashbourne and Whitehead 2006, p. 5) and there is a need to create a clear picture about paternal involvement, few studies have explored perceptions of actual father involvement as well as the factors predicting and relating to father involvement, especially in Southeastern European countries. The present study explored the role of the father and the types of paternal involvement in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey from the mothers' and fathers' perspectives. The study hypotheses are that fathers are involved differently across countries and that in more partiarchically oriented countries both mothers and fathers consider father involvement as less important. Thus, we hypothesized that parental style adopted by each parent and their social cognitions would be correlated with father involvement and that paternal involvement is a multidimensional concept. Research results confirm most of our hypotheses and reveal statistically significant differences in terms of the role of the father and the parental styles adopted in a country level and in the way fathers are involved in a parent level.