Being a father during the space career: Retired cosmonauts' involvement

The space career requires numerous absences from the cosmonaut's family during training and spaceflight. Such absences mean missing important milestones, events, and celebrations in the lives of their children. This study assesses retired cosmonauts' views of actual and desired involvement with their children during their spaceflight career. The Father Involvement Scale (adapted from Finley & Schwartz, 2004; Hawkins et al., 2002), translated into Russian, was answered by 17 retired cosmonauts. The 20 domains in the scale included 10 Expressive (e.g., intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual development; sharing activities and interests) and 10 Instrumental (e.g., providing income, being protective, discipline, school/homework, and developing responsibility, independence, and competence). The cosmonauts' ratings of actual involvement with their children's lives was between Sometimes involved and Often involved (M = 3.66, SD = 0.42). None of the cosmonauts indicated Never involved for any of the Expressive domains or for seven of the ten Instrumental domains. Within the Expressive domains, the majority of cosmonauts said they were “often” involved in their child's spiritual development and in sharing activities/interests. Within the Instrumental domains, they were “often” involved in discipline and “always” involved in providing income. The areas in which they wished they had been “much more involved” than they had been were Expressive, rather than Instrumental: intellectual, spiritual, and physical development; sharing activities/interests, and companionship. This is the first study to measure retrospective assessments of father involvement during spaceflight careers. Space agencies should consider how Family Support personnel can enhance the parental involvement of future spacefarers. •Retired cosmonauts were highly involved fathers during their space career.•Looking back, they wished they had been even more involved as fathers.•Instrumental activities (e.g., provide funds, help with homework) were important.•But expressive aspects (e.g., companionship, shared interests) were desired more.