Parental Identity, Experiences of Stress, and Father Involvement

Project background

The vast majority of international parent-child studies focus primarily on children who are physically and psychologically age-appropriate, i.e., those without a permanent developmental impairment or disorder. In Germany, for example, developmental psychology research involving children with disabilities remains the exception, despite the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations 2006) having been ratified in 2009. Another limitation is that in child- and family-related research projects—especially those focusing on early childhood—the mother-child dyad serves as the more or less exclusive unit of analysis. This narrowing of focus—which is sometimes driven by research efficiency considerations—is reflected in practice by mothers’ experiences of feeling overwhelmed and overburdened (Sarimski 2016). In contrast, the proportion of studies that systematically include fathers as primary caregivers is comparatively low (Huber 2024, Bakermans‐Kranenburg et al. 2019, Cowan/Cowan 2019). This is even more true for the paternal perspective in families of children with disabilities. Accordingly, international reviews identify studies involving fathers of children in this vulnerable target group as a significant research gap that needs to be addressed (e.g., Brown/Aytuglu 2020, Sarimski 2020). The development-promoting and potentially protective effects of fathers on children with a developmental disorder or disability have not yet been addressed or investigated in German-language research (Huber 2026). 

Project objective

This descriptive and exploratory analysis aims to provide the first-ever overview of the family situations of fathers of children with developmental disabilities in Germany by examining their general attitudes toward caregiving and paternal involvement, their subjective experience of stress, and their actual level of involvement in daily life, and to uncover possible correlations between these dimensions.

Project procedure

In an internet-based pilot study—the first of its kind in Germany—descriptive findings are being collected on identity processes, experiences of stress, and fathers’ involvement in the care of children with disabilities. These results are compared, first, with existing data from (inter)national publications on maternal caregivers, and second, with self-reported data from a parallel survey of fathers of children with age-appropriate development. 

Approval from the ethics committee was obtained prior to data collection (GEHBa-202508-V-374-R).

The pilot study was also pre-registered at https://osf.io/.

Innovation

Given the comparatively higher overall stress levels experienced by families with children with disabilities (BMAS 2022), closing the described research gap regarding fathers’ perspectives—from a family systems and, ultimately, a preventive standpoint—is urgently needed to stabilize existing family structures despite long-term stressors. Building on the empirical evidence generated in the project, policy recommendations and practical measures for the support and counseling of families by institutions (e.g., in the field of interdisciplinary early intervention) will be derived.