Frequently Asked Questions

What are the major therapeutic goals of Caring Dads?

Who comes to Caring Dads?

Who developed Caring Dads?

What are the major therapeutic goals of Caring Dads?

There are five major therapeutic goals of the Caring Dads program. These are:

1. To develop sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering

Fathers often enter the Caring Dads program with considerable hesitation. Many are not sure that they want or need to be involved in a group such as this. An initial goal, then, is to engage men in the process of examining their own behaviour and considering whether the way they parent may contribute to difficulties they are having relating to their children. After setting ground rules for the group process, men explore where they have learned to be a father, and what lessons they have been taught. They also reflect on hopes that they have for the relationship between them and their child.

2. To increase men's awareness of child-centred fathering

The next goal of the Caring Dads program is to explore healthy, child-centred ways of relating to children. Educational material on stages of child development is provided. Men are asked to consider how well they nurture and praise their children and balance their own needs with those of their children.

3. To increase men's awareness of, and responsibility for, abusive and neglectful fathering and its impact on children

After exploring healthy methods of relating to children, men are challenged to consider abusive and neglectful parenting methods. Broad definitions of abuse and neglect are used - so the behaviours such as emotional neglect, intimidation, name-calling and exposing children to partner abuse are included in our definition of child maltreatment. Men explore thoughts and feelings that commonly support the use abusive and neglectful behaviour and consider the effect of these behaviours on children.

Men are then encouraged to apply the lessons they have learned about healthy and abusive fathering to their relationship with their own children. Cognitive-behavioural methods are used to help men "unpack" their behaviour choices in relating to their children.

4. Applying skills of child-centred parenting

The next goal concerns developing healthier father-child relationships. Focus is on supporting change in men's attitudes and beliefs. For example, the Caring Dads program teaches that a key parenting skill is understanding and having empathy for children's experiences of unhealthy parenting. Other key skills are: supporting children's mothers; having clear and consistent boundaries around adult problems and issues; and engaging in appropriate modelling.

Child management is also a challenging issue for many fathers. In the Caring Dads program, emphasis is placed on the need for men to develop a healthy relationship with their children prior to learning addition strategies to alter child misbehaviour. In addition, time is spent teaching men skills for managing child misbehaviour. There are four main aspects to the development of this skill - recognizing that children are sometimes frustrating, self- control, planning for child misbehaviour, and developing non-abusive strategies for challenging child-management situations.

5. Rebuilding trust and planning for the future

The final goal of the Caring Dads program is to help men appreciate the time it takes to change relationship patterns. Fathers sometimes feel that they have begun to interact differently with their children, but that their children are not reciprocating. We discuss reasons that children may take some time to trust changes in men's fathering and strategies that men can use to facilitate greater trust.

Who comes to Caring Dads?

Many fathers are likely to benefit from participation in this program, but in particular, we are seeking men whose relationship with their children is problematic. This may include over-controlling, over-involved, distant and/or irresponsible, emotionally abusive fathers or fathers who have hostile, highly conflictual, or abusive relationships with children's mothers. Men are not eligible for the Caring Dads group if a primary concern is men's perpetration of child sexual abuse. Further screening and final decisions around group suitability are done via a clinical intake interview.

In addition, to be eligible for the program, men must have some regular contact with their children. Within these guidelines, each community sets specific criteria for referral to Caring Dads. Please contact the Caring Dads program in your community for additional information.

Who developed Caring Dads?

Dr. Katreena Scott
Katreena Scott, Ph.D. is the lead developer and Principle Investigator on the Caring Dads program. Katreena is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology. She has been a clinical service provider and researcher in the anti-violence field for over 10 years. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the development of violent relationships, the efficacy of service to male batterers, the effect of abuse and trauma on children and on empirically and ethically sound practices for working with abusive fathers. Dr. Scott is also a trained clinical psychologist and has worked with child, adolescent and adult victims and perpetrators of abuse and violence.

Dr. Claire Crooks
Claire Crooks, Ph.D. is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program. Claire is a Clinical Research Scientist at the Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children of the University of Western Ontario. She has expertise in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs to prevent and address child abuse and family violence. Claire is also a clinical psychologist, and her professional work currently includes conducting high conflict custody and access assessments, child welfare assessments and victim impact assessments, and co-facilitating groups for divorcing families. Claire frequently publishes articles and chapters on various aspects of violence prevention and intervention.

Tim Kelly
Tim Kelly is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program and is the Executive Director of Changing Ways, London, Inc., the lead agency for the Caring Dads program. As lead agency, Changing Ways co-ordinates implementation of the Caring Dads program in London, develops policies for the involvement of other agency partners, provides training to potential group facilitators and hosts meetings of the lead Caring Dads Advisory Council. Changing Ways has a history of work with abusive and at-risk men around ending violence that goes back over 20 years.

Karen Francis
Karen is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program. She is also taking a lead role on researching the utility of self-report and interview measures in assessing maltreating fathers. She is currently in the fourth year of her PhD. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, researching the psychophysiological and cognitive characteristics of abusive as compared to nonabusive fathers.

Michele Paddon
Michele Paddon is the Project Coordinator for the Caring Dads program. She is working with this project after having been seconded from the Child Witness to Domestic Violence program at the London and Middlesex Children's Aid Society. Michele brings to her work a wealth of experience in working with women and children victims of violence and in coordinating the development of new intervention programs.

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Why isn't more time spent teaching fathers strategies to change child misbehaviour?

In the Caring Dads program, we do indeed talk with men about child misbehaviour. However, unlike many parenting programs that teach a set of strategies to use when children misbehave, we encourage program participants to think more broadly about their relationship with their children. We do this because we believe that a parent can only be effective in managing child misbehaviour in the longer term if he has developed a strong and healthy emotional connection with his child. It is this relationship that forms the foundation necessary for effective discipline.

The diagram we use to represent this is the "Compliance Pyramid".

The pyramid model is a representation of the layers and factors that contribute to whether a child does or does not respond to a specific request or instruction in a way that a parent desires. The point of the pyramid analogy is that child compliance is multi-determined and that factors not immediate to the situation have a large role in determining child compliance. In other words, parents need to build up to child compliance layer by layer, starting with a good relationship, moving to positive beliefs, and so on. Even great parenting skills and child management strategies (top layers of pyramid) will not be effective if the bottom of the pyramid are eroded - if the quality of relationship between fathers and their children is poor. For this reason, in Caring Dads more time is spent building fathers' relationship with their children and exploring their beliefs than on developing immediate solutions for child management challenges.

Wouldn't mothers benefit from this program as well? Why do you only service fathers?

We have decided to focus our intervention efforts on fathers alone because there is a general lack of parenting programs available to men. It is our belief that fathers can and often do play a very important role in their children's development and that programs should be available to help men improve their parenting.