Reliability of the Fathering Role Perception Scale in a Turkish Sample: A Meta-Analysis
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Abstract
Background: The Father Role Perception Scale (FRPS) is a widely used tool to assess fathers' perceptions of their parenting roles. Understanding the consistency of its measurement across different studies is crucial for reliable interpretation of research findings.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search identified 317 studies on fathering roles. Applying inclusion criteria, 32 studies with 9,987 participants were selected for meta-analysis. Cronbach's alpha coefficients, an indicator of internal consistency reliability, were extracted from each study and analyzed to determine the overall reliability of the FRPS.
Results: The meta-analysis revealed an average Cronbach's alpha value of 0.80 for the FRPS, indicating generally acceptable reliability. However, variability in reliability was observed across studies, potentially attributable to sample characteristics, data collection methods, or cultural differences.
Conclusion: While the FRPS demonstrates acceptable reliability for assessing fathers' perceptions of their parenting roles, researchers should conduct reliability analyses within their specific study groups and consider potential influencing factors when interpreting results. This meta-analysis contributes valuable information for researchers and practitioners in family and child health, aiding in the understanding of fatherhood experiences and the development of supportive programs.
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2. Lamb M E (2004). The role of the father in child development (Third Edition). Inc. John Wiley and Sons.
3. Kilic S, Senol D (2025). From Traditional Fatherhood to New Fatherhood; Fa-thers' Participation in Child Care. Anka-ra University Journal of Social Sciences, 16(1): 166-181.
4. Salci O (2020). Investigation of the effect of father support training programme on the perception of fatherhood role and the development of play skills of children receiving preschool education. (Mas-ter's Thesis). Karabuk University Institu-te of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development and Education, Ka-rabuk.
5. Turkoglu D, Gultekin-Akduman G (2016). Examining the relationship between fathers' perception of fatherhood role and their children's social skills. BSJ Pub Soc Sci, 7(3): 223-40.
6. Telli AA, Ozkan H (2016). Fatherhood role perception of fathers with children aged 3-6 years and determination of affecting factors. Izmir Dr Behçet Uz Children's Hos-pital Journal, 6(2): 127-34. doi:10.5222/buchd.2016.127
7. Aksoy A, Tatli S (2019). Examining the rela-tionship between fatherhood role per-ception and fatherhood involvement of fathers with preschool children in terms of some variables. Çankırı Karatekin Uni-versity Journal of Institute of Social Sciences, 10(1): 1-22.
8. Deles B, Kaytez N (2020). Examining the relationship between fathers' perception of fatherhood role and father involve-ment status of fathers with preschool children. Ekev Academy Journal, 84: 101-116.
9. Betawi IA, Jabbar SKA, Al-Jabery MA, Zaza HI, Al-Shboul M (2014). Father involve-ment with three-to-four-year-olds at home: giving fathers a chance. Early Child Development and Care, 184(12): 1992-2003.
10. Ruíz MMR, Carrasco MÁ, Holgado-Tello FP (2016). Father involvement and chil-dren’s psychological adjustment: mater-nal and paternal acceptance as media-tors. J Family Stud, 1–19.
11. Sary MP, Turnip SS (2015). Attitude differ-ence between fathers and mothers to-ward fathers' involvement in child rear-ing activities among couples with 0-12 months old babies. Community based study in a primary health care setting. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 190: 92-96.
12. Peksen Akca R, Baran G (2022). Validity and Reliability Study of the Greenspan Social Emotional Growth Chart (Gsegc) For Infants Aged 24-30 Months. Journal of Inonu University Vocational School of Health Services, 10(2): 422-437. https://doi.org/10.33715/inonusaglik.1108876
13. Uribe-Morales BM, Cantero-Garlito PA, Cipriano-Crespo C (2022). Fathers in the care of children with disabilities: An ex-ploratory qualitative study. Healthcare (Ba-sel), 10(1): 14. doi:10.3390/healthcare10010014
14. Peksen Akca R (2022). Examination of the Master’s Theses on the Role of Father-hood in Türkiye. International Social Scienc-es Studies Journal, 8(98), 1578-1583. http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/sssj. 62166
15. Dicle AN (2018). The effect of father sup-port training programme on father in-volvement. Social Sciences Studies Journal, 4(26): 5687-5696.
16. Kuzucu E (1999). Comparison of the perceptions of the fathering role of adolescents with high and low conflict levels with their fathers. (Master's Thesis). Ankara University Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara.
17. Demir E, Oz S, Aral N, Gursoy FA (2024). Reliability generalization meta-analysis of the mother-to-infant bonding scale. Psychol Rep, 127(1): 447-464.
18. Greco LM, O'Boyle EH, Cockburn BS, and Yuan Z (2018). Meta-analysis of coeffi-cient alpha: A reliability generalization study. Journal of Management Studies, 55(4): 583-618.
19. Sen S (2021). A reliability generalization meta-analysis of Runco ideational be-havior scale. Creativity Research Journal, 34(2): 1-17.
20. Zhu J, Deneault AA, Turgeon J, Madigan S (2025). Caregiver and child adverse childhood experiences: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 155(2): e2024068578.
21. Sa ́nchez-Meca J, Mar ́in-Mart ́inez F, López-López JA, et al (2021). Improving the reporting quality of reliability gener-alization meta-analyses: The REGEMA checklist. Res Synth Methods, 12(4): 516–536.
22. Borenstein M, Hedges LV, Higgins JP, Rothstein HR (2013). Introduction to meta-analysis. UK: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9780470743386.
23. Ugur S (2020). Examining the fatherhood role of fathers with 0-8 years old children: Siirt sample. (Master's Thesis). Istanbul University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Istanbul.
24. Dogan E (2024). Examining the perception of fatherhood role and father involvement levels of fathers with 3-6 years old children in terms of various variables. (Master's Thesis). Istanbul Commerce University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Family Coun-selling and Education, Istanbul.
25. Gul S (2019). Investigation of the perceptions of parents with children aged 3-6 years about fat-herhood role and their views on the adequacy of fatherhood role. (Master's Thesis). Hacettepe University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Ankara.
26. Tarsuslu B, Sahin A, Akcay S, Durat G (2024). Reflections of Covid-19 pande-mic on fatherhood role: A mixed met-hod research. Health and Society, 34(2): 134-147.
27. Pekkaras E (2010). Investigation of the relations-hip between child rearing attitudes of fathers of 3-6 year old children and their level of participa-tion in education. (Master's Thesis). Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir.
28. Aksungur I, Cakir Aksungur F (2023). Fat-herhood perceptions of fathers caring for children between the ages of 3-15 during the pandemic process. Kirsehir Ahi Evran University Journal of Health Scien-ces, 7(3): 185-195.
29. Celik UC, Bilir R, Cantali SC, Kalayci E (2023). Evaluation of fathers' percepti-ons of paternal role in generation X, Y and Z in terms of some socio-demographic variables. Journal of Theory and Practice in Health Services, 4(1): 5-15.
30. Sahin H, Demiriz S (2014). Examining the relationship between fathers with five and six year old children's perception of fatherhood role and their realisation of family involvement activities. Turkish Journal of Social Research, 181(181): 273-294.
31. Ozkan H (2021). Investigation of Self-Esteem in Secondary School Age Ac-cording to Gender, Class Level, Father Role Perception and Education Level. OPUS International Journal of Society Studies, 17(35): 1755-1784.
32. Poyraz M (2007). Examining the relationship between fathers‘ perceptions of fatherhood role and their own parents’ attitudes. (Master's Thesis). Gazi University, Ankara.
33. Kurucirak S (2010). The relationship between fat-hers with 4-12 months old babies, fatherhood ro-le perception and participation in infant care. (Master's Thesis). Akdeniz University Institute of Health Sciences, Antalya.
34. Uzun PM (2019). Examining the mediating role of spouse support in the effect of fatherhood role perception on father involvement. (Master's Thesis). Selçuk University Institute of Social Sciences, Konya.
35. Beyazit U, Magden D (2015). Examining the relationship between extreme gen-der ideology and fatherhood role per-ception in male university students. Jour-nal of Social Sciences, 5(2): 207-225.
36. Semiz S, Oren M (2024). Father personality, father role perception and social beha-viours in preschool period: The media-ting role of father involvement. Anadolu University Journal of Education Faculty (AU-JEF), 8(1): 244-275.
37. Tarsuslu B, Sahin A, and Durat G (2022). Examining the relationship between COVID-19 phobia and fatherhood and male roles. Masculinities: A Journal of Cultu-re & Society, 17: 40-59.
38. Gonul G (2021). Role perception and family-centred care understanding of fathers whose child-ren aged 3-6 years in hospital. (Master's The-sis). Erciyes University Institute of He-alth Sciences, Department of Nursing, Kayseri.
39. Unlu B (2022). Investigation of children's emotion understanding skills in the context of fathers' perceptions of fatherhood role and emotion socia-lisation behaviours. (Master's Thesis). Kara-buk University Institute of Health Scien-ces, Department of Child Development and Education, Karabuk.
40. Demir M (2022). The effect of social media usage on the perception of fatherhood role of men with healthy children aged 0-6 years. (Medical Speciality Thesis). Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Health Practice and Research Centre, Family Medicine Clinic, Istanbul.
41. Kutluana O (2022). The effect of lifelong learning motivation of fathers with 4-6 years old preschool children on fatherhood role perception and evalu-ation of fathers' participation in education. (Master's Thesis). Bartin University Gra-duate School of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Bartin.
42. Aksoy H S (2022). Fathers' perception of father-hood role, attitude towards parenting and father involvement as a predictor of emotion regulation skills of 3-6 year old children. (Master's The-sis). Cukurova University Institute of So-cial Sciences, Department of Preschool Education, Adana.
43. Gokpinar G (2022). Investigation of the relati-onship between emotion regulation skills of fat-hers with children aged 3-6 years and perception of fatherhood role and emotion regulation skills of the child. (Master's Thesis). Çukurova University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Educational Sciences, Division of Psychological Counselling and Guidance, Adana.
44. Semiz S (2022). Investigation of preschool child-ren's social behaviours on the basis of father in-volvement and father-related variables. (Docto-ral dissertation). Anadolu University, Department of Preschool Education, Eskisehir.
45. Bolat FN (2022). Investigation of the prosocial behaviours of Turkish children attending presc-hool education institutions in Germany and their fathers' prosocial behaviours and father-hood role perceptions.(Master's Thesis). Gazi University Institute of Educational Sci-ences, Department of Child Develop-ment and Education, Ankara.
46. Sahin O (2023). Investigation of fathers' attach-ment styles to their own parents and their percep-tions of fatherhood role.(Master's Thesis). An-kara University Institute of Health Sci-ences, Department of Child Develop-ment, Ankara.
47. Avcibasi İM (2024). The effect of the training gi-ven according to the Roy adaptation model on the fatherhood role of the first-time fathers. (Doctoral dissertation). Trakya Univer-sity Institute of Health Sciences, De-partment of Nursing, Edirne.
48. Kose F (2024). Investigation of fathers‘ and grandfathers’ attitudes, fatherhood role percepti-ons and fathers' interest in their children. (Mas-ter's Thesis). Gazi University Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Basic Education, Division of Preschool Education, Ankara.
2. Lamb M E (2004). The role of the father in child development (Third Edition). Inc. John Wiley and Sons.
3. Kilic S, Senol D (2025). From Traditional Fatherhood to New Fatherhood; Fa-thers' Participation in Child Care. Anka-ra University Journal of Social Sciences, 16(1): 166-181.
4. Salci O (2020). Investigation of the effect of father support training programme on the perception of fatherhood role and the development of play skills of children receiving preschool education. (Mas-ter's Thesis). Karabuk University Institu-te of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development and Education, Ka-rabuk.
5. Turkoglu D, Gultekin-Akduman G (2016). Examining the relationship between fathers' perception of fatherhood role and their children's social skills. BSJ Pub Soc Sci, 7(3): 223-40.
6. Telli AA, Ozkan H (2016). Fatherhood role perception of fathers with children aged 3-6 years and determination of affecting factors. Izmir Dr Behçet Uz Children's Hos-pital Journal, 6(2): 127-34. doi:10.5222/buchd.2016.127
7. Aksoy A, Tatli S (2019). Examining the rela-tionship between fatherhood role per-ception and fatherhood involvement of fathers with preschool children in terms of some variables. Çankırı Karatekin Uni-versity Journal of Institute of Social Sciences, 10(1): 1-22.
8. Deles B, Kaytez N (2020). Examining the relationship between fathers' perception of fatherhood role and father involve-ment status of fathers with preschool children. Ekev Academy Journal, 84: 101-116.
9. Betawi IA, Jabbar SKA, Al-Jabery MA, Zaza HI, Al-Shboul M (2014). Father involve-ment with three-to-four-year-olds at home: giving fathers a chance. Early Child Development and Care, 184(12): 1992-2003.
10. Ruíz MMR, Carrasco MÁ, Holgado-Tello FP (2016). Father involvement and chil-dren’s psychological adjustment: mater-nal and paternal acceptance as media-tors. J Family Stud, 1–19.
11. Sary MP, Turnip SS (2015). Attitude differ-ence between fathers and mothers to-ward fathers' involvement in child rear-ing activities among couples with 0-12 months old babies. Community based study in a primary health care setting. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 190: 92-96.
12. Peksen Akca R, Baran G (2022). Validity and Reliability Study of the Greenspan Social Emotional Growth Chart (Gsegc) For Infants Aged 24-30 Months. Journal of Inonu University Vocational School of Health Services, 10(2): 422-437. https://doi.org/10.33715/inonusaglik.1108876
13. Uribe-Morales BM, Cantero-Garlito PA, Cipriano-Crespo C (2022). Fathers in the care of children with disabilities: An ex-ploratory qualitative study. Healthcare (Ba-sel), 10(1): 14. doi:10.3390/healthcare10010014
14. Peksen Akca R (2022). Examination of the Master’s Theses on the Role of Father-hood in Türkiye. International Social Scienc-es Studies Journal, 8(98), 1578-1583. http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/sssj. 62166
15. Dicle AN (2018). The effect of father sup-port training programme on father in-volvement. Social Sciences Studies Journal, 4(26): 5687-5696.
16. Kuzucu E (1999). Comparison of the perceptions of the fathering role of adolescents with high and low conflict levels with their fathers. (Master's Thesis). Ankara University Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara.
17. Demir E, Oz S, Aral N, Gursoy FA (2024). Reliability generalization meta-analysis of the mother-to-infant bonding scale. Psychol Rep, 127(1): 447-464.
18. Greco LM, O'Boyle EH, Cockburn BS, and Yuan Z (2018). Meta-analysis of coeffi-cient alpha: A reliability generalization study. Journal of Management Studies, 55(4): 583-618.
19. Sen S (2021). A reliability generalization meta-analysis of Runco ideational be-havior scale. Creativity Research Journal, 34(2): 1-17.
20. Zhu J, Deneault AA, Turgeon J, Madigan S (2025). Caregiver and child adverse childhood experiences: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 155(2): e2024068578.
21. Sa ́nchez-Meca J, Mar ́in-Mart ́inez F, López-López JA, et al (2021). Improving the reporting quality of reliability gener-alization meta-analyses: The REGEMA checklist. Res Synth Methods, 12(4): 516–536.
22. Borenstein M, Hedges LV, Higgins JP, Rothstein HR (2013). Introduction to meta-analysis. UK: John Wiley & Sons. doi:10.1002/9780470743386.
23. Ugur S (2020). Examining the fatherhood role of fathers with 0-8 years old children: Siirt sample. (Master's Thesis). Istanbul University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Istanbul.
24. Dogan E (2024). Examining the perception of fatherhood role and father involvement levels of fathers with 3-6 years old children in terms of various variables. (Master's Thesis). Istanbul Commerce University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Family Coun-selling and Education, Istanbul.
25. Gul S (2019). Investigation of the perceptions of parents with children aged 3-6 years about fat-herhood role and their views on the adequacy of fatherhood role. (Master's Thesis). Hacettepe University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Child Development, Ankara.
26. Tarsuslu B, Sahin A, Akcay S, Durat G (2024). Reflections of Covid-19 pande-mic on fatherhood role: A mixed met-hod research. Health and Society, 34(2): 134-147.
27. Pekkaras E (2010). Investigation of the relations-hip between child rearing attitudes of fathers of 3-6 year old children and their level of participa-tion in education. (Master's Thesis). Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir.
28. Aksungur I, Cakir Aksungur F (2023). Fat-herhood perceptions of fathers caring for children between the ages of 3-15 during the pandemic process. Kirsehir Ahi Evran University Journal of Health Scien-ces, 7(3): 185-195.
29. Celik UC, Bilir R, Cantali SC, Kalayci E (2023). Evaluation of fathers' percepti-ons of paternal role in generation X, Y and Z in terms of some socio-demographic variables. Journal of Theory and Practice in Health Services, 4(1): 5-15.
30. Sahin H, Demiriz S (2014). Examining the relationship between fathers with five and six year old children's perception of fatherhood role and their realisation of family involvement activities. Turkish Journal of Social Research, 181(181): 273-294.
31. Ozkan H (2021). Investigation of Self-Esteem in Secondary School Age Ac-cording to Gender, Class Level, Father Role Perception and Education Level. OPUS International Journal of Society Studies, 17(35): 1755-1784.
32. Poyraz M (2007). Examining the relationship between fathers‘ perceptions of fatherhood role and their own parents’ attitudes. (Master's Thesis). Gazi University, Ankara.
33. Kurucirak S (2010). The relationship between fat-hers with 4-12 months old babies, fatherhood ro-le perception and participation in infant care. (Master's Thesis). Akdeniz University Institute of Health Sciences, Antalya.
34. Uzun PM (2019). Examining the mediating role of spouse support in the effect of fatherhood role perception on father involvement. (Master's Thesis). Selçuk University Institute of Social Sciences, Konya.
35. Beyazit U, Magden D (2015). Examining the relationship between extreme gen-der ideology and fatherhood role per-ception in male university students. Jour-nal of Social Sciences, 5(2): 207-225.
36. Semiz S, Oren M (2024). Father personality, father role perception and social beha-viours in preschool period: The media-ting role of father involvement. Anadolu University Journal of Education Faculty (AU-JEF), 8(1): 244-275.
37. Tarsuslu B, Sahin A, and Durat G (2022). Examining the relationship between COVID-19 phobia and fatherhood and male roles. Masculinities: A Journal of Cultu-re & Society, 17: 40-59.
38. Gonul G (2021). Role perception and family-centred care understanding of fathers whose child-ren aged 3-6 years in hospital. (Master's The-sis). Erciyes University Institute of He-alth Sciences, Department of Nursing, Kayseri.
39. Unlu B (2022). Investigation of children's emotion understanding skills in the context of fathers' perceptions of fatherhood role and emotion socia-lisation behaviours. (Master's Thesis). Kara-buk University Institute of Health Scien-ces, Department of Child Development and Education, Karabuk.
40. Demir M (2022). The effect of social media usage on the perception of fatherhood role of men with healthy children aged 0-6 years. (Medical Speciality Thesis). Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Health Practice and Research Centre, Family Medicine Clinic, Istanbul.
41. Kutluana O (2022). The effect of lifelong learning motivation of fathers with 4-6 years old preschool children on fatherhood role perception and evalu-ation of fathers' participation in education. (Master's Thesis). Bartin University Gra-duate School of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Bartin.
42. Aksoy H S (2022). Fathers' perception of father-hood role, attitude towards parenting and father involvement as a predictor of emotion regulation skills of 3-6 year old children. (Master's The-sis). Cukurova University Institute of So-cial Sciences, Department of Preschool Education, Adana.
43. Gokpinar G (2022). Investigation of the relati-onship between emotion regulation skills of fat-hers with children aged 3-6 years and perception of fatherhood role and emotion regulation skills of the child. (Master's Thesis). Çukurova University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Educational Sciences, Division of Psychological Counselling and Guidance, Adana.
44. Semiz S (2022). Investigation of preschool child-ren's social behaviours on the basis of father in-volvement and father-related variables. (Docto-ral dissertation). Anadolu University, Department of Preschool Education, Eskisehir.
45. Bolat FN (2022). Investigation of the prosocial behaviours of Turkish children attending presc-hool education institutions in Germany and their fathers' prosocial behaviours and father-hood role perceptions.(Master's Thesis). Gazi University Institute of Educational Sci-ences, Department of Child Develop-ment and Education, Ankara.
46. Sahin O (2023). Investigation of fathers' attach-ment styles to their own parents and their percep-tions of fatherhood role.(Master's Thesis). An-kara University Institute of Health Sci-ences, Department of Child Develop-ment, Ankara.
47. Avcibasi İM (2024). The effect of the training gi-ven according to the Roy adaptation model on the fatherhood role of the first-time fathers. (Doctoral dissertation). Trakya Univer-sity Institute of Health Sciences, De-partment of Nursing, Edirne.
48. Kose F (2024). Investigation of fathers‘ and grandfathers’ attitudes, fatherhood role percepti-ons and fathers' interest in their children. (Mas-ter's Thesis). Gazi University Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Basic Education, Division of Preschool Education, Ankara.
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| Issue | Vol 54 No 7 (2025) | |
| Section | Review Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i7.19143 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Father role perception Father role perception scale (FRPS) Reliability Meta-analysis Reliability generalization | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Deleş B, Aral N. Reliability of the Fathering Role Perception Scale in a Turkish Sample: A Meta-Analysis. Iran J Public Health. 2025;54(7):1364-1376.
