Project Fatherhood (SM): News Article: Calling All Dads: Project Fatherhood Featured in APA Monitor

April 22, 2010

Calling All Dads: Project Fatherhood Featured in APA Monitor

Project Fatherhood and its founder, Hershel K. Swinger, PhD, are prominently featured in the April issue of APA Monitor, the professional magazine of the American Psychological Association.

In “It’s Father’s Day” by Washington, DC-based writer Rebecca A. Clay, one researcher observes that while about a third of child-maltreatment cases involve fathers, the majority of parenting programs aimed at child abuse intervention and prevention focus on mothers. Another behavorial scientist notes that the current body of existing parenting-program research contains little data on fathers. But that is changing with the advent of a number of father-centered programs, writes Clay.

With psychologists across the country now reaching out to dads as heretofore untapped resources, Project Fatherhood is highlighted as one program that goes “beyond practical parenting skills to address the deep-seated factors behind child maltreatent.”

“[The father] needs to process those things that happened to him and make sure he doesn’t repeat them with his own children,” says Dr. Swinger. “Another issue we cover is distinguishing between discipline and abuse — that discipline is to teach and abuse is for the abuser.”

There are no quick fixes, the article suggests. For example, fathers are often reluctant to admit they have a problem in the first place. But when asked to focus on their children, they are more likely to become engaged and make a concerted, long-term investment in the process.

It’s Dr. Swinger’s hope that, like other programs featured in the article, Project Fatherhood will help fathers become a strong resource that reaches beyond their own families. “I’d love to have people call upon the fatherhood groups instead of calling the police,” he says. “I’d like for there to be one on every corner.”

Read the entire Monitor article here.

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