Trajectories of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement in late childhood: Effects of fathers' time and energy.

Parental self-efficacy beliefs develop over time. Most research, however, has focused mainly on the trajectories and predictors of trajectories of maternal self-efficacy, while little is known about those of paternal self-efficacy. This study examined the change in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement during children's elementary school period, analyzing whether the change is influenced by fathers' long working hours (i.e., work hours on workdays and work hours on nonworkdays) and fathers' perceptions of time and energy. Data from 1,684 Chinese fathers of fourth grade children were collected every half year for two-and-a-half consecutive years. The results of a latent growth curve analysis revealed that paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement increased over the elementary school period. Fathers' working hours on nonworkdays were negatively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement, but this negative effect was nonsignificant after fathers' perceived time and energy were added to the final model. Fathers' perceived time and energy were positively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement and negatively associated with the growth rate of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement. The findings advance the theory of parental self-efficacy, underlining the need to consider fathers' perceived time and energy to understand changes in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).