Prenatal readiness for fatherhood, paternal engagement, and child social-emotional competence.

The present study utilized a person-centered approach to identify profiles of prenatal readiness for parenthood among a sample of 126 unmarried Black American fathers living in the southeastern United States. Further, prenatal readiness for fatherhood profiles were examined as predictors of distal outcomes of both paternal engagement in early infancy and socioemotional competence in toddlerhood. Expectant fathers reported prenatally on a series of intrapersonal, relational, and contextual variables indicative of their preparation for fatherhood. Fathers also reported on their paternal engagement in early infancy when children were 3-6 months of age. Mothers reported on children's socioemotional competence when they were approximately 12-18 months old. A latent profile analysis revealed three distinct readiness for fatherhood profiles defined as high readiness, mixed readiness, and low readiness based on expectant Black American fathers' prenatal parenting self-efficacy, desire for children, beliefs about the paternal role, interparental relationship quality, caregiving sensitivity in the family of origin, and economic distress. Results indicated that children of fathers in the high readiness profile showed more optimal socioemotional competence compared to children whose fathers were in the low and mixed readiness profiles. Indirect effects from profile membership to socioemotional competence via paternal engagement were not supported, but fathers in the low readiness profile did engage in less caregiving with their children relative to fathers in other profiles. Although mediating mechanisms remain unclear, findings suggest heterogeneity in unmarried Black American fathers' patterns of readiness for parenting in the prenatal period, with implications for children's early socioemotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).