The emotionally intelligent father: the experience of planning and facilitating a fathers’ peer support group at Familia ry with the development of participants’ emotional self-awareness skills

Abstract

This thesis development project based took into consideration the Finnish social context, in which it is expected that fathers further involve in children’s care as a way of balancing responsibilities between both parents, promoting non-discrimination and equality in working life, and also reducing pay differences between sexes.

Concerning that background, a gap was identified between the social expectations and the actual availability of emotional skills that men have to engage in their fatherhood role. Hence, the project development aimed at supporting fathers in improving their emotional intelligence, which can lead to further emotional involvement with children’s care. An increase in participants’ wellbeing was also expected.

The project was developed and implemented in partnership with Familia ry, and thus fathers reached by its networking were the target group. As a result, a peer support group was planned and carried out in a total of 7 sessions between April and May 2022. The meetings were led considering the development of tools and discussions focusing on raising emotional self-awareness among participants while discussing common issues related to fatherhood. Emotional Intelligence and Nonviolent Communication were the main frameworks developed within the sessions.

The tools and discussions lead to high sharing engagement of peers during the meetings. Fathers reported having further understanding and a new awareness of the importance of recognizing emotions while developing further their fatherhood. Participants’ feedback was collected through individual and group discussions. Recommendations were made and discussed with the partner organization so that participants’ needs could be better addressed in future projects.