Chapter 4: Latino Fathers and Their Involvement in Their Children’s Schooling

Although there is a significant amount of research that demonstrates that fathers play an important role in their children’s lives (Lamb, 2004), there still is less attention on ethnic and racial minority fathers in North America (Chuang & Tamis-LeMonda, 2009; Downer, Campos, McWayne, & Gartner, 2008). This is particularly the case for Latino families (see Campos, 2008; Chuang & Moreno, 2008). This is unfortunate given that Latinos are the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the in the United States. For example, between 2000 and 2009, the U.S. population increased by approximately 9% as compared to 37% for the Latino population.