Research framework: It is now well documented that fathers are more involved than before in the care and education of their children, even if these involvements are not monolithic and depend on many contextual and internal family factors. In addition, the relationships that develop between fathers and childcare professionals are still a matter of debate.

Objectives: This article aims to understand the conceptions and representations that fathers have of their role based on a qualitative survey conducted in French-speaking Belgium. The objective was to learn how they perceive their involvement as fathers and their relationships with medical and social support professionals.

Methodology: In French-speaking Belgium, a survey of 21 fathers of young children was conducted through semi-structured interviews. The analysis was based on comprehensive narratives and portraits whose convergences and divergences were identified to reconstitute ideal types.

Results: Based on the interviews analysis, the authors outline four ideal types of paternal involvement, while highlighting the associated expectations of professional intervention.

Conclusions: Faced with the rise in paternal involvement and the diversity of the forms it takes, it is essential for early childhood professionals to question the representations that fathers have of their role and of the relationship they wish to maintain with them.

Contribution: This article sheds light on the diversity of fathers’ points of view today in French-speaking Belgium concerning their paternal involvement, and questions the degree of adequacy or inadequacy between the system of varied expectations on the part of fathers and the way professionals are likely to respond to them.

• fatherhood
• parental involvement
• paternal identity
• paternal assessment
• Healthcare professional
• therapeutic relationship
• parental support
• Belgium

https://journals.openedition.org/efg/16074