About the program

Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered aims to enhance the social-emotional wellbeing, sport skills and physical activity of primary school-aged girls and strengthen the involvement and engagement fathers have with their daughters. 

Program structure

Dads-only workshop

Fathers (or father-figures) attend an initial session learning proven parenting strategies to improve their daughters’ social-emotional well-being, sports skills and physical activity levels. Fathers also learn about the unique and powerful influence dads have on their daughter and parenting strategies to encourage gender equity and empower daughters (2-hour session).

Daughters and dads Sessions  

Daughters and dads spend quality time together participating in eight weekly fun, engaging and educational physical activity and sport skill sessions (8 x 90-minute sessions). These sessions include:

• 30-minute empowerment session that focuses on a different theme each week (e.g. physical activity, sport skills, female role models, screentime). Sessions also focus on developing key social and emotional skills for girls including persistence, resilience, and bravery.  
• 60-minute practical component focusing on 3 key areas: 
  • rough and tumble Play
  • sport skills
  • fitness.

These 3 areas each have a strong evidence base for optimising the physical and mental health of girls, but dads also benefit.

For further information visit the Daughters and Dads website.

Evaluation and effectiveness

The Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered program has demonstrated positive outcomes through various evaluations including 2 randomised controlled trials. Results from university-based pilot and community-based trials showed that daughters in the program made improvements in physical activity, sport skills, screentime use and social-emotional wellbeing (Morgan et al., 2019; Morgan et al., 2022; Young, 2019) when compared to participants in control groups. There was also evidence that daughter-father relationships improved more for program participants (Young, 2019).

Note: The Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered program was rebranded in 2020, it was formerly known as Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered (DADEE). 

References

Morgan, P.J., Young, M.D., Barnes, A.T., Eather, N., Pollock, E.R. & Lubans, D.R. (2019) Engaging Fathers to Increase Physical Activity in Girls: The "Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered" (DADEE) Randomized Controlled Trial. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 53(1), 39-52. 

Morgan, P.J., Rayward, A.T., Young, M.D., Pollock, E.R., Eather, N., Barnes, A.T., Kennedy, S.L., Saunders, K.L., Drew,  R.J., & Lubans DR. (2022). Establishing Effectiveness of a Community-based, Physical Activity Program for Fathers and Daughters: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 56(7), 698-711.

Young, M.D., Lubans, D.R., Barnes, A.T., Eather, N., Pollock, E.R., Morgan, P.J. (2019). Impact of a Father-Daughter Physical Activity Program on Girls' Social-Emotional Well-being: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(3), 294-307