This article discusses studies that provide the historical and contemporary patterns of father involvement in the USA to provide researchers with an understanding of contemporary fatherhood. It describes the historical patterns and research studies on father involvement that created methodological and conceptual challenges in conducting studies that characterize fathers. A number of frequent measurement approaches, challenges, and limitations that are found in their studies are presented and discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and practical applications that can guide researchers to improve their studies on fathers and to better understand the complexity of fatherhood. (Contains 1 note.)