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Journal Article Although a number of socioeconomic forces have converged across cultures to make fathering one of the more prominent social issues of the new millennium, the status of substance-abusing men as fathers is rarely acknowledged in the conceptualization of public policy, service delivery or research focusing on the adverse consequences of drug and alcohol abuse. In this commentary, the authors call for the substance abuse research community to expand understanding of fathering occurring across cultures in the context of chronic substance abuse. Building upon research being undertaken with other…
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Journal Article Our study examined variations in adolescent adjustment as a function of maternal and paternal parenting styles. Participants included 272 students in grades 9 and 11 from a public high school in a metropolitan area of the Northeastern US. Participants completed measures of maternal and paternal parenting styles and indices of psychological adjustment. Authoritative mothering was found to relate to higher self-esteem and life-satisfaction and to lower depression. Paternal parenting styles was also related to psychological adjustment, however, although the advantage of authoritative mothering…
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Journal Article We identify explanatory risk variables associated with the co-occurrence of two problem behaviors: juvenile offending and adolescent fatherhood. Data were gathered from a 5-year prospective, longitudinal study of 531 incarcerated juvenile offenders as they transitioned from youth correction facilities back into the community. Of the total sample, 125 (28.3%) of the male participants reported fatherhood before their 20th birthday. Six risk variables were predictive of adolescent fatherhood in this sample: (a) gang member, (b) resided with non-biological parent as primary caretaker, (c) low SES…
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Journal Article This article explores the cultural construction of fatherhood in America, as well as the consequences of this construction as a motivator for understudying fathers--especially father love--for nearly a century in developmental and family research. It then reviews evidence from 6 categories of empirical studies showing the powerful influence of fathers' love on children's and young adults' social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning. Much of this evidence suggests that the influence of father love on offspring's development is as great as and occasionally greater than the…
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Journal Article This research represents an exploration of patterns of boundary ambiguity among poor, young, unmarried men and their reproductive partners. Interviews were conducted with men and their partners during the third trimester of pregnancy. Interviews focused on patterns of men's physical and psychological presence in relationships with their partners and in activities associated with pregnancy and prenatal care. Patterns of presence among fathers-to-be are identified and factors associated with those patterns are explored. Patterns of presence reflect degrees of physical and psychological presence…
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Journal Article There has been a growing recognition of the need to provide appropriate intervention services to fathers who have been abusive in their families. This paper highlights four specific treatment goals for fathers who maltreat their children, along with therapeutic strategies necessary to accomplish desired outcomes. These goals were developed as part of the Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value Their Children program and include: (a) developing sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering; (b) increasing men's awareness and application of child-centered…
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Journal Article Using panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households (n = 844), we examine the impact of divorce on father-child relationship quality and fathers' psychological well-being, the extent to which the residence of a focal child moderates these associations, and how changes in the quality of the father-child relationship over time affect fathers' psychological well-being. Results indicate that the effect of divorce on the quality of the father-child relationship and fathers' psychological well-being is moderated by the residence of children. Divorce is associated with lower…
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Journal Article Family practitioners who provide divorce education programs should be aware that a child in a sole-custody household (especially one headed by the father) is highly likely to lack insurance coverage for access to health care services for healthy development. Examining 543 divorce records in New Hampshire, the author analyzed coverage across divergent family types following custody negotiations and found that a child in a sole-custody household was at higher risk for lacking coverage than was one in a shared-custody household. These results were confirmed by a chi-square test and logical…
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Journal Article Group parent-training interventions for the treatment and prevention of externalizing problems in young children have been empirically validated almost exclusively with mother-only groups or with groups where the majority of participants are mothers. One reason for this focus has been the difficulty in attracting fathers to parent-training groups. In order to examine the idea that father-only groups would produce high rates of acceptance and attendance among fathers, we randomly assigned 39 ethnic minority fathers of 3 to 5-year-old children attending Head Start preschool either to an 8-week…
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Journal Article Despite efforts made by management and caseworkers to promote active parental participation in the protective context, fathers or other male figures are often brushed aside from intervention. This paper presents the results of qualitative research on methods used by youth protection caseworkers (n = 22) working with stepfather families. The main objective is to identify items that encourage or discourage stepfather involvement in psychosocial interventions. Results showed that certain items do not apply solely to stepfathers, but influence youth protection caseworker decision-making from a…
