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Journal Article The public health impact of evidence-based, preventive parenting interventions has been severely constrained by low rates of participation when interventions are delivered under natural conditions. It is critical that prevention scientists develop effective and feasible parent engagement methods. This study tested video-based methods for engaging parents into an evidence-based program for divorcing parents. Three alternative versions of a video were created to test the incremental effectiveness of different theory-based engagement strategies based on social influence and health behavior…
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Journal Article The article presents a study conducted in the United States that examines variation in the effects of nonresident father involvement on child well being. The data for this analysis was taken from the child supplement to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). In addition to annual interviews with the respondents, data on the children of the NLSY women were collected in 1986 and 1988. The study focuses on children who we living in households with their mothers and had a father living elsewhere in 1988. The children who were assessed tend to be born to younger mothers, and this is…
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Journal Article Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and…
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Journal Article Objectives. Because of their youth, adolescent parents often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to manage the relationship challenges involved in parenting, leaving them and their children vulnerable to the health risks associated with relational stress and conflict. The primary goal of this study was to test the efficacy of the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), a 10-week counseling program administered during pregnancy and designed to facilitate interpersonal skill development and positive parenting among adolescent parents. Methods. Participants included 105 pregnant adolescents and…
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Journal Article Purpose -- Because the concurrent nature of chronic drug abuse (DA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) is frequently ignored in research examining the correlates of the two conditions, the purpose of this paper is designed to document differences in parenting behavior associated with a history of DA vs a history of IPV in fathers. Design/methodology/approach -- An ethnically diverse sample of 91 opioid-dependent fathers receiving methadone maintenance treatment and a demographically similar group of 111 fathers living in the same community with no history of alcohol or DA since the birth of…
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Journal Article With a large and growing share of American families now forming outside of marriage, triangular infant-mother-father relationship systems in "fragile families" have begun to attract the interest of family scholars and clinicians. A relatively novel conceptualization has concerned the feasibility of intervening to support the development of a sustained and positive coparenting alliance between mothers and fathers who have not made an enduring relationship commitment to one another. At this point in time, there are very few published outcome studies of programs explicitly conceived to help…
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Journal Article Purpose: To identify contextual and interpersonal factors that distinguish families in which the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment is maintained from families in which the cycle is broken. Methods: The sample was composed of 1,116 families in the United Kingdom who participated in the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study. We assessed mother's childhood history of maltreatment retrospectively with a validated and reliable interview. Prospective reports of children's physical maltreatment were collected repeatedly up to 12 years. We compared families in which…
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Journal Article Purpose: Harsh, abusive, and rejecting behavior by parents toward their children is associated with increased risk for many developmental problems for youth. Earlier research also shows that children raised by harsh parents are more likely to treat their own children harshly. The present study evaluated nurturing and supportive behaviors of spouses or cohabiting romantic partners hypothesized to strengthen co-parent relationships and help break this intergenerational cycle of harsh parenting. Methods: Data come from the Family Transitions Project, a 22-year, 3-generation study of a cohort of…
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Journal Article A father's participation in a child's life has been regarded as a significant factor in the enhancement of a couple's relationship. Although the investigations between paternal behavior and marital satisfaction come with mixed results, they clearly link the concepts of maternal and paternal role expectations to paternal behavior, which can be also moderated by earner status, child's gender, and traditional versus contemporary role expectations. Research needs to focus on examining how individuals' perceptions of role expectations relate to fathers' actual parenting behavior. Therefore, a…
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Journal Article Involving caregivers in their children's services often is assumed to make the delivery of child-focused services more effective. We examined the relation of caregiver involvement in children's early intervention programs (EIPs) with caregiver-child interaction. Participants were 99 low-income single caregivers whose children ( 40 months old) were enrolled in EIPs that provided opportunities for caregiver involvement. The results confirmed that caregivers who were more engaged with the programs (as rated by program staff) were more likely to demonstrate more responsiveness in interactions…
