red dot icon
Journal Article Despite mounting evidence on the importance of fathers in children’s development, evidence-based perinatal home visitation programs have largely overlooked fathers in the design and delivery of services. This paper describes the design, development, and pilot testing of the “Dads Matter” enhancement to standard home visiting services. Dads Matter is a manualized intervention package designed to fully incorporate fathers into perinatal home visiting services. Twenty-four families were enrolled in a pilot study to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of the…
red dot icon
Journal Article High-quality father involvement in childrearing is associated with positive child outcomes. Yet, variability between fathers in parenting quality remains. The present study examined associations between maternal gatekeeping and fathers’ observed parenting quality in 182 dual-earner families who transitioned to parenthood in 2008–2009. Maternal gatekeeping, or beliefs and behaviors that may serve to discourage (gate close) or encourage (gate open) father involvement in childrearing, was measured using fathers’ reports at 3- and 9-months postpartum. Fathers’ parenting quality was assessed…
red dot icon
Journal Article Despite high heritability, no research has followed children with ADHD to parenthood to study their offspring and parenting behaviors. Given greater prevalence of ADHD in males and lack of research involving fathers, this study evaluated offspring of fathers with and without ADHD histories for ADHD and disruptive behavior and compared fathers’ parenting behaviors. Male fathers (N = 29) from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS) participated with their preschool-aged offspring. Fathers completed self-reported measures, and father-child dyads completed an interaction task. ADHD…
Work requirements for key safety net programs are currently being discussed across the country. It is important that this debate be based on an understanding of what recipients need to meet those requirements and to successfully place themselves on a path toward self-sufficiency. Among those potentially subject to work requirements are low-income parents with limited education and low skills who need education and training to find and keep stable jobs. However, a lack of quality, affordable child care often stands in their way. To inform current policy deliberations, we have compiled…
Parents who are involved with child welfare services (CWSI) often have a history of childhood adversity and depressive symptoms. Both affect parenting quality, which in turn influences child adaptive functioning. We tested a model of the relations between parental depression and child regulatory outcomes first proposed by K. Lyons-Ruth, R. Wolfe, A. Lyubchik, and R. Steingard (2002). We hypothesized that both parental depression and parenting quality mediate the effects of parental early adversity on offspring regulatory outcomes. Participants were 123 CWSI parents and their toddlers assessed…
red dot icon
Journal Article Researchers have identified father absence as a contributor to juvenile delinquency. Consequently, politicians and community leaders are making efforts to re-engage fathers. However, it is possible that the presence of fathers is not, in itself, a substantial protective factor and, in some cases, can even be more detrimental than father absence. Employing a diverse sample of male juvenile offenders in the U.S. (ages 13–17), the present study examined the differential effects of absent fathers and harsh fathers on delinquency. Results indicated that youth in the harsh-father group engaged in…
red dot icon
Journal Article While research exists on maternal preferences and decisions about child care, fathers are an underrepresented population in this literature. In an effort to fill this gap, this study examines the types of child care preferred, the level of involvement in the decision-making process, as well as the importance of certain characteristics of nonparental care in a sample of 130 fathers of children under the age of 6 years (6.2% of whom did not live with the child). Sixty-four percent of fathers in this sample indicated active involvement in making child care decisions with the child’s mother and…
