This fact sheet explores results of the 2009/2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN) and compares and contrasts the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s six outcomes for South Dakota and the nation. It begins with background information on the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the Maternal and Child Health Services Black Grant, and the six core outcomes that describe what families should expect for the service system. The six care areas are: partnering with families in shared decision-making for child’s optimal health; coordinated, ongoing, comprehensive care…
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Journal Article This paper reviews the research of the past two decades that addresses the relationship between family structure and early child health outcomes. Specifically, we focus on family structure's influence on child health during pregnancy, birth, and infancy. We briefly summarize the most pervasive changes to family structure in the US during recent decades and discuss how early child health is linked to future outcomes for children and adults. We review research that highlights the mechanisms linking family structure to early child health and identify key risk and protective factors for children…
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Journal Article Background: Factors related to parents and parenting capacities are important predictors of the development of behavioural problems in children. Recently, there has been an increasing research focus in this field on the earliest years of life; however, relatively few studies have addressed the role of fathers, despite this appearing to be particularly pertinent to child behavioural development. This study aimed to examine whether father-infant interactions at age 3 months independently predicted child behavioural problems at 1 year of age. Method: A sample of 192 families was recruited from…
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Journal Article Positive attachment experiences during infancy are linked to positive developmental outcomes of children later in life. The parent-infant relationship does not start upon the birth of the child, but already evolves during pregnancy. In this exploratory study, fathers' experiences during pregnancy are investigated, focusing on their relationship with the unborn baby. At 26 weeks gestational age, expectant fathers from a Dutch community-based sample (N = 301) completed questionnaires concerning feelings of attachment to the fetus and psychological well-being. The semistructured Working Model of…
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Journal Article Using data from 182 dual-earner couples experiencing the transition to parenthood, this study examined associations between prenatal involvement, gender-role beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping and new fathers' involvement in child health care. Results indicated that prenatal father involvement was associated with fathers' direct engagement in child health care and perceived influence in child health-related decision making. Fathers also demonstrated greater direct engagement in child health care when mothers held more nontraditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, when mothers were more…
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Journal Article This study investigated the associations between fathers' contributions to housework and childcare and both spouses' parenting aggravation. It was hypothesized that greater father contributions to domestic labor would be associated with more paternal aggravation but less maternal aggravation. Data are from a four-wave study of 178 married couples undergoing the transition to first parenthood. Dyadic growth-curve models revealed gender differences in aggravation trajectories over the first year of the child's life. Fathers were higher in initial aggravation, but mothers' aggravation grew at a…
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Journal Article Background: Previous studies suggest a link between parental separation or divorce and risk of depression in adolescence. There are, however, few studies that have prospectively examined the effects of timing of biological father absence on risk for depressive symptoms in adolescence while controlling for a range of confounding factors.Method: We examine the association between father absence occurring in early (the first 5 years) and middle childhood (5-10 years) and adolescent depressive symptoms in a sample comprising 5631 children from the UK-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and…
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Journal Article What do fathers teach their sons, how do sons learn? This paper considers the way boys develop, become men, specifically with regard to their relationships with their fathers or indeed any other male authority figures they come into contact with. The material examined is a mix of the author's own biographical experience, a clinical vignette and a film--The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005). In all three, the development of young men is considered with particular emphasis on how 'sons' manage the urge to love the father, to placate him, with a need to hate him, to triumph over him.…
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Journal Article Intervention programs aiming to support fathers' parenting skills with young children need a practical, but psychometrically sound, observational measure of fathers' parenting interactions. The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Parenting Interactions with Children--Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO) measure for use with fathers, and to explore whether additional observational father-behavior items derived from father research and theory would strengthen those psychometric properties. The 29 original PICCOLO items and 44 additional…
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Journal Article The Triple P Positive Parenting Program is a public health parenting intervention aimed at reducing risk factors associated with poor developmental outcomes in children. In 2007, the New South Wales Government funded universal free access the program for all families with children aged between three and eight years. Two years later, Nexus Management Consulting was commissioned to evaluate the impact of the initiative on processes and practices and child and parent outcomes, as well as cost effectiveness. This article provides an overview of the evaluation's key findings, focusing on the…
