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Journal Article Literature in developmental psychology suggests that mothers and fathers both play unique and important roles in their children’s development. However, research investigating the unique contributions and psychological functioning of fathers of youth with developmental disabilities, and the role that fathers play in effective intervention, remains limited. Whereas evidence suggests that parent-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can lead to increased engagement from parents, and reduced stress and psychopathology commonly experienced by parents of youth with…
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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…
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Journal Article We identify multiple predictors of five types of father involvement in 167 low- to moderate-income two-parent Mexican American families with fifth-grade children. Analyses show that fathers' egalitarian gender attitudes and mothers' education are associated with higher levels of father involvement. Fathers are more involved in monitoring and interacting with children when families place more emphasis on family rituals, they are more involved in supervising children when mothers are employed more hours, and they perform more housework when mothers earn more and the family is under economic…
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Journal Article The majority of teen pregnancy literature and practice is deficit based, focusing on the consequences of teen pregnancy; significantly less research is devoted to the teens’ strengths. This article discusses the strengths-based perspective as a viable framework for clinicians and school social workers to implement to help teen parents and their families ameliorate some of the challenges they encounter. This article emphasizes the importance of clinicians, school social workers, and the community to adopt a strengths-based perspective when working with teen parents in order to cultivate…
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Journal Article Objective. Although studies have begun to explore the impact of the current wars on child well-being, none have examined how children are doing across social, emotional, and academic domains. In this study, we describe the health and well-being of children from military families from the perspectives of the child and nondeployed parent. We also assessed the experience of deployment for children and how it varies according to deployment length and military service component.Participants and Methods. Data from a computer-assisted telephone interview with military children, aged 11 to 17 years,…
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Journal Article In a prospective, longitudinal investigation we examined fathers' engagement in learning activities with their children in early childhood in relation to children academic performance in 5th grade. Participants were 602 low-income, ethnically diverse biological fathers and their children from the National Early Head Start evaluation study. Fathers reported on their engagement with children in learning activities as well as their residency when children were two years, three years, and of preschool age; children were assessed on receptive language, reading and math skills in 5th grade.…
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Journal Article Objective: The present study investigated the extent to which father-daughter relationships predicted risk-taking in a sample of female college students. Specifically, this study examined whether female adolescents' models of father psychological presence predicted substance use and sexual risk-taking, over and above impulsivity, depression, and other risky behaviors. Methods: A sample of 203 female college students were administered several scales assessing father psychological presence, sexual risk-taking, substance use, impulsivity, and depression. Results: Father psychological presence…
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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 Using a cross-sectional design with 407 Chinese children aged 3-5 years and their parents, this study examined the effects of socioeconomic status, specifically parents' education and family income, on the children's mother-child relationships, father-child relationships, and the social environment in their families. The results indicated that income negatively predicted conflict in father-child relationships and positively predicted family active-recreational environments. Income also positively predicted family cohesion among girls but not boys. Maternal education negatively predicted…
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Journal Article Intergenerational relationships and gender roles in China are in transition because of ideational and structural changes resulting from social movements and policies in the past half a century. Using a mixed-methods design, we examine Shanghai fathers' involvement in their adolescent daughters' lives. In contrast to traditional stereotypes, Shanghai fathers are nurturing and highly involved in multiple domains of their daughters' lives. They also have very high aspirations for their daughters, regardless of their own socioeconomic background. Shanghai fathers see providing emotional and…
