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Journal Article An examination of the content and processes of evidence-based programs is critical for empirically evaluating theories about how programs work, the “action theory” of the program (West et al. in American Journal of Community Psychology, 21, 571–605, 1993). The New Beginnings Program (NBP; Wolchik et al., 2007), a parenting-after-divorce preventive intervention, theorizes that program-induced improvements in parenting across three domains: positive relationship quality, effective discipline, and protecting children from interparental conflict, will reduce the negative outcomes that are common…
This report summarizes the key findings from the implementation of Wise Guys, a comprehensive sex education program designed specifically for males implemented in seven Davenport-area middle schools during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years.Wise Guys aim is to promote male responsibility while helping prevent teenage pregnancy. The curriculum also works to strengthen communication between boys and their parents; increase knowledge related to sexual attitudes and the consequences of risky behavior; and enhances boys’ ability to identify personal values and beliefs related to sexuality.…
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Journal Article Research on family structure has led some to claim that sex-based parenting differences exist. But if such differences exist in single-parent families, the absence of a second parent rather than specific sex-typed parenting might explain them. We examine differences in mothering and fathering behavior in single-parent households, where number of parents is held constant, and we describe individualist and structuralist perspectives for potential sex-based parenting behaviors. We compare 3,202 single mothers and 307 single fathers in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten Cohort…
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Journal Article Initial validation data are presented for the Risky Situation (RS), a 20-minute observational procedure designed to assess the father-child activation relationship with children aged 12-18 months. The coding grid, which is simple and easy to use, allows parent-child dyads to be classified into three categories and provides an activation score. By having the same parent-child dyads participate in the Strange Situation (SS) and in the RS, researchers were able to demonstrate that the RS appears to evoke specific relationship patterns. Moreover, parental stimulation of risk-taking, the central…
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Journal Article This study examined associations between supportive coparenting and infant-mother and infant-father attachment security. Observed and parent-reported coparenting, and observed maternal and paternal sensitivity were assessed in a sample of 68 families with 3.5-month-old infants. Infant-mother and infant-father attachment security were assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure at 12 and 13 months of age, respectively. Observed and reported supportive coparenting were associated with greater attachment security in the infant-father, but not the infant-mother, attachment relationship. The link…
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Journal Article The present research examined child gender, temperament, and the quality of parent-child interactions as predictors of narrative style and references to emotion during mother-child and father-child reminiscing. Although models predicting parents' narrative styles were non-significant, results revealed significant interactions between parental hostility/intrusiveness during an interaction task and difficult child temperament. For mothers, greater hostility/intrusiveness was associated with fewer emotional references, but only when perceived difficult temperament was high. For fathers, greater…
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Journal Article A mixed methods approach was used to examine how young adults (n = 1012) perceive fathers as targets for attachment support. Participants ranked the level of attachment support received and sought from fathers, mothers, best friends, and romantic partners, and provided relationship-specific information on additional indices of social support including commitment, intimacy, companionship, advice, and romantic relationship experiences. Findings indicated that approximately 10% of the young adults considered fathers a principal source of attachment support. Compared to the majority of young…
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Journal Article Although voluminous research has linked nonresident fatherhood to riskier sexual behavior in adolescence, including earlier sexual debut, neither the causality of that link nor the mechanism accounting for it has been well-established. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979—the Young Adult Survey (CNLSY-YA), the present study addresses both questions by comparing the sexual development of siblings discordant for age at father departure from the home and examining results across behavioral (age at first intercourse), biological (pubertal timing), and cognitive (…
The extent to which men are beginning to enact new, more flexible models of masculinity remains an empirical question. What we do know is that many men continue to adhere rigidly to traditional gender role ideologies, which have been consistently linked to a range of negative physical and psychological outcomes (Berger, Addis, Green, Mackowiak, & Goldberg, 2013; Levant & Richmond, 2007; O'Neil, 2008). Although these trends continue, there is one area of men’s lives where such changes have been visible, quantifiable, and widespread: fathering. Such shifts, the focus of the current…
The Index is the first of its kind, drawing on OECD data and validated by an international advisory panel. It ranks 21 countries on a set of 10 'family fairness' indicators, including parental leave, the ratio of men's to women's time spent caring for children, the proportion of women in management roles, the percentage of men in the part-time workforce and the amount of time spent by men and women doing unpaid domestic work. (Author abstract)
