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Journal Article This research links residence with biological and nonbiological married and unmarried parents to the cognitive achievement and behavioral problems of children aged 3-12, controlling for factors that make such families different. The data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Achievement differences were not associated with father family structure per se, but with demographic and economic factors that differ across families. In contrast, behavioral problems were linked to family structure even after controls for measured and unmeasured…
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Journal Article The present study was conducted to investigate differences in nurturant fathering, father involvement, and young adult psychosocial functioning among small samples of three nontraditional family forms. A total of 168 young-adult university students from three family forms (27 adoptive, 22 adoptive stepfather, 119 nonadoptive stepfather) completed retrospective measures of nurturant fathering and father involvement and measures of current psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that adoptive fathers were rated as the most nurturant and involved and that nonadoptive stepfathers were…
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Journal Article This article uses a sample of 867 African American households to investigate differences in parenting practices and child outcomes by type of household. Results indicate that mothers provide similar levels of parenting regardless of family structure. Secondary caregivers, however, show a great deal of variation in quality of parenting. Fathers and grandmothers engage in the highest quality parenting, stepfathers the poorest, with other relatives falling in between. These differences in parenting do not explain family structure differences in child behavior problems. Results suggest that…
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Journal Article This study explores the meaning of fathering among men identified as fathers or father figures of 24-month-old children enrolled in Early Head Start research sites. Fathers were asked open-ended questions about their experiences of being fathers and their relationships with their own fathers. These men spoke of how important "being there" was for them in their relationship with their child as well as how the relationship with their own fathers influenced them as a parent. This study supports the theory of intergenerational parenting and furthers our knowledge and understanding of what some…
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Journal Article This journal issue discusses the findings from the Early Head Start Father Studies, a series of studies that investigated activities that fathers engage in with their infants and toddlers, how fathers express responsibility for their children, and the types of social, human, and financial capital that fathers afford their children. In the studies, fathers were also asked questions on how men perceive the father role, their experiences with the own fathers, and the support they need to be a father. Specifically, articles in the issue discuss: the project's methods and research questions; low-…
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Journal Article The purpose of this study is to identify factors that predict recidivism among families in which the father is the perpetrator of physical abuse and to compare these factors to the factors that investigators believe are related to higher risk. A case-comparison design was used to understand risk among 137 predominantly Caucasian families in which a father had injured a child. The multivariate analysis showed that families in which the father was unemployed (greater time at risk), had younger children, was not the biological father of all of the children, did not take responsibility for his…
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Journal Article This study compared perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal and marital problems, and aspects of family climate of maltreating fathers and mothers. Subjects were 2841 offenders (1918 of whom were fathers or father-figures) who were identified and treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program between 1988 and 1996. Independent variables for the analysis were parent sex (mother vs. father) as well as type and severity of maltreatment, history of repeat offenses, and history of abuse in childhood. Maltreating mothers were more distressed and reported more problems from individuals outside…
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Journal Article This article explores how fathers are traditionally viewed by service providers, identifies some of the factors that inhibit the inclusion of fathers and male relatives in the FGC process, and suggests possible methods of increasing attendance by men at family group conferencing. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article In this introductory article to the Special Issue, we provide an overview of the research and policy context for the Early Head Start Father Studies. We describe the methods used to conduct the father studies, which began in 1997 and were designed to complement the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a random assignment evaluation of 3,001 families -- half who received Early Head Start services and half who did not. The Early Head Start Father Studies included in the Special Issue addressed 5 key research questions about low-income fathers and their children (all under 3 years…
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Journal Article The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of how low-income fathers of young children think about their role as fathers. We conducted a qualitative inquiry into the beliefs of fathers of 24-month-old children about what "good fatherhood" means to them. The 575 open-ended interviews, collected in 14 Early Head Start Fathers of Toddlers Qualitative Interview Substudy sites around the United States were analyzed using NUD*IST qualitative software to code and categorize the various roles fathers identified as important to them and their children. Four broad types of roles…
