Other, Fact Sheet
Divorce can be a big challenge for both children and parents. Though times may be difficult, children can emerge feeling loved and supported. You can all grow through these family changes and discover just how strong you really are. You are not alone. Family, friends, neighbors, and others are there to offer support. Here are some tools to help your child through your divorce.(Author abstract)
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Journal Article This study examined the longitudinal and concurrent associations among fathers' perceptions of partner relationship quality (happiness, conflict), coparenting (shared decision making, conflict), and paternal stress. The sample consisted of 6,100 children who lived with both biological parents at 24 and 48 months in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. The results showed that there are significant and concurrent associations between fathers' perceptions of the coparenting relationship and paternal stress, and between partner relationship quality and paternal stress.…
This fact sheet is for individuals and couples who are interested in learning more about self-care, including healthy eating, physical activity, regulating emotions, and sexual health and intimacy in order to make it easier to care, share, and connect with their partner and family.
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Journal Article The aim of this study was to examine coparenting perceptions of support and trust as a link between marital quality and parent-child relationship quality. Mothers and fathers with 33-month-old children (n = 122, 61 girls) independently reported on coparenting support and trust, marital quality, and attachment-relevant aspects of the parent-child relationship. Additionally, child-mother attachment security was assessed observationally. Marital quality was related to higher quality mother-son relationships (self-reported and observed) via more positive maternal coparenting perceptions, and…
This fact sheet offers tips to divorcing or separating parents on how to support their children's well-being through the separation process.Note: PDF version available.
This fact sheet provides information for parents on how to talk to their preteen or teen about sexuality, including understanding adolescent's concerns and how parents can help adolescents develop healthy sexuality.Note: PDF version available.
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Journal Article We focused on coparenting support, partner relationship quality, and father engagement in families with young children that did not change structurally over 4 years of participation in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study (N = 1,756). There was a significantly stronger and more robust positive association between fathers' perceived coparenting support at age 1 and father engagement at age 3 among nonresidential nonromantic parents compared with residential (married or cohabiting) and nonresidential romantic parents. There was a significantly stronger and positive association…
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Journal Article We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how couple relationship quality and parental engagement are linked over children's early years--when they are infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Our sample included 1,630 couples who were coresident over Years 1-3 and 1,376 couples who were coresident over Years 3-5 (1,196 over both periods). Overall, we found that better relationship quality predicted greater parental engagement for both mothers and fathers--especially in the infant to toddler years; in contrast, we found little evidence that parental engagement…
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Journal Article This study examined whether coparenting support and social support had a stronger effect on father engagement with 3-year-olds among adolescent fathers compared with adult fathers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,540), we found that coparenting support and paternal social support had a significantly stronger positive effect on adolescent fathers than adult fathers. The associations among coparenting, social support, and adolescent father engagement did not depend on whether the father and mother were romantically involved with each other. The results…
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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…