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Journal Article The study reported here evaluated the efficacy of Partners in Parenting (PIP), which, in collaboration with Colorado State University Extension, was implemented in seven counties across Colorado. A total of 54 parents took part in the study. A pretest/posttest design was used to assess short-term changes in parenting practices, parental attitudes, and parental stress following intervention. After PIP, parents demonstrated improvement in basic elements of parent-child relationships and parenting attitudes and skills. These promising results warrant further investigation into the benefits of…
This fact sheet lists inappropriate and appropriate responses to children who are behaving badly. Caregivers are urged to provide children with choices, validate the feelings of the child while stating the inappropriate nature of the behavior, communicate how the behavior is making the caregiver feel, and reaffirm their commitment to the child even when the child is making bad choices.
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Journal Article A growing body of research documents the importance of positive father involvement in children's development. However, research on fathers in Latino families is sparse, and research contextualizing the father-child relationship within a cultural framework is needed. The present study examined how fathers' cultural practices and values predicted their fifth-grade children's report of positive father involvement in a sample of 450 two-parent Mexican-origin families. Predictors included Spanish- and English-language use, Mexican and American cultural values, and positive machismo (i.e.,…
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Journal Article The current study investigated how fathering behaviors (acceptance, rejection, monitoring, consistent discipline, and involvement) are related to preadolescent adjustment in Mexican American and European American stepfamilies and intact families. Cross-sectional data from 393 7th graders, their schoolteachers, and parents were used to examine links between different dimensions of fathering and adolescent outcomes. Following an ecological multivariate model, family SES, marital satisfaction, and mothers' parenting were included as controls. In all contexts, fathering had significant effects…
This brief offers practical tools to agency attorneys on their role in better engaging fathers in child welfare court cases. It includes guidance on: Identifying and locating fathers; Resolving paternity issues; Assessing whether the father can be a placement or other support to the child; Establishing agency policies that promote father engagement.
Other, Fact Sheet
Identifying and locating fathers early helps children establish or maintain important connections with their fathers and paternal relatives. It also reduces delays in permanency, if the goal is adoption. Establishing paternity quickly after a putative father is located is critical to ensuring the case moves quickly and the father can assert and protect his constitutional rights to the care and custody of his child. Designed for judges, this bench card contains ways in which judicial officers can assist in this process. (Author abstract modified)
Circle of Parents offers tips for parents in both English and Spanish. The tip sheets cover a range of topics including: Say What You Mean - Mean What You Say, Setting Rules and Consequences with Teens, Winning the Chore War, Tantrums, The Power of Choice, Parent Magic!, Swearing, To Discipline Means to Teach!, Defying Defiance, Lying, Handling Resistance, Schoolwork, Time Out!, Making Mealtimes More Pleasant, Sibling Rivalry, Hugging, and Rules: What's Fair?
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Journal Article This study explored first-time fathers' perceived child care skill over the transition to parenthood, based on face-to-face interviews of 152 working-class, dual-earner couples. Analyses examined the associations among fathers' perceived skill and prenatal perception of skill, child care involvement, mothers' breastfeeding, maternal gatekeeping, mothers' work hours, fathers' depressive symptoms, and fathers' beliefs about responding to a crying child. Involvement was also examined as a potential mediator between some predictors and perceived skill. Findings suggest that breastfeeding and…
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Journal Article Although scholars and policy makers herald the promotive influence of fathers' parenting involvement, limited research has carefully delineated effects of fathers' parenting on low-income children's development and whether early contributions from fathers confer long-term protective effects. Using data from the Three-City Study (N = 261), analyses assessed whether fathers' parenting practices during early childhood showed long-term links with low-income children's cognitive skills through middle childhood. Results found that fathers' warm and stimulating parenting predicted enhanced reading…
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Journal Article We investigated how mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and father-child and mother-child relationship predicted preschool children's problem behavior. The sample was 11,286 continuously intact, two-parent biological families of the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study. We found that mother-child relationship and maternal depressed mood had larger effects on children's problem behavior than father-child relationship and paternal depressed mood. The effect of paternal depressed mood was completely mediated by quality of father-child relationship. There were significant moderator effects…
