Research Reports and News Posted May 2001:
Fathers--Research |
Children & Families |
Census Data |
Welfare Reform |
NCOFF Abstracts
Fathers--Research
-
National Household Education Survey: Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools by Family Type and Resident Status, Christine Winquist Nord
(Westat) and Jerry West, U.S. Department of Education, National Center For Education Statistics, Statistical Analysis Report, May 2001.
Highlights:
Due to the prevalence of divorce and nonmarital childbearing in the United States, many
students enrolled in grades 1 through 12 do not live with both their biological parents (Furstenberg and
Cherlin 1991). In 1996, 57 percent of students in these grades lived with two biological parents, while the
remaining 43 percent lived in some other family living arrangement. Studies have found that students
who live apart from one or both of their biological parents tend to do less well in school than students
who live with both their biological parents (Zill 1996; McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Lee 1993). Some
observers have speculated that differences in levels of parents' school involvement may help to account
for the observed disparities.
Data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96) reveal that the school
involvement of biological parents is not the same across family types and that the involvement of
stepparents is generally lower than that of biological parents. In this report, high school involvement is
defined as participating in at least three of four school activities that most schools typically offer:
attending a general school meeting; attending a regularly scheduled parent-teacher conference; attending a
school or class event; or volunteering at school. Low school involvement is participating in none or only
one such activity.
- Biological mothers in stepfather families are less likely to be highly involved in their
children's schools than biological mothers in two-biological-parent families. Forty-five
percent of students living with a biological mother and a stepfather have a mother
who is highly involved in their schools compared to 58 percent of students living with
both biological parents. Once family background characteristics such as students'
age, sex, and race/ethnicity, household income, mother's employment, and parent
education are taken into account, biological mothers in stepfather families remain less
likely to be highly involved in their children's schools than mothers in two-biological-parent
families and are also less likely to be highly involved than mothers in mother-only
families.
- Biological fathers in stepmother families, on the other hand, are more likely to be
highly involved in their children's schools than biological fathers in two-biological-parent
families. Thirty-five percent of students living with a biological father and a
stepmother have a father who is highly involved in their schools compared to 28
percent of students living with both biological parents.
- Students living in father-only families are the most likely of all students to have
highly involved fathers46 percent of such students have fathers who are highly
involved in their schools.
- Stepmothers are more likely than biological mothers, regardless of family type, to
show low levels of involvement in their children's schools. Forty percent of students
living in stepmother families have a stepmother with low involvement in their schools,
while 28 percent of students in stepfather families, 27 percent in mother-only families,
and 20 percent in two-biological-parent families have mothers with low involvement
in their schools. The same is true of stepfathers, but stepfathers show even lower
levels of involvement in their stepchildren's schools than do stepmothers. Sixty-two
percent of students living with a stepfather have a stepfather who participated in none
or only one activity in their schools during the current school year.
Although the level of parents' school involvement varies by whether they are biological
parents or stepparents and whether they live in two-biological-parent families, single-parent families, or
stepfamilies, parents' school involvement still seems to make a difference in students' school experiences.
- Fathers' involvement in school is associated with a higher likelihood of students
getting mostly A's. This is true for fathers in two-biological parent families, for
stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families. There appears to be no
association, however, between fathers' involvement in stepmother families and the
odds that students get mostly A's.
- Fathers' involvement in two-biological-parent families is associated with a lower
likelihood of students ever repeating a grade. There is no evidence, though, that the
involvement of stepfathers or of fathers in father-only families is related to this.
- Biological mothers' involvement, regardless of whether they are living in two-biological-
parent families, stepfather families, or mother-only families, is associated
with a higher likelihood of students getting mostly A's. The involvement of mothers
in mother-only families is also related to lowered odds of their children ever repeating
a grade.
- The school involvement of mothers is associated with a lower likelihood of 6th-through
12th graders ever being suspended or expelled. This is true for the
involvement of biological mothers and of stepmothers.
Although the school involvement of parents who live apart from their children is lower than
that of resident parents, some nonresident parents who have contact with their children are involved in
their children's schools.
- Thirteen percent of students in stepfather families and 19 percent in mother-only families who have had contact with their nonresident fathers in the last year have
nonresident fathers who participated in at least two of the four school activities.
- Nonresident mothers are more likely than nonresident fathers to be involved in their
children's schools. Twenty-seven percent of students in stepmother families and 43
percent living in father-only families who have had contact with their nonresident
mothers in the last year have nonresident mothers who participated in at least two of
the four school activities.
Although nonresident mothers are more likely than nonresident fathers to be involved in
their children's schools, the benefits of their involvement for the students are not as apparent.
- Students are more likely to get mostly A's and are less likely to have ever repeated a
grade or to have ever been suspended or expelled if their nonresident fathers have
some involvement in their schools. Similarly, students are more likely to get mostly
A's if their nonresident mothers have participated in one activity in the last year.
The NHES:96 has several strengths for studying parental involvement. First, it contains a
large, nationally representative sample of students in grades 1 through 12. Second, it collects information
about the school involvement of both resident and nonresident mothers and fathers. The NHES:96,
however, collects data at a single point in time. Thus, it cannot be used to establish causal connections
between parental involvement and student outcomes. It can only suggest such connections and leave it to
studies based on longitudinal data to examine the associations more closely. Moreover, the household
respondent is the one who reports on the school involvement of the resident and nonresident parents. In
most cases, mothers are the respondents and they are the ones reporting on the involvement of the resident
and nonresident fathers.
For a copy of the full report in PDF format, visit the NCES Web Site.
-
Study: Kids, Parents Together More, Laura Potts, Associated Press, Wednesday May 9, 2001.
Article Excerpt:
DETROIT (AP) - Despite a surge in the number of working mothers, children in two-parent households are spending more time with Mom or Dad than kids did 20 years ago, according to a study released Wednesday.
Children between the ages of 3 and 12 in two-parent families spent about 31 hours each week with their mothers in 1997, compared with about 25 hours in 1981. Time spent with fathers increased from 19 hours to 23.
``Working mothers have been particularly vilified,'' said Sandra Hofferth of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. ``A lot of people out there say that because of changes in families, mothers and fathers are spending less time with children. There was no actual evidence for it.''
The Michigan researchers said the findings are important because studies show significant parental involvement helps children intellectually, socially and emotionally.
``Parental involvement with children should lead to those children having better scores on achievement tests and less problems with aggression and better social outcomes,'' Hofferth said.
Mothers working outside home are actually spending as much time with their children as did stay-at-home moms studied in 1981, she said. About 63 percent of mothers worked outside the home in 1997, up from 50 percent in 1981.
For a copy of the complete article, visit the Yahoo web site. Note: This article may only be available for a limited number of days at this site.
Good Things Come in 3's: Single-Parent Multigenerational Family Structure and Adolescent Adjustment, Thomas DeLeire and Ariel Kalil, Working Paper Series: 01.6, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, February 2001.
Author Abstract:
Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988, we find that teenagers living in non-intact families are on average less likely to graduate from high school and less likely to attend college. They also are more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana and are more likely to initiate sexual activity at a younger age. However, not all non-intact families are alike. In particular, teenagers living with their single mother and with at least one of their grandparents in a multigenerational household have developmental outcomes that are at least as good and often better than outcomes of teenagers in intact families. These findings obtain controlling for a wide array of economic resources, parenting behavior, family stability, and school quality variables.
-
Single-father households in USA increased 62% in '90s, Karen S. Peterson and Anthony DeBarros, USA TODAY, May 21, 2001.
The number of households headed by single fathers increased by almost 62% in the past decade, new data show.
Though their numbers are still small, they increased at a rate more than twice that of single mothers.
Households headed by a single dad with his kids at home rose from 1,354,540 in 1990 to 2,190,989 in 2000. The numbers are extrapolated from Census Bureau data that was released Tuesday.
The increase doesn't surprise experts. The number of single dads raising their children has been growing ''rapidly for quite a while,'' says senior Census demographer Campbell Gibson. In the previous Census, the number of single-dad households increased 67%.
Several factors are at play, experts speculate. ''I think we are seeing more dads assert their interests and their rights,'' says James Levine, director of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute, a non-profit family advocacy organization. ''And more women are feeling they won't be demonized if they are not the custodial parent.''
Fathers have become more aware of the importance of their continuing role as parents, says Martha Farnsworth Riche, former head of the Census Bureau. It's part of a trend that includes the willingness of some judges to grant child custody in some cases to dads, she says.
The increase in single dads outpaced the growth of single moms, who increased 25%, to 7,561,874, from 1990 to 2000.
In either case, the numbers may reflect a variety of circumstances.
It is possible that in a single-father household, a woman is present and helping with the parenting, says Jason Fields of the Census Bureau's population division. That woman could be his own mother, the live-in mother of his child, or yet another woman, and his household would still be counted in the single-dad category.
He may have the child only one week a month, but if he had the child as of April 1, when he filled out the Census form, he is counted as a single dad. ''This is a snapshot of the country as of April 1st,'' Fields says.
Even though the numbers of single dads are still small compared with single moms, he says, ''That is not to say the increase is not important. I think it certainly is.''
For a copy of this article, visit the USA Today Web Site. This article may not be available after a period of time and a fee may be necessary to retrieve it.
-
'Married With Children' Still Fading as a Model--Census: Households of unwed partners rose 72% in the 90s. Single-parent homes also increased, Robin Fields, Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2001.
Article Excerpt:
Americans in the 1990s continued a 30-year trend away from the traditional married-with-children model, a movement that is gradually rewriting the notion of family, census data released today show.
Households composed of unmarried partners became strikingly more common, growing by almost 72%--nearly five times as fast as the number of households overall. The number of Americans living alone grew almost twice as swiftly as the population, surpassing 27 million.
In most other categories, social changes that began churning under the nation's roofs during the 1970s and 1980s continued at a gentler pace in the last 10 years.
Fewer than one in four households now consist of married couples and their children, a slight dip from the previous count. Households headed by single mothers increased by more than 25%. Those headed by single fathers, though still a demographic rarity, surpassed the 2 million mark, up almost 62%.
Despite glimmers in other data suggesting that traditional nuclear families staged a late 1990s comeback, the millennial census described a nation of increasingly complex and extended family trees.
"Nowadays, on school forms they have space to put two separate households," said Zena Polly, an Irvine psychologist who counsels single parents and families riven by divorce. "The term unusual no longer applies."
The number of Americans who live together without marrying remains small: 5.4 million, only 1.9% of the total population. But the dramatic rise in their number reflects deepening divorce trauma and how formalized unions have lost much of their functional and economic necessity in the last three decades, demographers said. ...
For a copy of the complete article, visit the Los Angeles Times web site. Note: A fee to access this article may apply after one week.
-
Nation's Median Age Highest Ever, But 65-and-Over Population's Growth Lags, Census 2000 Shows, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000, U.S. Census Bureau, May 15, 2001.
Press Release:
The median age of the U.S. population in 2000 was 35.3 years, the highest it has ever been.
The increase in the median age reflects the aging of the baby boomers. However, the 65-and-over
population actually increased at a slower rate than the overall population for the first time in the
history of the census. Both findings are from a Census 2000 profile, highlighting characteristics
of the U.S. population, released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
"While the median age increased by nearly two and a half years between 1990 and 2000,"
said Campbell Gibson, a senior Census Bureau demographer, "the growth of the population aged
65-and-over was by far the lowest recorded rate of growth in any decade for this age group."
The median age (meaning half are older and half younger) rose from 32.9 years in 1990 to
35.3 in 2000. The rise reflects a 4-percent decline in numbers among 18- to 34-year-olds and a
28-percent increase in 35- to 64-year-olds.
The most rapid increase in size of any age group in the profile was the 49 percent jump in the
population 45-to-54-years-old. This increase, to 37.7 million in 2000, was fueled mainly by
the entry into this age group of the first of the "baby boom" generation (those born
from 1946 to 1964).
"The slower growth of the population 65 and over," Gibson said, "reflects the relatively low
number of people reaching 65 during the past decade because of the relatively low number of
births in the late 1920s and early 1930s."
Besides data on age, the U.S. profile contains data on sex, household relationship and
household type, housing units, and renters and homeowners. It also includes the first population
totals for selected groups of Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Hispanic or
Latino populations.
Other highlights:
- The number of males (138.1 million) edged closer to the number of females (143.4
million), raising the sex ratio (males per 100 females) from 95.1 in 1990 to 96.3 in 2000.
- The nation's housing units numbered 115.9 million, an increase of 13.6 million
from 1990.
- The average household size in 2000 was 2.59, down slightly from 2.63 in 1990.
- Of the 105.5 million occupied housing units in 2000, 69.8 million were occupied by
owners and 35.7 million by renters; the homeownership rate increased from 64 percent
to 66 percent.
- The number of nonfamily households rose at twice the rate of family households
23 percent versus 11 percent.
- Families maintained by women with no husband present increased three times as fast as
married-couple families 21 percent versus 7 percent. Married-couple families dropped
from 55 percent to 52 percent of all households.
The national snapshot, entitled Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000, is the
first of more than 40,000 one-page profiles for states, counties, cities, towns and townships, as
well as tribal areas, Hawaiian homelands and other areas. The table contains nearly 100 data
items, plus percentage distributions. A companion table with 1990 data is attached to this
news release.
For a copy of the complete Press Release and data tables, visit the Bureau of the Census web site.
-
Returns to Tenure and Experience Revisited -- Do Less Educated Workers Gain Less from Work Experience? Helen Connolly and Peter T. Gottschalk, JCPR Working Paper 224, Joint Center on Poverty Research, April 11, 2001.
JCPR Abstract:
This paper explores whether within job and between job wage growth is lower for less-educated workers. While a simple model of heterogeneous learning ability predicts that individuals with low learning ability will have flatter wage profiles, this prediction has been largely ignored in the recent welfare reform debates. The key econometric problem in estimating returns to tenure and experience is that wages depend on the unobservable job match component, which is endogenous. We depart from the standard method for dealing with this problem in one important way. We show that this alternative implies that wages grow with the number of previous successful job matches. In our empirical work we show that this source of between job wage growth is large. Furthermore, we show that this source of wage growth, as well as the standard returns to tenure and experience, are substantially smaller for the least educated.
For a copy of the complete report, visit the JCPR web site.
How Are Families That Left Welfare Doing?
A Comparison of Early and Recent Welfare Leavers, Pamela Loprest,
Number B-36 in Series "New Federalism: National Survey of America's Families", Urban Institute, April 2000.
Since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (popularly known as welfare reform) in 1996, welfare caseloads have declined almost 50 percent nationally. Some claim this signals that welfare reform is a success; others argue that more information is necessary on what has happened to the families leaving welfare. In response, many studies have been conducted that examine outcomes for families that left welfare. Early results from these studies show that a majority of leavers are working, often full-time and at about the same wage rates as other, similar groups in the labor market.
There is much concern, however, that the outcomes for families that left welfare soon after reform do not necessarily reflect the outcomes of future groups of leavers, who may fare progressively worse in the labor market. This concern stems in part from the idea that the most "job-ready" people left welfare first, leaving behind recipients who have more personal barriers to work. The implications of this hypothesis, if it is true, for groups of leavers is not clear. On the one hand, more recipients with barriers to work could mean that fewer recipients are leaving but that there are no differences in the level of job readiness of those who leave. On the other hand, more recent leaver groups could be more disadvantaged because time limits and sanctions for failing to meet work requirements can compel exit, regardless of barriers to work.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF or HTML format, visit the Urban Institute web site.
-
Former Welfare Families and the Food Stamp Program: The Exodus Continues, Sheila R. Zedlewski and Amelia Gruber
Number B-33 in Series "New Federalism: National Survey of America's Families April 2000.
In the early stages of welfare reform, a variety of studies documented that many families that left welfare also left the Food Stamp Program (FSP), even though they were still eligible for benefits.1 Some speculated that former welfare families departure from the FSP could be a temporary phenomenon. The 1996 federal reforms represented a major shift in welfare policy, so some confusion about continued eligibility for food stamps among low-income families was perhaps understandable. Others argued that the historically low FSP participation rates among working poor families could signal low participation among welfare leavers unless the program were made more accessible. The data from the second round of the National Survey of Americas Families (NSAF) can help clarify whether FSP participation changed among former welfare recipients between 1997, a year very early in the process of welfare reform, and 1999, when welfare reform had evolved more fully.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF or HTML format, visit the Urban Institute web site.
-
Before and After Reform: How Have Families on Welfare Changed? Sheila R. Zedlewski and Donald W. Alderson
Number B-32 in Series "New Federalism: National Survey of America's Families", April 2001.
Did rapid declines in the welfare rolls since 1996, when reform legislation replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), change the composition of the welfare caseload? Are mothers now on welfare significantly more disadvantaged than those who have left, yielding a caseload whose members are less able to find and keep a job? The answers to such questions have potential major implications for TANFs long-run success as a temporary assistance program. The second round of the nationally representative National Survey of Americas Families (NSAF) sheds light on the subject, by allowing the 1999 TANF caseload to be compared with 1997s predominantly pre-TANF caseload.
Several changes emerge from the comparison. The proportion of single mothers on welfare who reported living with partners increased, as did the proportion who were African American. The proportion of adults on welfare who worked for pay rose, with the increase particularly notable among those who face multiple barriers to employment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the data do not suggest that adults on TANF in 1999 were significantly more disadvantaged than those on TANF in 1997. Although the share of adults on TANF with very poor physical or mental health or limited education was higher in 1999 than in 1997, these differences were not statistically significant. Caregiving responsibilities among adults on TANF did not differ significantly between the two years. Despite some new state programs that attempt to divert adults from enrolling in TANF by offering financial assistance for emergencies and job search assistance, the proportion of recipients who were new entrants to the welfare system was about the same in both years. Not surprisingly, longer-term stayers were significantly more disadvantaged than the new entrants.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF or HTML format, visit the Urban Institute web site.
-
Implementing Welfare Reform in Rural Communities, Nancy M. Pindus, Urban Institute, February 2001.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. PRWORA changed the nations welfare system from an entitlement program for income-eligible families to a program that provides time-limited assistance and requires recipients to participate in work-focused activities. PRWORA granted states broad flexibility to tailor their TANF programs with respect to exemptions, sanctions, and required activities. In considering these three key aspects of PRWORAwork requirements, time-limited benefits, and state flexibilityquestions arise about the implementation of welfare reform and the variations in policies and practices between states and within states. One geographic dimension potentially important in the welfare implementation process concerns the dispersion of the population. This paper asks: how did areas with sparse populations, mostly rural areas, respond to the welfare changes introduced with PRWORA? The paper is part of a broader study considering the effects of welfare reform on households in rural areas. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was used to analyze the complexities in program rules, program implementation, and local economic factors, and their combined effects on welfare recipients in rural areas.1 This report describes the findings of our qualitative work that examined welfare implementation and availability of services in 12 rural communities.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF or HTML format, visit the Urban Institute web site.
-
Fox, G. L., & Bruce, C. (forthcoming). Conditional fatherhood: Identity theory and parental investment theory as alternative. Journal of Marriage and the Family.This paper discusses men's fathering attitudes and behaviors using models of identity theory and parental investment theory. Predictors of fathering attitudes and behaviors from the identity theory model include father role salience, role satisfaction, and reflected appraisals. Parental investment predictors included investment maximization, contingent commitment, and paternity certitude. A telephone survey in Tennessee interviewed 208 fathers regarding fathering orientations and behaviors. Roughly half of the sample was composed of white, middle- to upper-income educated fathers. The other half of the sample was composed of lower-income men, African American men, and men with lower education levels. The results showed that social psychological concepts are important predictors of fathering commitments to children even after accounting for demographic variables such as race, age, and education. Men evaluate and assess their father roles in ways that greatly affect their performance as fathers. Also both identity theory and parental investment theory accounted for men's commitment behaviors, but identity theory was a stronger model in these predictions. Father role salience was an especially important predictor from the identity theory model. Paternity certitude was not as salient a predictor as was hypothesized. The results also showed that the direct effect of race was mediated through social psychological measures. For example, social disadvantage in job and housing markets may affect men's intrapersonal assessments of their own fathering role, which in turn affects their parenting behaviors. These findings suggest the importance of fathers finding satisfaction in their role, which leads them to invest more in their children and show increased commitment to the fathering role.
Gonzales, H. A., Pitts, S. C., Hill, N. E., Roosa, M. W. (2000). A mediational model of the impact of interparental conflict on child adjustment in a multiethnic, low-income sample. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(3), 365-379.This study examined the effects of interparental conflict on children's depression and conduct disorders, as mediated by parents' acceptance, inconsistent discipline, and hostile control. The authors used a 1991 sample of 97 fourth-grade children from diverse backgrounds: 81% Mexican American, 8% African American, 6% European American, and 4% Native American. The children in the sample came from low-income backgrounds and were interviewed with their mothers regarding interparental conflict and parenting behavior. The results showed support for the hypothesis that the negative effects of interparental conflict are mediated by children's perceptions of parenting behavior. The analyses that made this association were based on children's reports of their own depressive symptoms and conduct problems. When analyses were based on maternal reports of children's symptoms, however, the same mediating effects were not found. Interparental conflict was negatively associated with children's perceptions of parental acceptance, and positively associated with perceptions of inconsistent discipline and hostile control. Overall, interparental conflict is significantly related to children's negative beliefs about the care their parents provide them. Parental acceptance and inconsistent discipline also exerted indirect effects on children's depression and conduct problems. The findings did not show hostile control to be a mediator between interparental conflict and children's depressive symptoms and conduct problems. One explanation is that harsh parenting may have an appropriate role in families who live in high-risk environments. Inconsistent discipline and hostile control were both positively associated with parental acceptance, further suggesting that these parenting dimensions may play a different role for low-income and minority families than white, middle class families. Finally, unresolved conflict was negatively associated with parental acceptance but not inconsistent discipline, while frequent conflict was positively associated with inconsistent discipline but not associated with parental acceptance. The authors suggest that interventions target the parent-child relationship in order to lessen the negative effects of interparental conflict in low-income families.
Lee, K., Carswell, J. J., & Allen, N. J. (2000). A meta-analytic review of occupational commitment: Relations with person- and work-related variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(5), 799-811.This study examined the relationship between person- and work- related variables and occupational commitment (OC). Data were collected through the use of database searches of research studies related to commitment, occupation, profession, career, and work, and analyzed through the use of Hunter and Schmidt's 1990 meta-analytic procedure of aggregated correlations. The results showed that demographic variables did not correlate significantly with occupational commitment. Occupational commitment was unrelated to gender, number of dependents, or marital status. Income was the variable that appeared most related to occupational commitment, perhaps because of the higher self-esteem of persons earning more. The hypothesis that occupational commitment was more related to work ethic than job involvement was not supported. Occupational commitment also seems to be affected by reactions to a particular job. The results also did not show a distinction between professional and nonprofessional occupational commitment, contrary to hypothesis. Locus of control was moderately correlated with occupational commitment: individuals with external locus of control had lower occupational commitment than those with internal locus of control. There was a strong relationship between occupational commitment and affective organizational commitment. There was a stronger relation between organizational and occupational commitment for professionals working in a corresponding organization than for those working in a non-corresponding organization. Occupational commitment also was weakly related to continuance commitment to the organization. The variable most strongly related to occupational commitment was occupational turnover intention, as hypothesized. The relation between occupational commitment and organizational turnover intention was mediated by occupational turnover intention, and occupational turnover intention was significantly related to organizational turnover intention. Occupational commitment was strongly related to occupational turnover intention for professional employees. Occupational commitment was moderately and positively related to supervisors' ratings of performance. These results suggest the importance of occupational turnover intention as a focus for future research.
Davis, B., Sheeber, L., Hops, H., & Tildesley, E. (2000). Adolescent responses to depressive parental behaviors in problem-solving interactions: Implications for depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 451-465.This study explores how child responses to interparental depressive behavior relate to subsequent child depression symptoms. The sample included 156 families who were part of a larger study of adolescent depression in western Oregon. Parents and adolescents in the study completed questionnaires and participated in videotaped problem-solving interactions. Overall, the results indicated that parental depressive behavior has an impact on child behavior and children's subsequent depression. Children appear to respond to both depressive and aggressive interparental behaviors. Female adolescents who showed the greatest increase in depression over time were those who engaged in facilitative behavior, such as "peacekeeping," to the mothers in reaction to the father directing depressive behavior toward the mother. This type of caretaking role calls upon children to tackle problems that are out of their control and is associated with self-blame, learned helplessness, and hopelessness which in turn lead to depressive symptomology. The results also showed that when female adolescents suppress anger toward mothers when mothers direct depressive behavior toward fathers, there is an increased risk of depressive symptoms for the adolescent. The findings showed opposite results for male adolescents. When the mother directed depressive behavior toward the father, the son was more likely to display aggressive behavior. Male adolescents are also more likely to react aggressively toward maternal aggressive behavior, indicating that male adolescents may have limited response skills for responding to interparental conflict. Adolescent depression was also significantly related to the adolescent's response toward the father's directing depressive behavior toward the mother, and this finding was true across gender. Future research should examine the degree to which the course of the interparental disagreement affects child outcomes as well as the family alliances that are formed as a result.
Wegar, K. (2000). Adoption, family ideology, and social stigma: Bias in community attitude, adoption research, and practice. Family Relations, 49(2), 363-370.This article discusses community attitudes toward adoption and how certain family ideologies affect adoption research and the beliefs and attitudes of adoption caseworkers. The author argues that the majority of Americans believe that genetic kinship is essential for a real or ideal family. The genetic family ideology's predominance has created a certain stigma around adoptive kinship, which permeates adoption research and adoption agency practices. Recent research provides evidence that adoptive family members experience social stigmatization, and because of stigma associated with adoptees' illegitimate birth and infertility among adopting couples. Adoption research has served to perpetuate these stigmas by focusing on the mental health problems and poorer outcomes of adopted children, while ignoring the impact of social stigmatization on adopted children and their families. Research has also framed adoption issues in psychopathological terms and placed emphasis on the less optimal genetic backgrounds of adoptees. There have also been studies focusing on the psychological problems experienced by the childless mother and her struggle with adopting a child and even mistreatment of the child as a result. In adoption practice, the same stigmas affect caseworkers' attitudes and handling of adoption cases. Some studies have shown adoption professionals to be even more instrumental in perpetuating adoption stigma because they are even less likely to recognize the problem of social stigma. If adoption professionals were to recognize the problem of social and cultural stigma, they would be in a better position to help adoptive families through the process and more effectively prepare them through special services and education. In addition, both researchers and adoption professionals should look to other American family models of kinship which place less emphasis on genetic ties. The authors note that low-income African American communities provide a good example of a more flexible definition of kinship, as do gay and lesbian parents. It is often the populations who have experienced social stigma themselves who offer a more flexible and functional definition of family. Researchers and adoption practitioners should learn from these communities as well as acknowledge the overall problem of social stigmatization of adoption in order to be truly effective in helping adoptive families.
Fagan, J. (2000). African American and Puerto Rican American parenting styles, paternal involvement, and Head Start children's social competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46(4), 592-612.This study examines the parenting styles and paternal involvement of low-income African American and Puerto Rican American parents and how child behavior is related to parenting styles and involvement. The sample included 52 African American and 21 Puerto Rican American parents with children in Head Start. The authors collected data through teacher ratings of child social competence, parent interviews, and survey instruments administered to parents. The findings showed that ethnicity was related to parenting style. Puerto Rican American parents were more nurturing, responsive, and consistent with their children than African American parents. A possible reason for this finding is that African American parents may place greater importance on obedience and self-control in raising their children to deal with racism and discrimination. There were no significant differences on these measures between mothers and fathers for either African Americans or Puerto Rican Americans. Puerto Rican American and African American parents scored similarly on level of paternal child-care involvement. The results also showed that ethnicity moderated the relationship between parenting style and child social competence: for Puerto Rican Americans, mothers' reports of responsiveness and consistency were significantly associated with child social competence, and fathers' responsiveness and consistence predicted child social behavior. For African Americans, the relationship between parenting style measures and child social competence was nonsignificant. Children with fathers who shared parenting scored lower in social competence than other children, but this finding was not significant for African American families. These findings suggest that there are important differences in parenting styles among ethnic groups, and that the differences between mothers' and fathers' parenting styles may not be as great as formerly predicted.
Barth, R. P., Miller, J. M. (2000). Building effective post-adoption services: What is the empirical foundation? Family Relations, 49(4), 447-455This article discusses the ways in which adoption outcomes can be improved by post-adoption services that are more suited to the needs and preferences identified by families. Despite the fact that most adoptions are successful, many adopted children and their families face a variety of problems associated with their adoptive status. The quality and nature of post-adoption services depends on whether adopted children have unusual needs which can be met through existing services. Numerous studies have addressed this issue, some finding that adopted children have higher incidences of problems such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADHD), conduct disorders, and antisocial behavior. However, the demographics of adoptive families many help explain these findings: Adoptive families tend to be wealthier, more educated, and more involved in human services and as a result may be more prone to noticing and reporting these problems in their children. Many researchers seem to agree, however, that the older the adopted child, the greater the chances of disruption of the adoption. Chances of disruption are also increased when the adoptive family lacks prior experience with adoption, and among younger mothers and mothers with higher education who tend to adopt children who are more troubled. Pre-adoption services should encourage parents to have reasonable expectations about adoption and be clear with parents about the difficulties which often occur. Post-adoption services desired by parents can be categorized in three ways: 1) Educational and informational services, which emphasize full disclosure of information to adoptive parents concerning the child's history and the problems which could arise; 2) Clinical services, which offer counseling for the child and the parents, and 3) Material services, which include medical care, special education options, and adoption subsidies. The authors also maintain that post-adoption services should be based less on attachment theory than on family systems models, which have the flexibility to change over time as the family relationships develop in the larger social context. Public policy should focus more on this dynamic approach in developing interventions, programs, and services for adoptive families and their children.
Poertner, J., McDonald, T. P., & Murray, C. (2000). Child welfare outcomes revisited. Children and Youth Services Review, 22(9-10), 789-810.This article discusses the use of outcome measures in child welfare and determines whether there can be broader agreement on the definitions of outcome measures and the standards for evaluating success. There have been attempts on the part of state and federal legislatures to encourage agencies to develop a more outcome-oriented focus, in part because of the rising costs of public child welfare. Defining child welfare outcomes within the realm of public child welfare agencies has been a slow process, however. Three broad categories have become standard for child welfare outcome measures. The first is child safety, as measured by the child abuse and neglect recidivism after the case is closed, the abuse and neglect while the case is active, and the abuse and neglect recidivism while in substitute care. These categories have changed little in the past several years, and should be expanded. The second category is permanency outcome, which has received a great deal of agency attention because of large amounts of available data focusing on permanency. The third outcome category is well being, which is harder to measure and receives little attention in child welfare literature. However, an article by Mech (1994) categorizes well-being outcomes by education, employment, housing, support networks, and cost to community. It is also necessary to set standards by which outcomes are judged once they are identified and categorized. The author suggests three possible sources for setting standards. The first is an agency's own history; second is experts' opinions, and third is performance of similar programs. For the safety and permanence outcomes, standardization is necessary for establishing abuse and neglect, as well as adoption disruption. It is especially difficult to set standards for child and family well being, since there is so little existing data available. The author suggests that outcome reports be routinely available at the team level within agencies, and there be ways to involve clients in data gathering, and there be more uniformity of data use across different agencies. Overall, there is room for clarification and consistency of reporting of child welfare agency outcomes, which will, in turn, lead to better services for children and their families.
Waldfogel, J. (2000). Child welfare research: How adequate are the data? Children and Youth Services Review, 22(9-10), 705-741.This article discusses research on child welfare, focusing on efforts to improve data collection and outcome measurement for children at risk of abuse or neglect, placement in foster care or kinship care, or adoption. Three studies of outcomes of children in foster care illustrate trends in child welfare research: Maas and Engler's 1959 cross-sectional study, Fanshel and Shinn's 1978 longitudinal study, and the Wald, et al. 1988 study. Wald found that foster children may not be as disadvantaged as the two previous studies found, illustrating that more advanced study designs produced different results. Cross sectional datasets, however, have become more formalized through the development of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), which coordinates data collected from state level agencies. To formalize data collection on foster care, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) required states to submit data. This sharply increased the amount of data available. More data is needed for researchers to be able to compare child welfare systems across states and over time, as well as to analyze factors associated with entry and re-entry into care, exits from care, and other variables. Kinship care and adoption are other areas that can benefit from enhanced databases. Child welfare researchers must have access to longitudinal data. One development is the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW), which provides descriptive data on children and families involved with the child welfare system, their experiences with the system, and their long- and short-term outcomes. The NSCAW follows children and their families for three years, collecting data from parents, children, caseworkers, caregivers, and teachers. NSCAW also collects data on foster care, kinship care, and adoption. AFCARS also has the potential for collecting longitudinal data; other surveys include the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Outcome assessment can be summarized in three categories: safety, permanency, and well being. Of the three, permanency is the category for which the most data exists. Child and family well being is the category in the most need of a formalized system of identifying and tracking. The most pressing need in child welfare research is for a population-based sample of children at risk for abuse and neglect.
Kelly, J. B. (2000). Children's adjustment in conflicted marriage and divorce: A decade review of research. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 963-973.This article reviews research from the 1990s concerning the effects of divorce and marital conflict on children's adjustment. Several studies have shown that marital conflict is an important predictor of child adjustment, often affecting children years before divorce or separation occurs. Children of marriages with high levels of conflict have shown symptoms such as conduct disorders, antisocial behaviors, peer difficulty and academic achievement problems, symptoms which are very similar to those found in children of divorce. High intensity conflict has been associated with anxiety and insecure attachment in young children, while hostile conflict styles have been associated with externalizing and internalizing behavior in children. Several researchers have identified buffers against the negative consequences of growing up with high parental conflict, such as sibling support, parental warmth, having a good relationship with at least one parent, and peer support. Researchers have also differentiated between direct and indirect effects of marital conflict. Direct negative effects include children's modeling of parental behaviors, while indirect effects occur when high levels of parental conflict negatively affect parenting behaviors. Children of divorce are also at risk for adjustment and achievement problems, including externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Children of divorce are often adversely affected by a decline in their standard of living after divorce, and are more at risk for drug use, lower academic performance and behavior problems. However, divorced children whose fathers remain involved with their school activities have better outcomes. Another major finding was that young adults whose high-conflict parents divorced were better off than were young adults whose high-conflict parents did not divorce. The research also shows a decrease in the number of children who have zero contact with their fathers, although contact still tends to decline as the children grow older. Mothers' attitudes strongly determined the effectiveness of post-divorce father involvement, and quality of father contact was more important than quantity. Joint custody led to better child outcomes overall. A growing number of interventions have been effective in reducing the adverse effects of divorce on children, such as divorce education programs which inform parents of the risks of divorce to children. Divorce and custody mediation has helped to reduce conflict between parents and should continue to be made available to all parents going through divorce or separation.
Marsiglio, W., & Cohan, M. (2000). Contextualizing father involvement and paternal influence: Sociological and qualitative themes. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 75-95.This paper examines issues of father involvement with and influence on their children using several sociological perspectives. The authors note several sorting variables that differentiate fathers according to circumstances that cause them to behave in different ways. Economics, gender, and race are key variables, with economics being perhaps the most prominent because of expectations that the provider role is an essential part of responsible fatherhood. Race and gender contribute to larger economic patterns, which affect fathers' levels of involvement with their children. For example, the smaller wage gap between African American men and women and African American men's' high unemployment gives women more bargaining power over who is in a better position to care for the children. There are also several ways to organize contexts of father involvement. One is in terms of groups as manifestations of collective behavior or social movements; another is group ideology, rhetoric, and tactics; and a third is social impact. An example of a group context for fatherhood was the Million Man March, which delivered a direct message about African American fatherhood in a racialized society. Other community based and nationally based groups have set forth missions concerning fatherhood in different contexts. Sociologists also study father involvement and paternal influence in terms of social capital. Social capital focuses on the contributions made by fathers to their children's beliefs and behaviors concerning the larger community. Another broad area of study is the ways in which men form their identity as fathers and co-construct fathering with the help of outside forces. Fathers form their identities in part based on the expectations others have on them, such as at their places of employment and leisure. In turn, these identity constructions impact fathers' behavior outcomes. Some sociologists use the dramaturgical approach, which assumes that fatherhood changes in an ongoing interactional way depending on input from others. Yet another approach, interpretive practice, focuses on how father identity is maintained through talk and narrative. These sociological approaches are helpful because they treat father involvement as an ongoing, negotiated process shaped by socially constructed circumstances, therefore open to discourse.
Hewlett, B. S. (2000). Culture, history, and sex: Anthropological contributions to conceptualizing father involvement. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 59-73.This paper discusses several anthropological approaches and studies that have shaped the way father involvement is conceptualized in the United States. The author argues that culture provides the basis in discussions of anthropology, defined as a construct of shared knowledge passed non-biologically through generations. From this point of view, it becomes obvious that concepts of fatherhood are not universal, but vary from one to culture to another. For example, in a study of the Aka people (Hewlett, 1991), the author finds a much higher degree of father participation in infant care than is found in the United States. Past studies have shown that father participation in infant care influences the ways boys learn about masculinity, and makes them less likely to devalue feminine qualities. Other studies show that in some cultures, fathers do not hold their infants at all, though they help with their care in other ways. Overall conceptions of fatherhood have changed over time. The author finds that there are several ways in which fathers contribute to their children, with the relative importance of each type of contribution varying throughout history. Different ecologies and modes of production have greatly affected father involvement. Also, the fathers' role today is unique in human history. For example, fathers are less likely now to be their children's defenders and educators, because the state has largely taken over these responsibilities. In addition, material wealth has surpassed kin resources such as family size in importance as a fatherhood priority. Several studies have focused on father investment in children, in terms of the amount of resources a father has to invest or chooses to invest in this children. The concept of investment is also related to female mate selection, with some researchers finding that women select men with more resources to care for children. There are several factors identified by anthropologists as contributing to higher levels of father involvement across cultures, such as close husband-wife relations, equal male-female contribution to diet, lack of regular warfare, and lack of cultural priority placed on material wealth accumulation. The author notes that cultural change is most likely to happen when people build on existing beliefs and practices, and that overall, father involvement should be encouraged for better family and child outcomes.
Gal, J., & Doron, A. (2000). Dealing with the elusive welfare-to-work issue: the case of poverty traps in Israel. Social Policy and Administration, 34(3), 253-273.This paper focuses on the Israeli national welfare system in a discussion of poverty traps that occur in welfare states and act as disincentives to work for people in poverty. The poverty trap is described as a system that causes low-income people to lose disposable income and benefits as they increase their earnings when they move from welfare to paid work. In some countries, the poverty trap can be attributed to the interaction between benefits and the tax system, whereby poorer people are forced into a tax bracket that requires a higher percentage of their income than those in the highest-earning populations. In the Israeli system, the poverty trap results from a slightly different set of factors. Tax margins are high enough in Israel so that a greater proportion of the population pays no income tax at all. However, the welfare system has stringent work requirements coupled with National Insurance (NI) contributions and health care contributions. Health insurance is deducted from any income level, and NI contributions begin to rise at low incomes. Even more importantly, the Israeli system includes a "wage stop", or income ceiling, as part of the income support program. The wage stop, which insures that benefits cannot be received at a certain level of income, acts as a serious disincentive to work, yet is coupled with income disregards that encourage moving from welfare to work. These factors primarily affect low-income single people, couples, and couples with children, causing disincentives to work. When any of these family configurations reach a certain income, their disposable income drops perceptibly. Even couples with children, who receive higher benefits, experience a drop in disposable income when their earnings increase. For single mothers with children, the poverty trap is much more moderate because this group is granted a high tax allowance, so income does not drop as quickly and drastically as earnings increase. The Israeli case is a clear example of the problems that arise when welfare states begin to place heavy emphasis on work but continue to have built-in poverty traps within their existing systems.
Klawitter, M., Plotnick, R. D., & Edwards, M. E. (2000). Determinants of initial entry onto welfare by young women. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(4), 527-546.This study examines the circumstances of young women's initial entry into welfare. The authors use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY), a nationally representative sample of young men and women. The sample for the present study included 2,153 women aged 14 to 16 in 1979; the participants responded to survey questions regarding their participation in Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The results showed a positive association between the presence of an AFDC program and welfare entry. However, there was little support for the idea that higher welfare benefits encourage earlier entry into the program. Financial or other incentives for entry into welfare have varied effects on the timing or extent of welfare participation. The results also showed that living with a more educated mother decreases the likelihood of receiving AFDC, as does living for a longer period with both parents as a child. Growing up with more siblings increased the chances of entering the AFDC program, as did growing up in a poor family. Women with more positive attitudes toward school, as well as those women with greater aversion toward welfare, were less likely to enter AFDC. Women with less traditional attitudes towards gender roles and women's work were more likely to go on AFDC, though this result was conditional on pregnancy. Women with childhood religious affiliations were less likely to receive AFDC than were women who grew up with no religious affiliation. Black and Hispanic women, after controlling for other characteristics, were more likely to go on AFDC than were women of other races and ethnicities. The results suggest that entry into welfare is not as affected by the financial or other incentives associated with welfare. School-related factors may offer the best solutions to reducing early entry into welfare.
Campbell, S. B., Shaw, D. S., & Gilliom, M. (2000). Early externalizing behavior problems: Toddlers and preschoolers at risk for later maladjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 12(3), 467-488.This article examines the early emergence and developmental implications of externalizing behaviors in toddlers and preschoolers using longitudinal research of children at risk for psychopathology. Externalizing symptoms include aggression toward peers, marked noncompliance, high activity levels, and poor regulation of impulses. While these behaviors are considered normal toddler behavior in most cases, they can also signal later developmental and behavior problems. Research in the past several decades has focused on attachment theory and other models which link parent-child relationships with child development, resulting in widespread diagnoses of Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorders (CD). There have been mixed findings regarding the pathways of development from early externalizing behaviors to more serious problems later in childhood, and the role of family context and parental behavior in these pathways. Researchers generally find that the connection between genetic predisposition and childrearing and social experiences is characterized by a complex and varying set of factors. Several studies have shown that the presence of multiple risk factors is the strongest predictor that early externalizing behaviors will develop into more persistent problems. Limited parental warmth and involvement, ineffective discipline strategies, and low family income are considered risk factors. Some researchers have focused on constellations of families with similar characteristics, rather than risk factors, to study externalizing problems in childhood. The author also notes the importance of mediating factors such as social networks or better parent functioning. To better understand the factors affecting the development of conduct problems in early childhood, the author suggests the need for prospective, longitudinal studies that include multiple factors and use a developmental approach. Biological processes also can be helpful in understanding factors such as emotion regulation and impulse control. Research should take into account neighborhood influences and issues of culture and ethnicity in order to inform effective social policy pertaining to high-risk children living in high-risk environments.
Moen, P., & Yu, Y. (2000). Effective work/ life strategies: Working couple, work conditions, gender, and life quality. Social Problems, 47(3), 291-326.This study investigated working couples' strategies for managing work/life pressures and how work conditions, workers' life stage, and couples' management strategies predicted psychological life quality. The authors used data from the 1992 National Study of the Changing Workforce, for a representative sample of 3,381 men and women who were interviewed regarding work and family management and demographic characteristics. The findings showed that overall, working couples' adaptive strategies continue to be grounded in the male as breadwinner, wife as homemaker model. Most couples appeared to adopt a neo-traditional arrangement, in which the wife worked reduced or regular hours at a job, while the husband worked longer hours at a career. When both men and women worked regular 40-hour weeks rather than longer hours, both reported higher quality of life. Women in non-professional jobs who were married to men in professional jobs also reported higher life quality. Life quality reports were predicted by whether the respondents were working the hours that they felt were ideal. Individuals who worked more hours than they desired reported more work/life conflict, stress, overload, and less coping/mastery. The gap between hours worked and hours desired was greater for men than women, perhaps because men are structurally unable or unwilling to cut back on their work hours. Another way of adapting to the dual-earner arrangement is by choosing certain types of jobs. Those with demanding jobs and little autonomy reported the lowest life quality. Women were more likely to report that their husbands' jobs were more important than their own, and to report less autonomy and more stress. These findings suggest that the balance of work and family in most couples is maintained mostly by women, and that couples' work arrangements and circumstances are always in flux. Future research should continue the inquiry into the factors that allow for better quality of life in working couples.
Mandara, J., & Murray, C. B. (2000). Effects of parental marital status, income, and family functioning on African American adolescent self-esteem. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(3), 475-490. This study examined the ways in which marital status, family income, and family functioning affected self-esteem of African American adolescents. The authors administered questionnaires to a sample of 116 African American fifteen-year-old students. The results of the present study showed that the effects of marital status alone significantly affected African American adolescent boys' self-esteem, but not girls' self-esteem. Boys with married parents had higher self-esteem, self-control, feelings of personal power, and perceptions of body functioning than did boys living with a mother only. Girls living in both one- and two-parent families scored higher on self-esteem dimensions than did boys with only a mother. Overall, boys who grow up without a father living in the home are at a higher risk for developing low overall self-esteem than other adolescents are. Parental marital status had no effect on girls' perceptions of family functioning but had a marginal effect on boys' perceptions of family functioning. Boys who grew up with married parents had higher perceptions of body functioning than did boys with mothers only and girls in both groups. These findings support the idea that boys identify with their fathers and girls identify with their mothers as an important part of self-esteem and identity development. The results also supported the theory that parents are more permissive with children of the opposite sex and stricter with children of the same sex. Adolescents with higher family income had higher self-images and higher self-control. Family income also affected boys' perceptions of the quality of family functioning. Girls were not as affected by family income, perhaps because of lack of pressure to contribute to family income in single-mother families. Family functioning significantly predicted self-esteem for both boys and girls. Girls seemed to be more affected by family relational factors, whereas boys were more sensitive to family systems. Family functioning was a better predictor of self-esteem than family structure for girls, but not for boys, who were equally as sensitive to marital status and other family status indicators. These findings point to the important role of fathers in socializing children, and policy should try to address lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates.
Marsiglio, W., Day, R. D., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Exploring fatherhood diversity: Implications for conceptualizing father involvement. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 269-293.This paper uses a social constructionist perspective to investigate theoretical and political complexities surrounding the study of father involvement. The author notes several research themes, including the ways in which social demographic patterns affect the way fatherhood is studied. In addition, gender is also an important organizer of social life that affects fatherhood patterns. Life course and developmental issues of fatherhood are useful as well in studying fatherhood over time and from different perspectives within families. There are different types of fatherhood, and researchers have recently sought to broaden its definition. Four main categories are noted: biological, married fathers living with the mother and children; biological fathers living with their children but not the mother and not married to the mother; unmarried biological fathers not living with the mother or children; and adoptive or informal stepfathers living either with or apart from the children. More and more, biological fathers are disengaging from their children or were never involved, while there are more and more men who fill the role of father informally. In conventional nuclear families, men's motivations for fatherhood might focus on the genetic or marital connection, while nonconventional fathers focus more on the social aspects of fatherhood. Focusing on social fatherhood, the author notes that the definition of father involvement is expanded. Paternal influence is one component, expressed through nurturance and care provision, moral and ethical guidance, support of female partners, and economic provision. Time commitment, salience of particular activities, and nonobservable involvement are important involvement measures. Some researchers note the importance of studying father motivation, which encompasses love for the children, societal or religious incentives, and early family experiences in addition to genetic propagation. Family processes are also noted by the author as important determinants of father involvement, including distance regulation, parental support, and flexibility. Overall, social research of fatherhood issues should work toward a broader conceptualization of fatherhood as determined from multiple viewpoints and contexts.
Parke, R. D. (2000). Father involvement: A developmental psychological perspective. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 43-58.This paper provides a developmental psychological perspective of father involvement. There have been several definitions of father involvement. One researcher identified three components: interaction, availability, and responsibility, which can be placed in the context of father contact with children and the care provided by fathers. Other researchers have focused on the managerial aspects of fathering, such as the ways in which fathers organize their children's home environments. Involvement can also be quantified by examining the cognitive aspects of fathering, which include joint planning between father and child, or planning for the child's future. It is also useful to distinguish between the quantity and quality of father involvement. The developmental perspective is also a useful way to study involvement because it takes into account the changing nature of father-child relationships and fathers' impact on children's development. The developmental perspective also takes a life-course view of fatherhood, examining issues such as the timing of fatherhood in relation to age, education, occupation, and life style. The life course view also takes into account historical influences on fathering, such as the Great Depression and the Midwest Farm Crisis (Conger & Elder, 1994). Another important aspect of fathering is the need to recognize the variability among groups of minority fathers and the effects of cultural context. Research has mostly focused either on white, middle class fathers, or poor, African American fathers, and has perpetuated stereotypes about each. It is important for researchers to recognize the diversity that exists within different racial and ethnic groups and to expand the focus to other minority groups. There are also different methods of study for father involvement, such as the observational method, which studies father-child interactions up close. Also, multi-stage sampling allows for larger, more representative samples. Future research should utilize these methods as well as continue the search for better methods for studying father involvement.
Lerman, R., & Sorensen, E. (2000). Father involvement with their nonmarital children: Patterns, determinants, and effects on their earnings. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 137-158.This paper examines the relationship between earnings and involvement for fathers with children born outside of marriage. The authors use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative sample of men and women who were first interviewed as teenagers and subsequently reinterviewed each year from 1979 until 1994. The results show that overall, fathers of children born outside of marriage show a high degree of involvement in the children's lives. A high percentage of these fathers live with their children or visit often. Race and ethnic origin significantly determined father involvement even after accounting for unemployment rates, test scores, school attainment, and fathers' age. Hispanic fathers showed the highest rates of involvement and were the most likely to live with the child and least likely to visit infrequently or not at all. African American fathers were least likely to live with the child but most likely to visit at least once a week. Growing up without a father increased father involvement at first, but this involvement was not sustained after several years by this particular group of fathers. The ages of the father and children seemed to relate to involvement on several measures. The younger the child and the older the father, the more likely that the father was involved. Fathers who married the child's mother were more likely to sustain involvement with the child over time, whereas fathers who did not marry the mother showed a tendency for their involvement to erode over time. Father involvement also seems to positively affect hours worked and earnings over time. These findings should encourage policymakers to continue to promote father involvement as it is beneficial for child outcomes and possibly better labor market outcomes for fathers.
Kamo, Y. (2000). "He said, she said:" Assessing discrepancies in husbands' and wives' reports on the division of household labor. Social Science Research, 29, 459-476.This study examines discrepancies in husbands' and wives' reports on the division of household labor. The sample included 4122 married Non-Hispanic white and African American couples from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). Participants were interviewed regarding their own and their spouses' participation in household tasks. Overall, there were systematic discrepancies found between husbands' and wives' reports of tasks performed by husbands, but not those performed by wives. Husbands were likely to overestimate their own contributions and wives were likely to underestimate their husbands'. Husbands also showed a tendency to overestimate their wives' time spent shopping and paying bills, perhaps because of husbands' inefficiency in performing these tasks. Discrepancies appear to result from social desirability of certain tasks as well as resentment. Whether wives' perceive the relationship as fair affects discrepancies, as measured by husbands' relative share. Wives' resentment with the current status seems to be an important factor. Length of the marriage seems to decrease discrepancies, possibly because estimates are reported more accurately over the duration of the marriage. In addition, the best measure of the division of household labor is the husbands' relative share, as well as combined estimates of labor division, rather than the actual time spent in household tasks. Future research should continue to use reports collected from multiple family members, which will be helpful for studying other aspects of family life.
Furstenberg, F. F., & Weiss, C. C. (2000). Intergenerational transmission of fathering roles in at-risk families. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 181-201.This study examines long-term paternal involvement and whether patterns of fatherhood are transmitted across generations. The sample included 110 males from the Baltimore Parenthood Study, a 30-year longitudinal study of teenage parents. Participants were interviewed regarding their parenting practices and their own histories with their fathers. The results showed that there were many young men who were upset by the absence of their fathers. Many of the men had lived with some sort of father figure and had some contact with him, but most did not have day to day involvement with nonresident fathers. These fathers, whether biological or non-biological, were not a steady presence in the children's lives. Overall, less than a quarter of the males in the study had experienced continuous father presence in the home into their adolescent years. When they did experience continuous father presence, it was usually not the biological father. Only 17% of boys who did not grow up with their biological father living in the home said they wanted to be like him when they grew up. Additionally, few of the men reported close relationships with stepfathers or surrogate fathers, even if he had lived in the home for several years. Among young men whose fathers had not resided with them for more than 5 years or who did not reside with them in adolescence, the odds of early fatherhood were increased. Their odds of early fatherhood were significantly higher than for those who lived with their fathers continuously through adolescence. Having a stepfather in the home throughout childhood only slightly increased the odds of early fatherhood. The timing of first birth did not appear related to the son's relationship with either his mother or his father. Compared with sons whose fathers had lived with them continuously, sons who did not live with their biological father were much less likely to be living with their own sons. Two-parent families in the study were better off financially than the single-parent families. In general, the presence of a stable male figure in the home appears to predict better outcomes, but future research is needed to determine exactly why.
Hoynes, H. W. (2000). Local labor markets and welfare spells: Do demand conditions matter? Review of Economics and Statistics, 82(3), 351-368.This study investigates the impact of labor market conditions on participation in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in California. The author used a sample of 15,000 cases from the Longitudinal Database of Cases (LDB), which includes administrative records of AFDC receipt from 1987 to 1992 and characteristics of recipient families. The author compared the case data from the sample to several labor market variables. The results showed that when earnings are higher and there are more jobs available, recipients are more likely to leave and stay off welfare. When employment growth is lower, and there is a low employment-to-population ratio, and lower wage growth, recipients tend to remain longer on welfare and are less likely to leave. The results also showed that models based on employment-based measures perform better than do models based on unemployment rates when controlling for labor market conditions. A 10% increase in employment or a 3.5% reduction in the employment-to-population ratios lead to a 7-15% reduction in the chance that a family will leave AFDC within a year and a 6-15% decrease in the chance of returning to welfare within a year. These changes are typical of the recession and recovery of the 1990s. When earnings are increased by 5%, the one-year exit rate is reduced by 5-7%. Latinos, African Americans, and two-parent families are the most sensitive to changes in local labor market conditions. Overall, increases in earnings coupled with increases in employment opportunities cause an 11-12% increase in the likelihood that a welfare spell ends within a year and the odds of returning to welfare within a year are reduced by 10-11%. The author concludes from these findings that economic growth can not significantly reduce reliance on public assistance, though it can reduce the demand for welfare somewhat. However, these results suggest that labor market conditions can be informative for research about AFDC caseloads and program expenditures.
Zimmerman, M. A., Salem, D. A., & Notaro, P. C. (2000). Make room for daddy II: The positive effects of fathers' role in adolescent development. In R. D. Taylor & M. C. Wang, et al. (Eds.), Resilience across contexts: Family, work, culture, and community (pp. 233-253). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.This chapter presents a study of the relationship between father involvement and problem behavior among inner-city adolescents. The author included a sample of 568 at-risk adolescents from a larger longitudinal study of urban adolescents. The sample was representative of the population of a major urban center in the region, and participants were interviewed in person regarding problem behavior and father involvement. The results showed that problem behavior factors included polydrug use, delinquency, and violent behavior. Father involvement when the youth was in 10th grade was associated with less problem behavior the next year, specifically if the father provided school support. When the authors tested this association for African American youths only, the results remained the same. Overall, father involvement seemed to play a vital role in helping adolescents avoid problem behavior. These results suggest that father involvement is very important for adolescent resiliency from the risk factors associated with inner-city life. Other researchers have shown that fathers continue to express warmth and acceptance as children grow older but begin to focus on promoting independence and responsibility rather than providing basic care. Fathers also appear to want to be involved with their children's education and career development. Overall, these findings suggest the importance of including father involvement in research about adolescent development.
Greene, A. D., & Moore, K. A. (2000). Nonresident father involvement and child well-being among young children in families on welfare. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 159-180.This study investigates the factors associated with father involvement among nonresident fathers of young children who receive welfare, as well as whether nonresident father involvement is associated with better outcomes for children. The sample included 693 African American never-married mothers and their children that participated in the NEWWS Child Outcome Study. The authors conducted interviews with participants and administered school readiness assessments to the children in the sample. The findings showed that overall, most of the nonresident fathers in the sample were at least minimally involved with their children. Three forms of support were noted: 16.6% of the father provided support through the formal child support system, 42.3% provided informal support, and 67% visited at least once in the last year. There was a strong association between informal support and visitation. Father's residence in the same state as the child and support from the father's family were associated with all three forms of involvement. Fathers whose families also provide support such as clothes, toys, and child care are much more likely to be involved than are fathers whose families are not involved with the child. Generally, both formal and informal child support are positively associated with better child outcomes. Mothers who receive support from fathers reported better social and emotional adjustment for their children, as well as fewer behavior problems. The findings also showed that informal child support seems to increase the association between father involvement and child well being. While formal child support also had positive effects, informal child support was associated with improvements in the child's home environment, especially the level of available cognitive stimulation. There was no association between visitation and child well being. More research is needed to determine in more detail the effects of father involvement on children, but these results suggest that father involvement should be encouraged in divorced and never-married families.
Lindsey, E., & Mize, J. (2000). Parent-child physical and pretense play: Links to children's social competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46(4), 565-591.This study examines the connection between parent-child pretense and physical play and children's social competence. The sample consisted of 54 mothers and 36 fathers and their children. The majority of the families were European American and middle to upper class. Parents completed questionnaires and participated in videotaped interactions with their children in pretense-oriented sessions (using toys such as blocks) and physical-oriented sessions (using bats and balls). The most consistent correlation between parent-child play and children's social competence was found in parent-child mutual compliance, or balance between parent and child interaction in the play sessions. Mother-child mutual compliance during both the physical and pretense sessions was associated with children's social competence as reported by teachers. Mutual compliance between children and fathers was associated with children's peer acceptance. The results also showed that parental involvement in both pretense and physical play was associated with children's social competence. Mother involvement in pretense play was related to girls' competence and peer acceptance as reported by teachers, and father involvement in pretense play was associated with general competence as reported by teachers. No connections were found between joint parent-child physical play and children's social competence. Pretense play seemed to make more of an impact on children's competence scores than physical play. Children's social competence as measured by peers was also related to children's emotional knowledge. Balanced levels of compliance in mother-son dyads on pretense play predicted higher emotional knowledge in boys, and father involvement and balanced compliance during physical play and pretense play predicted boy's higher emotional knowledge. Children's self-efficacy was negatively associated with social competence measures, while mother-child mutuality mediated teacher-rated children's social competence.Future studies should investigate the amount of time parents and children spend in play activities and how it affects children's outcomes.
Buchanan, A., Brinke, J. T., & Flouri, E. (2000). Parental background, social disadvantage, public "care," and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(11), 1415-1423.This study investigated whether psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood can be traced to the structure of parental background (birth, restructured, widowed, single) or context (severe social disadvantage or care) in childhood. The authors used a sample of 8,441 persons from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) for whom there was mental health information at 16 and 33 years. Data for persons in the sample came from parents, teachers, school health officials, and the sample members themselves, and the sample is considered to be representative of the population of England, Scotland, and Wales. The findings showed that the structure of the family in which a child was brought up has much less effect than the context in predicting maladjustment in adolescence. Childhood experience of care and severe disadvantage was negatively associated with the child's intellectual ability, and predicted adolescent maladjustment. At the same time, childhood experience of single parenthood, with the exception of death of a parent, and the experience of care, significantly predicted adult psychological distress in men but not in women. Adult psychological distress was associated with psychosocial problems in adolescence as well as unemployment in adulthood. For women, depression in adult life was associated with low socioeconomic status, poor health habits, and the absence of a partner or any qualifications. For both men and women, high nonverbal skills in childhood appeared to mediate the tendency to distress in adulthood. Overall, high intellectual abilities in childhood seemed to protect against maladjustment adolescence and adulthood. For women, psychosocial problems in adolescence, low social class, smoking and drinking habits, and low nonverbal skills in childhood predicted the tendency to distress at 33. These predictors did not have the same effect on men's adult distress; men's distress at 33 was predicted by childhood experience of care, single parenthood, low reasoning skills in childhood, maladjustment in adolescence, and adult unemployment. Future research should focus on the effects of social disadvantage as a predictor for adult mental health.
Fox, G. L., Bruce, C., & Combs-Orme, T. (2000). Parenting expectations and concerns of fathers and mothers of newborn infants. Family Relations, 49, 123-131.This paper presents a study that investigates fathers' and mothers' parenting expectations and concerns at the birth of their newborn children. The authors interviewed mothers with newborns in two hospitals in Tennessee, and then interviewed fathers. The final sample included 88 mothers and 54 fathers, and consisted of both teenage and older parents, and represented white, black, and Asian parents. The results showed that fathers had high levels of expectations for their participation and support for their infants. Most of the fathers expected to be very involved with the care of their newborns. However, the types of care they expected to participate in generally followed traditional lines as provider roles. African American fathers had higher levels of expectations for helping with baby care and chores around the home, but were less likely to expect to provide emotional support for the baby's mother. Mothers generally had lower expectations of father care than fathers did. Overall, parents expressed high levels of confidence in their ability to care for their newborns. Mothers expressed less concern than fathers did. Fathers concerns were mainly in the area of provider role, suggesting that that role may cause high strain for fathers. Both fathers and mothers did express some concerns about behaving in potentially abusive ways toward their children, which should be investigated further in future studies. These findings are important in that they show that parents have a sense of potentially serious problems before they happen, and perhaps suggest that parenting education should be delivered sooner after the birth of the child than later.
Kim, S. Y., & Ge, X. J. (2000). Parenting practices and adolescent depressive symptoms in Chinese American families. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(3), 420-435.This study investigated the relationship between parenting practices and adolescent depressive symptoms in Chinese American families. The authors administered questionnaires to a sample of 95 adolescents, 86 mothers, and 84 fathers from Chinese American families living in northern California. The majority of the parents were immigrants, while most of the adolescents had been born in the United States, and the families were of working class to middle-class backgrounds. The findings showed that in their parenting practices, Chinese American parents who use inductive reasoning are more likely to monitor the activities of their adolescents, while parents who use harsh discipline are less likely to monitor their adolescents and less likely to use inductive reasoning in their parenting practices. Chinese American parents' depressive symptoms were also significantly associated with less effective parenting practices. Ineffective parenting practices, were, in turn, related to what was perceived by adolescents, which affected adolescents' own depressive symptoms. Therefore, parenting practices in Chinese American families are significantly related to adolescents' depressive symptoms. Adolescents' perceptions of inductive reasoning and high parental monitoring are related to their depressive symptoms, and adolescents' perceptions of harsh parental discipline were significantly related to their depressive symptoms. Family income and education were associated with Chinese American fathers' depressive symptoms but not mothers depressive symptoms. Family income and education were, however, related significantly to mothers' parenting practices: less harshness and higher degrees of monitoring and inductive reasoning characterized the parenting practices of mothers with higher income and education. Mothers' immigrant status was also related to adolescent depressive symptoms. The authors did not find significant gender differences in adolescents' depressive symptoms. The authors stress the need to design intervention programs with multilingual staff, which would provide support and education about parenting practices for Chinese American families.
Averett, S. L., Gennetian, L. A., & Peters, H. E. (2000). Patterns and determinants of paternal child care during a child's first three years of life. Marriage and Family Review, 29(2-3), 115-136. This study examined patterns and determinants of father care of young children while mothers are working. The authors use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a nationally representative sample of individuals born from 1957 through 1964 who were interviewed as teenagers and reinterviewed every subsequent year. The final sample for this study included 1188 children and their 863 mothers. The results showed that full-time working mothers are less likely to use father care. Fathers in occupations that require non-day shifts are more likely to provide child care. While some studies have shown that fathers are more likely to provide care if they are unemployed, the data here show that fathers who provide care are no more likely to be unemployed than fathers who do not provide care. Of all the children in the sample whose mothers worked during their first year of life, 4.2% were cared for exclusively by their fathers and 4.4% were cared for by their fathers and some other care provider. Children who lived in states where the costs of child care are higher were more likely to be cared for exclusively by fathers. Hispanics were less likely to use only father care, and families in which the mother identified with traditional gender roles were less likely to use father only care. Families living in the South were less likely to use some father care. The determinants of father care varied with the extent of the care provides as well as with the age of the child. Working mothers who identified with traditional gender role patterns were less likely to use father care exclusively during the child's first year, but the effect becomes insignificant if the child had both father care and other types of care. Work schedules were generally important in predicting the use of father care with other care. While Hispanics were less likely to provide father care, those living in areas with high unemployment were more likely to provide care. Whites and African Americans living in areas of high unemployment were less likely to provide father care. These findings suggest that one way to increase father involvement is to support flexible work schedules for fathers.
Brach, E. L., Camara, K. A., & Houser, R. F., Jr. (2000). Patterns of dinnertime interaction in divorced and non-divorced families. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 32(3-4), 125-139.This study compares patterns of dinnertime conversations between family members of divorced and non-divorced families. The sample included 82 New England families, with three different family structures: 35 two-parent families, 37 mother custody families, and 10 father custody families. Dinnertime interactions were observed by researchers who were present at the table and recorded the interactions verbatim. The findings showed that in families where one of the parents was absent, the interaction was different from that of two- parent families. Specifically, there was less speaking in divorced families overall. While single parents were more active in initiating and structuring conversation, their activity did not compensate for the absence of another adult. Parental input was less than children's input in single parent families, and girls spoke more frequently than boys did. In single parent homes, children accounted for more than half of the conversation. The gender of both the custodial parent and the child appeared to affect conversation processes. Father-custody dinners had less talk than mother-custody or two-parent dinners. The proportion of concrete, functional statements was higher in father-custody homes as well, largely focusing on the act of eating. Overall, mothers were more likely to develop and extend topics, while fathers were more likely to elicit information directly. Across the three family types, girls spoke more than boys did and mothers were more active in conversation than fathers were. These findings suggest the importance of having more than one adult present at dinnertime for the development of conversation, which in turn, contributes to children's growth.
Gorman-Smith, D., Tolan, P. H., Henry, D. B., Florsheim, P. (2000). Patterns of family functioning and adolescent outcomes among urban African American and Mexican American families. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(3), 436-457.This study compared family functioning and youth outcomes for African American and Mexican American families with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors used data from the Chicago Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of delinquent behavior economically disadvantaged adolescent boys. The sample for this study included 148 African American and 60 Mexican American families, who were interviewed in their homes by researchers of matching ethnicity. The findings showed differences over time in family functioning between inner-city African American and Mexican American families. African American families were more likely to be task-oriented and exceptionally functioning. Moderately functioning and struggling families were more prevalent among Mexican American. More African American families are less emotion-focused in their parenting practices than other ethnic groups, though greater diversity in family functioning patterns was found in African American families. African American families characterized as exceptional were marked by strong cohesion and beliefs about the importance of family relationships. The findings showed a higher percentage of struggling families in the Mexican American sample, perhaps because of the added pressures of acculturation and immigrant status. The authors note that despite the greater prevalence of struggling families in the Mexican American sample, the pattern occurred in less than 30% of the population. Overall, after controlling for socioeconomic status of both the African American and Mexican American samples, the relationship between family functioning over time and youth outcomes was very similar. Youth from exceptionally functioning families scored higher on outcome measures than youth from struggling families. The authors found differences between the two groups concerning education and educational aspirations. African American youth had higher educational aspirations and stronger attitudes toward school than Mexican American youth. The language barrier for Mexican American parental involvement could be a factor for this finding. There were no significant differences between the two groups in risk for either internalizing or externalizing behaviors. Time seemed to have an effect for African American adolescents' involvement in positive activities: this group's involvement dropped below Mexican Americans' involvement by the last wave of the survey. These results show that importance of studying behavior patterns over time and that exceptional family functioning may be somewhat protective against the stressors of living in a high-risk urban environment.
Heckert, D. A., & Gondolf, E. W. (2000). Predictors of underreporting of male violence by batterer program participants and their partners. Journal of Family Violence, 15(4), 423-443.This study examines the feasibility of predicting male and female underreporting of male violence at program intake, male-female disagreement at a 12-month follow-up, and possible predictors of underreporting measured at intake, such as demographic, relationship status, personality traits, and prior behavior. The authors use interview data from a multi-site database of batterers and their female partners which includes information from police reports, and collected reports of re-assaults after a 12-month follow-up. The sample includes 840 men, who tended to be young and of low socioeconomic status, from batterer programs from four major cities. Forty-five percent were white, 36% had more than a high school education, and 49% lived with their partners. One of the hypotheses, which predicted that men's personality traits would be the best predictors of male underreport, was not supported by the results. Male underreporting was more consistently predicted by social background and relationship variables, both at intake and follow-up. The authors tested several personality variables, none of which significantly predicted male underreporting at intake, and only two were significant at follow-up. The other hypothesis, which stated that relationship variables would be the best predictors of female underreport, was supported by the results. Relationship variables such as marital status and feelings of safety were the best predictors of female underreporting at intake. Two social background variables were predictive as well. Several men's personality variables and men's use of alcohol were predictors of underreporting, though these variables served more to influence the woman's perception of the relationship (supporting Hypothesis 2). It should be noted that for future research, systematic reporting biases may affect identification of factors predictive of re-assault, and that the scale used for this study may be more effective for general population surveys than for clinical studies.
Eamon, M. K. (2000). Structural model of the effects of poverty on externalizing and internalizing behaviors of four- to five-year-old children. Social Work Research, 24(3), 143-154.This study examines how parenting practices and poverty affect externalizing and internalizing behaviors of children four to five years old. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) provided the mother-child data, for a sample of 1,505 four and five-year-old children, including 384 African American, 287 Hispanic, and 834 white children. The authors interviewed participants, determining persistent, transitional, and recent poverty as well as family characteristics. The results showed that mothers who were recently poor were less likely to answer their children verbally, convey positive feelings and show affection than recently nonpoor mothers were. Children in recently poor families were also less likely to be provided with stimulating activities and this finding, coupled with mothers' emotional unresponsiveness, mediated the relationship between recent poverty and children's internalizing behaviors. Having fewer stimulating activities also increases children's tendencies of bullying, arguing, stubbornness, disobedience, and impulsiveness. The findings showed a connection between parenting practices and poverty: parental involvement and emotional responsiveness were vulnerable to income loss or recent poverty. There was no link between physical discipline and poverty, but physical discipline increased children's likelihood of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. As the number of years children spent in poverty increased, the likelihood of sadness, anxiety, and dependency increased as well. Conditions of poverty often cause families to experience additional stress and social isolation, which may cause parents to restrict their children's activities. Children who grow up in unclean, unsafe, cluttered, dark, or monotonous home environments are more likely to suffer internalizing behaviors related to persistent poverty. These results show that poverty has very significant negative effects on children's well being. The authors suggest that income transfer programs that are more generous and less stigmatizing may help decrease children's behavior problems.
Fergusson, D. M., Woodward, L. J. (2000). Teenage pregnancy and female educational underachievement: A prospective study of a New Zealand birth cohort. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 147-161.This study investigated the relationship between teenage pregnancy and educational underachievement among young women. The authors used a sample of 520 young women from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), a longitudinal study representative of the Maori and European-descended populations in New Zealand. The researchers collected data through parent interviews, teacher assessments, child interviews, and questionnaires. The results showed a significant association between teenage pregnancy and educational underachievement, particularly for participation and achievement at high school. Women who became pregnant before age 18 were 10 times more likely to leave high school than were women who did not become pregnant. Women who were pregnant before age 18 also received poorer scores on standardized tests. The risk of educational underachievement among pregnant teenagers was evident up to age 21. Young women at risk for early pregnancy appeared to have certain characteristics in their family background, such as social disadvantage associated with young and single motherhood, lower maternal education, low socioeconomic status, and below average living standards. Teenage mothers also tended to come from adverse family circumstances, such as punitive maternal behavior, interparental conflict, and parental change. Teenage mothers were also more likely to have performed poorly in school in middle childhood and early adolescence, and more likely to have had early adolescent conduct problems and attention problems. The results also showed that in the majority of cases, the young women became pregnant after leaving school, suggesting that early school-leaving might increase the risk of pregnancy, rather than the pregnancy disrupting educational completion. The authors conclude that young women in their teens who become pregnant tend to come from disadvantaged family backgrounds and are less academically inclined, and become pregnant after leaving school. These results highlight the need to provide more support and assistance for teenage mothers, since it appears that a disadvantaged background is more disruptive to young women's education than teenage pregnancy.
Kluwer, E. S., Heesink, J. A. M., & Van de Vliert, E. (2000). The division of labor in close relationships: An asymmetrical conflict issue. Personal Relationships, 7(3), 263-282.This paper presents findings from two studies for an investigation of the division of labor in close relationships and the use of conflict interactions in either changing or maintaining gendered division of labor. Study 1 used a sample of 121 husbands and 141 wives; and Study 2 used a different sample of 128 couples. The authors conducted a survey, which asked participants to respond to scenarios and questions pertaining to division of household chores, childcare, and paid work outside the home. The results for Study 1 showed that both husbands and wives reported more conflict over housework than childcare or paid work, and that wives were more likely to desire a change than husbands were. Both wives and husbands also reported more wife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction than vice-versa, but only when the wife was the complainant. The authors maintained that the defendants usually held an advantage over the complainants because the defendants wanted to maintain the status quo. Therefore, defendants determined the outcome more than complainants did. However, the results also showed that complainants were more likely to reach their goal when the conflict concerned their own stereotypical domain. Study 2 again showed that demand/withdraw patterns were most likely to occur over housework. Women appeared to be less satisfied with the division of housework than men, and men were more likely to try to maintain the status quo, resulting in conflict. Accomplishing change is difficult because complainants must go against the spirit of the times and work against relationship inertia, or slowness in adapting to new circumstances. On the other hand, when women were in the role of the complainant, they were more likely to reach their goals, but only in conflicts concerning housework or childcare, and husbands were more likely to reach their goal in conflicts over paid work. These findings provide a structural/behavioral explanation for why stereotyped division of labor persists among men and women. Demand/withdraw patterns that escalate conflict and status quo maintenance should be recognized as important barriers to gender role changes.
Florsheim, P. (2000). The economic and psychological dynamics of nonresident paternal involvement. In R. D. Taylor & M. C. Wang, et al., (Eds.), Resilience across contexts: Family, work, culture, and community (pp. 55-87). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.This book chapter discusses the economic, psychological, and social-environmental factors contributing to paternal involvement among nonresidential fathers. Recent research has yielded mixed findings concerning the effects of nonresidential father involvement on child development, but many have found that the quality of paternal involvement appears to matter more than quantity. Fathers influence their children's development directly through their parenting behavior, through parenting practices specific to a father role, and as influenced by their own demographic factors such as age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Fathers also impact their children's development indirectly through their relationships with the children's mother. Single motherhood is often associated with lower income, which can be a risk factor for children's development, and is greatly mediated by the nonresidential father's contributions. Single mothers also are at a higher risk for psychological distress, which, in turn, affects parenting practices. The author also discusses a possible model for understanding nonresidential paternal involvement through both cultural and psychological frameworks. There is no evidence that discrepancies in the incidence of rates of marriage or out-of-wedlock birth are related to culturally-based differences in attitudes toward marriage. Instead, these differences can be attributed to discrepancies in access to economic stability, which would allow fathers to provide for their children within a traditional father role. Several psychological factors have been identified by researchers as impacting nonresidential father involvement, such as role strain, investment in offspring born to more current partners, psychological dysfunction, parenting stress, parental conflict, attachment (repetition of their own experiences of being parented), and parental aggression. Nonresidential fathers can be helped by programs that provide them with skills designed to improve their market viability and opportunity, and programs should be culturally sensitive when addressing factors affecting father involvement.
Jeynes, W. H. (2000). The effects of several of the most common family structures on the academic achievement of eighth graders. Marriage and Family Review, 30(1-2), 73-97.This study investigates the ways in which family structure affects children's academic achievement. The sample was taken from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS, 1988), a nationally representative survey of 24,599 eighth grade students. Students, parents, and teachers completed questionnaires regarding family structure, scholastic performance, and demographic characteristics, and students completed achievement tests. The findings showed that the widowed, remarried, and cohabitation family structures had the most negative effects on academic achievement. The death of a parent adversely affects children's school performance, but the effects are worsened considerably when the living parent remarries. Children living with never-married single parents had the greatest risk of declining school achievement, but when race and gender factors were added, the risk was greater for children of cohabiting parents. A possible reason for this finding is that children may respond negatively to the presence of a non-biological parent in the home. Three theoretical perspectives may explain these results. The first is the absent parent perspective, which suggests that children are negatively affected by the absence of one parent, either because of death, divorce, or parental remarriage. The socioeconomic perspective focuses on the drop in family income that occurs after marital disruption, and has been shown to have serious negative consequences for children. The non-parental adjustment perspective focuses on past research that finds that children must make adjustments to the addition of a caregiver who is not a biological parent, and these adjustments predict negative school performance and other developmental problems. The findings of this study indicate the need to study a broader host of factors that may mediate the influence of family structure on children's achievement and well being.
Lamb, M. E. (2000). The history of research on father involvement: An overview. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 23-42.This paper discusses fatherhood involvement research background and development from a sociological perspective. Three dimensions of fatherhood have been widely recognized by researchers over the last several decades. First, there has been widespread concern over fatherlessness and fathers' ability to provide for their children. Second, some researchers have focused on father-child interaction in the context of father provision of care, discipline, education, companionship, play, and supervision. Third, there has been a focus on fathers' relationships with mothers and the way these relationships determine family climate and child development and adjustment. Historically, the study of fatherhood has focused on different aspects of the role. The father role changed from one of moral teacher and guide, to breadwinner, to sex-role model, to new nurturant father. Social scientists have focused more recently on fathers' social roles, and studied the effects of father absence on children. Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1958, 1969) emerged out of the study of father absence and its effects on child development. Other social scientists have focused on the amount of time fathers spend with their children, which led to general interest in father involvement. Father involvement has three components as recognized by researchers: engagement, accessibility, and responsibility. Some studies have found that father involvement has increased since the 1970s. Another aspect of fathering that has been the subject of study is motivation, as determined by men's socio-cultural background, or their current social circumstances. Motivation determines levels of investment in each child. Other components of father involvement include economic support, nurturance, and caregiving. Future research should continue to pursue a more complete understanding of fatherhood and father involvement.
Kulik, L. (2000). The impact of gender and age on attitudes and reactions to unemployment: The Israeli case. Sex Roles, 43(1-2), 85-104.This study examined the ways in which gender and age predict attitudes and reactions to joblessness among a sample of unemployed individuals in Israel. The sample included 613 men and women from four different age groups. Most participants had been born in Israel but a small percentage had been born in Europe, Asia, Africa, the former USSR, and the United States. Participants responded to questionnaires regarding their reasons for rejecting employment, as well as their attitudes toward unemployment. Results showed that age and gender did not predict attitudes and reactions to unemployment, but that there were few interactions between gender and marital status. Gender differences were evident in relation to unemployment, but these differences were not related to age and were partially affected by marital status. Traditional gender role attitudes were found among unmarried young people, who were not yet even in such roles themselves. Women in all age groups and marital situations tended to turn down job opportunities which would clash with their family responsibilities, and they also turned down jobs that were considered masculine, or had adverse working conditions. Men, on the other hand, were much more likely to accept feminine-typed jobs than women were to accept masculine jobs, and men were more willing to accept jobs that appeared less attractive. These findings suggest that gender role expectations cause men to be more active in job hunting, and less selective, because of their breadwinner socialization. There were not significant gender differences found in positive or negative reactions to unemployment, though women reported more health problems than men did. Age was not a significant predictor for rejecting employment, though older men were slightly less selective about employment, and younger men were more likely to reject employment with insufficient pay. Future research should continue to focus on factors such as age and gender in determining how to ease the stress of unemployment in the most effective way.
Orbuch, T. L., Thornton, A., & Cancio, J. (2000). The impact of marital quality, divorce, and remarriage on the relationships between parents and their children. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 221-246.This study examines how the long-term effects of parental marital quality and divorce impact the relationships between parents and adult children. The sample comes from an intergenerational panel study of mothers and their children in the Detroit area. Mothers were first interviewed in 1961, then in subsequent years, and their children were interviewed after 1980 regarding family marital patterns and relationships. The findings showed that the gender of the parent and the child mediated the effects of marital quality and divorce on parent-child relationships. Parental marital quality when the child is 18 has short-term consequences for mother-child relations as perceived by mothers. As mothers and children grow older, parental marital quality has less of an effect on the mother-child relationship. The child's gender did not have much of an effect on whether mother's marital quality influenced mother-child relations. Mothers' relationships with sons are negatively influenced by parental divorce without remarriage, but the relationship with daughters is improved. However, if mothers divorce and remarry when the children are young adults, the relationship between mothers and daughters decreases in quality. Father's relationships with children are significantly influenced by mothers' reports of parental divorce and marital quality. Parental marital bonds seemed to have long-term effects on children's relationships with their fathers in intact families. In addition, children have less positive and less close relationships with their fathers when their mothers are divorced and not remarried. This finding is true for both daughters and sons, though father-daughter relationships may suffer more when the mother does not remarry. Decreases in financial resources predicted the effects of divorce on parent-child bonds, as well as declines in religious involvement. Future research is needed to more fully explain the association between parental relations and adult children's relationships with their parents.
Waldfogel, J., Villeneuve, P., & Garfinkel, I. (2000). The impact of welfare reform for families with children: Evidence from New York: A report of the New York City Social Indicators Center, Columbia University School of Social Work. Journal of Social Service Research, 26(4), 1-27.This article presents an effort to assess the poverty impacts of recent federal and state welfare reforms by using microsimulation models based on data from New York State and New York City. The authors use data from the March 1996 Current Population Survey (CPS) to simulate how individuals in different low-income family configurations are affected by different welfare reform scenarios by comparing pre-reform outcomes and post-reform outcomes. The results show that overall, poverty increases with the welfare reforms, as measured by the standard poverty rate, the severe poverty rate, and the poverty gap (the amount needed to raise poor families' incomes to the poverty line). The federal cuts would cause the share of families living below 100% of the poverty line to increase from 16.9% to 17.8% in New York State and from 28.9% to 29.7% in New York City, while the share of families with children living below 75% of the poverty line would rise significantly more for both the state and city. The average poverty gap would increase from $3,457 to $4, 554 for the state, and from $3, 351 to $4, 634 for the city. The reforms would cause the aggregate poverty gap to rise from $1.5 billion to over $2 billion statewide and from $950 million to $1.35 billion in the city. The effects of the reforms would be mitigated by state-provided Home Relief and a $50 child support pass-through, which would slightly lower the poverty gap but would not affect the poverty rate since neither is sufficient to raise poor families' incomes over the poverty line. Reforms initiated by Governor Pataki which change eligibility for food stamps and Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) would cause the average poor family to become $360-$425 poorer. These reforms, in conjunction with federal reforms, would send 15,000 more families with children into poverty and add over 100,000 families to the numbers in severe poverty. In New York City, there would be over 6,400 more families with children in poverty and over 110,000 more families with children in severe poverty. The average poverty gap would be over $1,200 higher. Some of these increases in the poverty rate and the poverty gap would be offset by the labor supply response, according to the results. However, state and federal welfare reforms will cause a significant increase in poverty overall. Future research should include the effects of child-care in welfare reform microsimulations.
Gordon, E. W. (2000). The myths and realities of African American fatherhood. In R. D. Taylor & M. C. Wang, et al., (Eds.), Resilience across contexts: Family, work, culture, and community (pp. 217-232). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.This book chapter examines the issues surrounding African American fatherhood within the broader context of African American men's experiences. The author argues that inequalities in access to capital resources prevent African American men from fulfilling the patriarchy-based father role of providing for, protecting, and guiding their children. Even within broad definitions of family, certain forms of capital are associated with modern family structures, such as health capital, financial capital, social capital, and human capital. African American fathers have historically been prevented from accumulating these types of capital, which has compromised their ability to provide for their families in a traditional father role. Several factors have been detrimental to black males' status and development. Precluded manhood and preempted male role responsibility, possibly resulting from close contact over the generations with white oppressors, and persisting attitudes about biogenetic factors have contributed to stereotypes about black men. Economic factors have also played a major role through ethnic minority disenfranchisement, surplus labor, changes in the means of production, and exportation of jobs to other countries. The author also notes the invisibility of black men in a society that has no real place or valued role for them, which leads to alienation, hopelessness, and depression resulting from powerlessness. In addition, African American men do not have access to the elements that command respectability, such as economic stability, technical expertise, or political power. African American men do, however, suffer from problems with reputation, as a result of narrow and stereotypical media portrayals. The author concludes that the central problem of why there are so many single mother families in the African American community is not because of ethnicity and gender, but poverty and powerlessness. African American fathers do not have equal access to the social capital and education required to provide for their families and to lead them to prosperity.
Ohan, J. L., Leung, D. W., & Johnston, C. (2000). The parenting sense of competence scale: Evidence of a stable factor structure and validity. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 32(4 |
