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Journal Article Positive father involvement is critical to the healthy social, emotional, and academic outcomes of children at all stages of development. The purpose of this integrative review was to identify, categorize, and evaluate the potential impact of fatherhood interventions on father and child outcomes. A systematic search of four major research databases yielded 44 studies published between 1988 and 2018 that met study inclusion criteria. The most effective interventions were delivered in the community, with fathers convened in groups. Content focused on promoting positive parenting, co-…
Brief
When most people think about parent-child reading activities, they likely picture a mother quietly reading to her children. Very few people would envision a reading event where fathers and children are acting like donkeys, elephants, and gorillas. That is exactly what happens, however, at a Dad and Kid Reading Night sponsored by Strong Fathers-Strong Families. Dad and Kid Reading Night encourages and teaches fathers to read to their children. The books are carefully chosen both to reflect the father child dynamic and to facilitate lively activity.
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Journal Article Literature in developmental psychology suggests that mothers and fathers both play unique and important roles in their children’s development. However, research investigating the unique contributions and psychological functioning of fathers of youth with developmental disabilities, and the role that fathers play in effective intervention, remains limited. Whereas evidence suggests that parent-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can lead to increased engagement from parents, and reduced stress and psychopathology commonly experienced by parents of youth with…
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Journal Article Despite high heritability, no research has followed children with ADHD to parenthood to study their offspring and parenting behaviors. Given greater prevalence of ADHD in males and lack of research involving fathers, this study evaluated offspring of fathers with and without ADHD histories for ADHD and disruptive behavior and compared fathers’ parenting behaviors. Male fathers (N = 29) from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS) participated with their preschool-aged offspring. Fathers completed self-reported measures, and father-child dyads completed an interaction task. ADHD…
Brief
Parent education reduces the risk of child abuse and neglect by encouraging positive parenting practices that promote safety, well-being, and permanency for children and families. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), as reauthorized in 2010, identifies parent education as a core prevention service. Many of the Children’s Bureau’s Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) grants fund parent education programming as part of local community prevention efforts. Successful parent education helps parents and caregivers acquire the skills needed to build healthy families and…
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Journal Article We identify multiple predictors of five types of father involvement in 167 low- to moderate-income two-parent Mexican American families with fifth-grade children. Analyses show that fathers' egalitarian gender attitudes and mothers' education are associated with higher levels of father involvement. Fathers are more involved in monitoring and interacting with children when families place more emphasis on family rituals, they are more involved in supervising children when mothers are employed more hours, and they perform more housework when mothers earn more and the family is under economic…
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Journal Article The aim of the present study was to investigate the pathways through which fathers’ warmth influences adolescents’ grades. We investigated the positive beliefs of optimism and academic self-efficacy, and the motivational construct of determination, as possible mediators. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 183 sixth-graders (78 male, 105 female) from low-income families: 133 Mexican Americans, 36 African Americans, 11 European Americans, and 3 other ethnicity. Multigroup SEM path analysis was used to test two path models and investigate variations in these models by adolescents…
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Journal Article The majority of teen pregnancy literature and practice is deficit based, focusing on the consequences of teen pregnancy; significantly less research is devoted to the teens’ strengths. This article discusses the strengths-based perspective as a viable framework for clinicians and school social workers to implement to help teen parents and their families ameliorate some of the challenges they encounter. This article emphasizes the importance of clinicians, school social workers, and the community to adopt a strengths-based perspective when working with teen parents in order to cultivate…
Brief
Reading is an essential activity that is linked to children’s cognitive development, academic skills, and future employment opportunities. Children often become interested in reading by watching and mimicking their parents or participating in child-parent reading routines. Although mothers have a big role to play, research shows that fathers are particularly influential for children’s language and literacy development, which means they are a promising point of intervention for efforts to improve children’s language and literacy. Reading together and engaging in other literacy activities,…
Brief
This brief discusses the relationship between family-of-origin factors and future perpetration of sexual coercion. Research shows that children's experiences growing up, such as a negative interparental relationship quality and harsh or inconsistent parenting, can lead to feelings of entitlement, which means children believe they deserve special treatment. Feelings of entitlement were associated with a higher likelihood of perpetrating sexual coercion in a study of male college students. This brief discusses these findings and how practitioners can help parents create a positive foundation…
