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Journal Article The authors performed a cluster analysis on data from 270 divorced or separated parents to classify their perceived coparental relationship with their ex-spouse and test if parents' perceptions of their children's postdivorce adjustment differed based on their perceptions of their postdivorce coparental relationship. The cluster analysis resulted in three types of coparenting relationships: cooperative and involved, moderately engaged, and infrequent but conflictual. Despite the expectation that children fare better if their divorced parents' develop a cooperative coparenting relationship,…
Brief
Healthy marriage relationship skills education programs serving unmarried parents aim to help these couples improve their relationships, with the ultimate aim of supporting family stability and promoting child well-being. A central goal of these programs is to promote fathers' sustained, active engagement in their children's lives. Data from Mathematica's evaluation of the Building Strong Families (BSF) program allow us to deter-mine which families that enrolled in a set of healthy marriage programs were at greatest risk of having fathers with very limited involvement with their young…
The ability of young people to forge and sustain healthy relationships can affect almost every aspect of their lives--school and work success, physical and mental health, and the overall health and well-being of their own children. Helping young people thrive and overcome barriers to economic and personal success requires more than ensuring they complete their secondary education and workforce development. Providing youth with the necessary skills to form and sustain healthy intimate relationships is also an essential part of their future success. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article The present study modeled the associations between adolescent mothers’ and young fathers’ perceptions of partner conflict, parenting alliance, fathers’ prenatal involvement, and father engagement with infants using a sample of 127 adolescent mothers and their partners. This study hypothesized that (a) higher quality parenting alliances would be associated with increased father engagement with infants, (b) prenatal partner conflict would have a negative spillover effect on the parenting alliance and father engagement during infancy, and (c) fathers’ prenatal involvement would be positively…
Brief
Intended for prevention practitioners, this brief promotes the use of a positive youth development framework that addresses both risk and protective factors to address alcohol abuse and suicide among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adolescents. It begins by providing an overview of the scope of these related problems in Indian Country and identifying four key factors that have been shown to protect AI/AN youth: attachment with caring adults, mastery and self-control, a sense of belonging, and spirituality. These factors are discussed and illustrative examples of positive youth…
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Journal Article Children’s early social experiences shape their developing neurological and biological systems for good or for ill, writes Ross Thompson, and the kinds of stressful experiences that are endemic to families living in poverty can alter children’s neurobiology in ways that undermine their health, their social competence, and their ability to succeed in school and in life. For example, when children are born into a world where resources are scarce and violence is a constant possibility, neurobiological changes may make them wary and vigilant, and they are likely to have a hard time controlling…
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Journal Article Objective: This study investigated children of alcoholics' (COAs) exposure to inter-parental conflict before and after their fathers received alcohol treatment and compared exposure levels to a community comparison sample. Method: This study included 67 couples with a treatment-seeking male alcoholic partner and children aged 4-16. The alcoholic fathers and their relationship partners provided data at baseline and at six and twelve month follow-ups. A community comparison sample of 78 couples with children in the target age range completed similar longitudinal assessments. It was hypothesized…
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Journal Article Purpose -- Because the concurrent nature of chronic drug abuse (DA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) is frequently ignored in research examining the correlates of the two conditions, the purpose of this paper is designed to document differences in parenting behavior associated with a history of DA vs a history of IPV in fathers. Design/methodology/approach -- An ethnically diverse sample of 91 opioid-dependent fathers receiving methadone maintenance treatment and a demographically similar group of 111 fathers living in the same community with no history of alcohol or DA since the birth of…
