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Journal Article Fathers were compared with other key figures for the extent to which they appear to serve as role models to their sons in adolescence and young adulthood. The relationship between fathers' role model statuses at these periods and their sons' vocational functioning in young adulthood was explored. It was found that only fathers' service as role models to their adolescent sons was predictive of sons' vocational adjustments in young adulthood and that father role model categories at the 2 time periods were differentially related to sons' functioning in young adulthood. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article This study uses a sample of 2,139 resident biological fathers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing surveys (baseline and 12-month follow-up), to examine whether paternal aggravation and stress in parenting is associated with father engagement and coparenting and whether this association differs by father's socioeconomic status. Results of Ordinary Least Squares regression models indicate that paternal aggravation and stress in parenting is significantly associated with lower levels of father engagement and with less supportive coparenting relationships (controlling for mothers'…
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Journal Article Recent trends in marriage and fertility have increased the number of adults having children by more than 1 partner, a phenomenon that we refer to as multipartnered fertility. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the prevalence and correlates of multipartnered fertility among urban parents of a recent birth cohort (N = 4,300). We find that unmarried parents are much more likely to have had a child by a previous partner than married parents. Also, race/ethnicity is strongly associated with multipartnered fertility, as is mothers' young age at…
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Journal Article The article discusses the answers on questions posed regarding public policy toward fathers with low income in the child support program. It states that the federal government must aim for additional funding to programs designed for the employment of low-income fathers in the child support programs that would increase employment and decrease poverty among low-earning fathers and their children. It notes that making programs mandatory and voluntary will be beneficial to low-earning fathers in the child support program. It mentions that said programs may include services like case management,…
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This brief describes efforts in Kansas, Texas, and Kentucky to implement innovative practices to engage fathers and paternal relatives in the lives of children involved with the child welfare system. Kansas has changed the word "parent" to the phrase "mother and father" throughout the Children and Family Services policy manual, provides training on father engagement, strengthened requirements for contacting relatives of children entering foster care, and sponsors an annual Fatherhood Summit. Texas has created the State-level position of Fatherhood Program Specialist to spearhead a…
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Journal Article This editorial article discusses various reports published within the special issue of Early Child Development and Care entitled Emerging Topics on Father Attachment: Considerations in Theory, Context and Development, which includes several articles on children's attachment to fathers.
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Journal Article This paper provides a brief history of attachment research on fathers as a backdrop against which the other contributions to this volume can be viewed. Empirical research on child-father attachment progressed in four phases and began before Bowlby in 1969 published the first volume of his attachment trilogy. During each phase a different set of questions emerged. Initially, researchers compared fathers to mothers as potential attachment figures. More recent studies emphasize the notion that mothers' and fathers' roles as attachment figures and their influences on child outcomes may be…
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Journal Article Sir Richard Bowlby, son of John Bowlby, has carried on his father's work by lecturing and writing on the topic of attachment theory. He has initiated and maintained international connections with researchers, practitioners and agencies in the field of child development, and has produced training videos to more widely disseminate information about attachment theory to professionals working with children and families. In this interview, conducted in London in February of 2009, Richard responded to questions regarding the father's role as an attachment figure, highlighting new theoretical…
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Journal Article Initial validation data are presented for the Risky Situation (RS), a 20-minute observational procedure designed to assess the father-child activation relationship with children aged 12-18 months. The coding grid, which is simple and easy to use, allows parent-child dyads to be classified into three categories and provides an activation score. By having the same parent-child dyads participate in the Strange Situation (SS) and in the RS, researchers were able to demonstrate that the RS appears to evoke specific relationship patterns. Moreover, parental stimulation of risk-taking, the central…
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Journal Article This longitudinal study of 125 families investigated whether negative child outcomes related to fathers' frightening (FR) behaviours with infants would be mitigated if fathers were also sensitive. Results indicated that children whose fathers were frightening and insensitive with them during infancy showed the highest emotional under-regulation at 24 months and highest teacher ratings of attention problems at age 7, whereas those whose fathers were frightening and sensitive did not differ from children whose fathers were sensitive but not frightening. Sensitive caregiving mitigated the…
