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Training Materials In the Parenting Wisely: Teenagers video series, the first three scenarios illustrate the challenges families face in teaching children to be responsible. Lying, name calling, disrespectful arguing, and completing homework and household chores are depicted. Parents demonstrate how to resolve these challenges through good role modeling of effective discipline and communication, while structuring tasks and incentives.The second three scenarios depict parents and children working through conflicts. The issues portrayed include neglecting schoolwork and associating with a deviant peer, child…
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Training Materials In the Parenting Wisely: Young Children video series, the first three family scenarios are presented in which young children, aged 3-5, don't comply when they are told to stop doing something. In scenario one, a child is trying to get the parent's attention by interrupting the mother when she is on the telephone. Scenario two depicts a tantrum in the grocery store when a young child's demands for treats are denied. The third scene shows a parent having trouble getting a child off to bed. Effective and non-effective methods, routinely used by parents to deal with these challenges, are shown…
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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 In "Fatherhood, Cohabitation, and Marriage," Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services, summarizes the importance of fathers to child well-being. He explains that "fatherlessness is a significant risk factor for poor developmental outcomes for children." This connection has led some observers to view cohabitation as a substitute or at least an alternative to marriage. Horn argues, however, that marriage is the best option for children and that cohabitation is a weak family structure compared with marriage. Children in households…
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Journal Article The present study was designed to shed light on the relation between parenting stress, father's alcohol use, child characteristics and father's engagement and availability. The study cohort comprised 821 fathers of preschool children in Finland. Parenting stress and child's mood, acceptability and demandingness were related to father's engagement to the preschooler and to the extent of the father's availability. Parenting stress began a cycle of alcohol abuse and child-negative characteristics, and eventually led to a decrease in joint father-child activities, father's feeling of…
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Journal Article This research links residence with biological and nonbiological married and unmarried parents to the cognitive achievement and behavioral problems of children aged 3-12, controlling for factors that make such families different. The data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Achievement differences were not associated with father family structure per se, but with demographic and economic factors that differ across families. In contrast, behavioral problems were linked to family structure even after controls for measured and unmeasured…
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This documentary, directed by John Badalament shows the stories of three men who grew up with abusive fathers and had to grapple with their own choices as intimate partners and fathers. (Author abstract, modified)
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Journal Article The present study was conducted to investigate differences in nurturant fathering, father involvement, and young adult psychosocial functioning among small samples of three nontraditional family forms. A total of 168 young-adult university students from three family forms (27 adoptive, 22 adoptive stepfather, 119 nonadoptive stepfather) completed retrospective measures of nurturant fathering and father involvement and measures of current psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that adoptive fathers were rated as the most nurturant and involved and that nonadoptive stepfathers were…
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Journal Article This article uses a sample of 867 African American households to investigate differences in parenting practices and child outcomes by type of household. Results indicate that mothers provide similar levels of parenting regardless of family structure. Secondary caregivers, however, show a great deal of variation in quality of parenting. Fathers and grandmothers engage in the highest quality parenting, stepfathers the poorest, with other relatives falling in between. These differences in parenting do not explain family structure differences in child behavior problems. Results suggest that…
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Journal Article This study explores the meaning of fathering among men identified as fathers or father figures of 24-month-old children enrolled in Early Head Start research sites. Fathers were asked open-ended questions about their experiences of being fathers and their relationships with their own fathers. These men spoke of how important "being there" was for them in their relationship with their child as well as how the relationship with their own fathers influenced them as a parent. This study supports the theory of intergenerational parenting and furthers our knowledge and understanding of what some…
