Fathers’ and Mothers’ Attachment Styles, Couple Conflict, Parenting Quality, and Children’s Behavior Problems: An Intervention Test of Mediation

A diverse sample of 239 primarily low-income couples participated in a random controlled trial of the Supporting Father Involvement couples group intervention. In this report, we examined the value of adding measures of fathers’ attachment style and parenting to mothers’ measures in order to explain variations in children’s behavior problems. We also tested the hypothesis that the link between intervention-induced reductions in couple conflict and reductions in anxious/harsh parenting can be explained by intervention effects on parents’ attachment insecurity or on anxiety and depression. Fathers’ attachment security and parenting behavior added significantly to mothers’ in accounting for children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Fathers’ anxious attachment style and anxiety/depression mediated the link between post-intervention reductions in parental conflict and anxious/harsh parenting. For mothers, only improvements in attachment security accounted for those links. The findings support the need for attachment researchers to consider the contributions of both parents to their children’s development

An Approach to Preventing Coparenting Conflict and Divorce in Low-Income Families: Strengthening Couple Relationships and Fostering Fathers\u27 Involvement

In the context of current concern about levels of marital distress, family violence, and divorce, the SFI study is evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention to facilitate the positive involvement of low-income Mexican American and European American fathers with their children, in part by strengthening the men\u27s relationships with their children\u27s mothers. The study design involves a randomized clinical trial that includes assignment to a 16-week couples group, a 16-week fathers group, or a single-session control group. Couples in both group interventions and the control condition include partners who are married, cohabiting, and living separately but raising a young child together. This article presents the rationale, design, and intervention approach to father involvement for families whose relationships are at risk because of the hardships of their lives, many of whom are manifesting some degree of individual or relationship distress. We present preliminary impressions and qualitative findings based on our experience with 257 families who completed the pretest, and the first 160 who completed one postintervention assessment 9 months after entering the study. Discussion centers on what we have learned and questions that remain to be answered in mounting a multisite preventive intervention to strengthen relationships in low-income families

Enhancing Father Involvement in Low-Income Families: A Couples Group Approach to Preventive Intervention

To address the problem of fathers’ absence from children’s lives and the difficulty of paternal engagement, especially among lower income families, government agencies have given increasing attention to funding father involvement interventions. Few of these interventions have yielded promising results. Father involvement research that focuses on the couple/coparenting relationship offers a pathway to support fathers’ involvement while strengthening family relationships. Relevant research is reviewed and an exemplar is provided in the Supporting Father Involvement intervention and its positive effects on parental and parent-child relationships and children’s outcomes. The article concludes with policy implications of this choice of target populations and the need to develop new strategies to involve fathers in the lives of their children

Enhancing Paternal Engagement in a Coparenting Paradigm

Despite the benefits for children and families of fathers who are involved positively with their children, most parenting programs in the United States and globally focus on and collect evaluation data from mothers almost exclusively. Engaging fathers is still viewed as a complex endeavor that is only somewhat successful. In this article, we summarize what is known about engaging fathers in parenting programs, then argue that programs are most effective when coparenting is the focus early in family formation. We rely on two decades of the Supporting Father Involvement program as an example of an initiative that has been effective at recruiting and retaining fathers and mothers in various cultural and national contexts. When programs are inclusive in content and focus on process, are sensitive to differences within and across families, and recognize parents as experts on their children, they are more successful in recruiting and retaining diverse groups of fathers and families

Coming home upset: Gender, marital satisfaction and the daily spillover of workday experience into couple interactions

This study explored how daily changes in workday pace and end-of-the-workday mood were related to nightly variations in withdrawn and angry marital behavior. For 3 days, 82 husbands and wives from 42 couples completed questionnaires at the end of the workday and at bedtime. More negatively arousing workdays were linked with angrier marital behavior for women and less angry and more withdrawn behavior for men. Daily changes in workday pace predicted fluctuations in women\u27s, but not men\u27s, marital behavior. Several of these workday-marital behavior connections varied by level of marital satisfaction. In contrast to the gender differences in responses to workday stress, no differences were found in typical marital behaviors. These findings suggest that gender differences are enhanced under stress

Coming home upset: Gender, marital satisfaction and the daily spillover of workday experience into couple interactions

This study explored how daily changes in workday pace and end-of-the-workday mood were related to nightly variations in withdrawn and angry marital behavior. For 3 days, 82 husbands and wives from 42 couples completed questionnaires at the end of the workday and at bedtime. More negatively arousing workdays were linked with angrier marital behavior for women and less angry and more withdrawn behavior for men. Daily changes in workday pace predicted fluctuations in women\u27s, but not men\u27s, marital behavior. Several of these workday-marital behavior connections varied by level of marital satisfaction. In contrast to the gender differences in responses to workday stress, no differences were found in typical marital behaviors. These findings suggest that gender differences are enhanced under stress

Promoting Fathers\u27 Engagement with Children: Preventive Interventions for Low-Income Families

Few programs to enhance fathers\u27 engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers\u27 engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and children\u27s problem behaviors. Participants in couples\u27 groups showed more consistent, longer term positive effects than those in fathers-only groups. Intervention effects were similar across family structures, income levels, and ethnicities. Implications of the results for current family policy debates are discussed

Supporting Father Involvement: An Intervention with Community and Child Welfare–Referred Couples

Objective: To expand the evidence base of the Supporting Father Involvement (SFI) intervention to include child welfare families. Background: Taking a preventive father-inclusive approach, SFI aims to strengthen coparenting, parent–child relationships, and child outcomes. This study replicates 4 prior iterations of the program using the same 32-hour curriculum facilitated by clinically trained staff, case managers, and onsite child care and family meals. Method: Participants (N = 239) included low-income (median = $24,000) coparenting pairs, typically mothers and fathers/father figures, half of whom were Mexican American, with toddlers (median age \u3c 3 years). Questionnaires assessing multiple family domains were administered verbally over an 18-month period. Intervention effectiveness was tested through a randomized control trial with immediate treatment or waitlist–control groups using a moderated mediator structural equation model. Results: The model explained 49% to 56% of the variance in children\u27s problem behaviors (intervention and autoregressive effects). The intervention reduced couple conflict, which reduced anxious and harsh parenting, leading to better child outcomes. The intervention was equally effective for community and child welfare–referred families and family dynamics pathways were similar across conditions. Conclusion: With its intentional outreach and inclusion of fathers, SFI offers an effective intervention for lower risk child welfare–involved families. Implications: Results argue for the utility of treating community and child welfare parents in mixed-gender prevention groups that focus on strengthening multiple levels of family relationships

CUI@CSCW: Collaborating through Conversational User Interfaces

This virtual workshop seeks to bring together the burgeoning communities centred on the design, development, application and study of so-called Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs). CUIs are used in myriad contexts, from online support chatbots through to entertainment devices in the home. In this workshop, we will examine the challenges involved in transforming CUIs into everyday computing devices capable of supporting collaborative activities across space and time. Additionally, this workshop seeks to establish a cohesive CUI community and research agenda within CSCW. We will examine the roles in which CSCW research can contribute insights into understanding how CUIs are or can be used in a variety of settings, from public to private, and how they can be brought into a potentially unlimited number of tasks. This proposed workshop will bring together researchers from academia and practitioners from industry to survey the state-of-the-art in terms of CUI design, use, and understanding, and will map new areas for work including addressing the technical, social, and ethical challenges that lay ahead. By bringing together existing researchers and new ideas in this space, we intend to foster a strong community and enable potential future collaborations