Only God Decides\u27: Young Children\u27s Perceptions of Divorce and the Legal System

Objective: To describe research on perceptions of children aged 6 and younger from 21 families of their parents\u27 divorce, of its impact on their families, and of legal officials. Method: Semistructured play interviews were conducted during home visits as parents were conjointly interviewed as part of a larger study on divorce in legal context. Results: Children had much misinformation about divorce as an event and process. What they did know was often inappropriate, frightening, and confusing. They resented how the process \u27ruined their parents\u27 being friends any more\u27 and proposed reforms based on their wishes and observations. Conclusions: Greater awareness is needed of the child\u27s desire to be heard during the process, to feel safe and less lonely, and to stay in touch with both parents and extended families. Age-appropriate explanations of psychological and legal aspects of the divorce process are likely to support children\u27s positive adjustment and mental health

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

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

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

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

The Short-Form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (copafs-27): A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

To further refine the measurement of coparenting across family dynamics, this article presents data from 2 separately collected samples, the first consisting of 252 parents and the second consisting of 329 parents, analyzed as a pilot study of the Short-Form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (CoPAFS 27-Items). The purpose of the revised shortened tool is to further the design of an efficient and psychometrically strong tool to aid research and clinical practice with coparents. Our intent was to differentiate coparenting in intact, separated/divorced, and families where the parents were never romantically involved, between mothers and fathers, and between high- and low-income levels. This pilot test assessed psychometric properties (stability, reliability, and internal consistency) of the CoPAFS to determine whether the measure could be useful for evaluating the core dimensions of coparenting. Analyses reduced the 56-item CoPAFS scale developed from existing scales and literature to a 5-component scale of 27 items, including Respect, Trust, Valuing the other parent, Communication and Hostility. Implications for interventions and future research are briefly discussed

Bench Book for Assessing Parental Gatekeeping in Parenting Disputes: Understanding the Dynamics of Gate Closing and Opening for the Best Interests of Children

This Bench Book summarizes theory, research, and a forensic assessment model of parental gatekeeping relevant for understanding and resolving child custody disputes. This concise format is geared primarily as a resource for judges, though it may be equally valuable to evaluators, parenting coordinators, and others. Gatekeeping encompasses a common statutory factor of support for the other parent-child relationship. The gatekeeping model includes a continuum ranging from facilitative to restrictive gatekeeping. Behavioral examples are presented. Implications of a gatekeeping analysis for crafting parenting plans are described, including in relocation cases and when there has been a history of intimate partner violence