Associations between fathers' prebirth pregnancy intentions and involvement with their child 15 months later: A propensity score analysis

Objective: This study examined whether fathers’ prebirth pregnancy intentions were associated with fathers’ involvement with his child 15 months later. Method: Propensity score matching was used to assess the effects of fathers’ pregnancy intentions (self-reported before the birth of the child) on three measures of father involvement (residency with child, engagement in caregiving activities, and engagement in social cognitive play) in a large sample of young, diverse, and low-income fathers (N=2,008). Results: In this sample matched on sociodemographic and interpersonal factors, fathers reporting an intended pregnancy had significantly higher levels of social and cognitive play with their child, compared to fathers reporting an unintended pregnancy. However, intentions were not significantly associated with fathers’ residency with child or caregiving activities. Conclusion: Results suggest that fathers’ pregnancy intentions are predictive of certain types of father involvement and emphasize the importance of controlling for factors associated with both fathers’ intentions and involvement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163775/1/2020 Massey Combs JFI pregnancy intentions preprint.pdfDescription of 2020 Massey Combs JFI pregnancy intentions preprint.pdf : Main articl

Father-Inclusive Perinatal Parent Education Programs: A Systematic Review

CONTEXT: Fathers contribute to their children’s health starting at the beginning of life. Few parent education programs include fathers. Among those that do, there is little effort to report program effects on father outcomes. OBJECTIVE: In this systematic review, we examined father-inclusive perinatal parent education programs in the United States as they relate to a range of father outcomes. DATA SOURCES: The databases searched were PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, Ovid Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PsycINFO. STUDY SELECTION: Studies were included if they included an evaluation of a parent education program and a report of father outcomes measured within 1 year of the child’s birth and were conducted within the United States. DATA EXTRACTION: Of 1353 total articles, 21 met study criteria. RESULTS: The overall state of the father-inclusive perinatal parent education program literature was poor, with few interventions available to fathers. Available programs were associated with increased father involvement, coparenting relationship, partner relationship quality, father’s mental health, and father’s supportive behaviors. Program effects on father-infant interaction, parenting knowledge, and attitudes and parenting self-efficacy were inconclusive. Three programs emerged as best evidence-based interventions. LIMITATIONS: Risk of bias was high for many studies. Outcome variability, small sample size, and publication bias contributed to the weak evidence base. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for more evidence-based interventions to support fathers. Clinicians play a key role in engaging fathers in early parent education programs and health care settings. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017050099.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163741/1/2018-Lee-Fatherinclusiveperinatal.pdfDescription of 2018-Lee-Fatherinclusiveperinatal.pdf : Main articleSEL

Global perspectives on physical and nonphysical discipline: A Bayesian multilevel analysis

Background and Objective: Sixty countries worldwide have banned the use of physical punishment, yet little is known about the association of physical and nonphysical forms of child discipline with child development in a global context. The objective of this study is to examine whether physical punishment and nonphysical discipline are associated with child socioemotional functioning in a global sample of families from 62 countries and whether country-level normativeness of physical punishment and nonphysical discipline moderated those associations. Methods: Data for this study are from 215,885 families in the fourth and fifth rounds of the United Nations Children’s Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. Bayesian multilevel logistic models were used to analyze the associations of physical punishment and nonphysical discipline (i.e., taking away privileges and verbal reasoning) with three different outcomes representing children’s socioemotional functioning: getting along well with other children, aggression, and becoming distracted. Results: The use of physical punishment was not associated with getting along with other children, was associated with increased aggression, and was associated with increases in distraction. Taking away privileges was associated with lower levels of getting along with other children, higher levels of aggression, and higher levels of becoming distracted. Verbal reasoning (i.e., explaining why a behavior was wrong) was associated with higher levels of getting along with other children, higher levels of aggression, and higher levels of becoming distracted. Country-level normativeness moderated some of these associations but in general the direction of effects was consistent. Conclusions: Results suggest that eliminating physical punishment would benefit children across the globe and align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for all children to be free from physical violence. More attention needs to be focused on the associations of nonphysical forms of discipline with child functioning across the globe.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/165323/1/2021 Grogan-Kaylor MICS_IJBD.pdfDescription of 2021 Grogan-Kaylor MICS_IJBD.pdf : Main articl

The College News, 1923-01-24, Vol. 09, No. 13

Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with The Haverford News in 1968 to form the Bi-college News (with various titles from 1968 on). Published weekly (except holidays) during the academic year

Parenting and child development in rural Mexico: examination of a large-scale parenting program

AbstractParental warmth, responsiveness, and stimulation are associated with positive child development, but it is unclear how parenting quality in early versus later developmental periods contributes to disparities in child cognitive and socioemotional development in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This longitudinal study examines the association between early childhood development and parenting quality (low, moderate, high) during infancy and prekindergarten developmental periods.. Parenting quality was defined using scales for “warmth and responsivity”, quantity of “stimulating parenting practices”, and “variety of learning materials” in the home environment, measured using the HOME Inventory in infancy and the Family Care Indicators (FCI) in the prekindergarten period. Child development was assessed in infancy using the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire (EASQ) and ASQ Socioemotional scale, and during prekindergarten with the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities. The study sample included 603 children from poor, rural communities in Mexico who were assessed at 4 to 18 months of age and again at 3 to 5 years of age.. The association between parenting quality and child development was examined for differences between indigenous and non-indigenous communities and controlled for child and family demographic characteristics (child age and sex, parent’s educational attainment, and household wealth and crowding). Parenting quality during infancy and prekindergarten were both independently and significantly associated with later child development. However, parenting quality in infancy was no longer significantly associated with later child development after controlling for the effects of child development in infancy. Parental warmth and responsiveness and the availability of learning materials in the home in infancy were significant predictors of child development at 3 to 5 years of age, but parental stimulating practices were not. Conversely, during the prekindergarten period, parental stimulating practices were significant predictors of child development, while the variety of learning materials in the home was not. There were no differences in the association between parenting and child development between indigenous and non-indigenous communities. This study advances the understanding of parenting quality in the early childhood period in LMIC, and among indigenous populations in Mexico

Parenting and child development in rural Mexico: examination of a large-scale parenting program

AbstractParental warmth, responsiveness, and stimulation are associated with positive child development, but it is unclear how parenting quality in early versus later developmental periods contributes to disparities in child cognitive and socioemotional development in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This longitudinal study examines the association between early childhood development and parenting quality (low, moderate, high) during infancy and prekindergarten developmental periods.. Parenting quality was defined using scales for “warmth and responsivity”, quantity of “stimulating parenting practices”, and “variety of learning materials” in the home environment, measured using the HOME Inventory in infancy and the Family Care Indicators (FCI) in the prekindergarten period. Child development was assessed in infancy using the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire (EASQ) and ASQ Socioemotional scale, and during prekindergarten with the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities. The study sample included 603 children from poor, rural communities in Mexico who were assessed at 4 to 18 months of age and again at 3 to 5 years of age.. The association between parenting quality and child development was examined for differences between indigenous and non-indigenous communities and controlled for child and family demographic characteristics (child age and sex, parent’s educational attainment, and household wealth and crowding). Parenting quality during infancy and prekindergarten were both independently and significantly associated with later child development. However, parenting quality in infancy was no longer significantly associated with later child development after controlling for the effects of child development in infancy. Parental warmth and responsiveness and the availability of learning materials in the home in infancy were significant predictors of child development at 3 to 5 years of age, but parental stimulating practices were not. Conversely, during the prekindergarten period, parental stimulating practices were significant predictors of child development, while the variety of learning materials in the home was not. There were no differences in the association between parenting and child development between indigenous and non-indigenous communities. This study advances the understanding of parenting quality in the early childhood period in LMIC, and among indigenous populations in Mexico

Stimulating Parenting Practices in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Mexican Communities

Parenting may be influenced by ethnicity; marginalization; education; and poverty. A critical but unexamined question is how these factors may interact to compromise or support parenting practices in ethnic minority communities. This analysis examined associations between mothers’ stimulating parenting practices and a range of child-level (age; sex; and cognitive and socio-emotional development); household-level (indigenous ethnicity; poverty; and parental education); and community-level (economic marginalization and majority indigenous population) variables among 1893 children ages 4–18 months in poor; rural communities in Mexico. We also explored modifiers of associations between living in an indigenous community and parenting. Key findings were that stimulating parenting was negatively associated with living in an indigenous community or family self-identification as indigenous (β = −4.25; SE (Standard Error) = 0.98; β = −1.58; SE = 0.83 respectively). However; living in an indigenous community was associated with significantly more stimulating parenting among indigenous families than living in a non-indigenous community (β = 2.96; SE = 1.25). Maternal education was positively associated with stimulating parenting only in indigenous communities; and household crowding was negatively associated with stimulating parenting only in non-indigenous communities. Mothers’ parenting practices were not associated with child sex; father’s residential status; education; or community marginalization. Our findings demonstrate that despite greater community marginalization; living in an indigenous community is protective for stimulating parenting practices of indigenous mothers

The association of fathers’ parental warmth and parenting stress to child behavior problems

This study examines whether fathers' parental warmth and parenting stress were associated with behavior problems when children were approximately 36-months of age, beyond the influence of maternal behaviors. Study participants were 3342 low-income fathers and mothers who participated in the Building Strong Families (BSF) study. Cross-sectional regression analyses indicated that for unmarried nonresidential families, fathers' parental warmth and parenting stress were associated with child internalizing behavior problems; and fathers' parenting stress only was marginally associated with child externalizing behavior problems. For consistently cohabiting residential fathers, only fathers' parenting stress was marginally associated with child internalizing behavior problems. No associations of fathers' parental warmth and parenting stress on either internalizing or externalizing behavior problems were observed in married families. Overall, study results suggest that fathers' parental warmth and parenting stress may have a modest positive association on the development of child internalizing behavior problems particularly in vulnerable families (i.e., families in which fathers were nonresidential).Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149447/1/2013-Lee et al. parental spanking and child aggression CYSR.pd