Fathering and Adolescent Adjustment: Variations by Family Structure and Ethnic Background.

Abstract

The current study investigated how fathering behaviors (acceptance, rejection, monitoring, consistent discipline, and involvement) are related to preadolescent adjustment in Mexican American and European American stepfamilies and intact families. Cross-sectional data from 393 7^th graders, their schoolteachers, and parents were used to examine links between different dimensions of fathering and adolescent outcomes. Following an ecological multivariate model, family SES, marital satisfaction, and mothers' parenting were included as controls. In all contexts, fathering had significant effects on adolescent adjustment. Both mothers' parenting and adolescent gender moderated the associations, and we uncovered some provocative nonlinear relations between fathering and adolescent outcomes. The importance of ethnicity and family structure in studies of fathering are highlighted.