Parenting-Science and Practice最新文献

Objective: A growing number of studies have explored fathers' parenting quality and its effects on children during infancy and early childhood; however, gaps remain toward understanding fathers' and mothers' parenting quality from a family systems' perspective in late childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, prior research has focused on modeling the overall average changes in fathering and mothering across years (e.g., intraindividual change), but it is also important to directly evaluate the shorter-term day-to-day dynamics of fathering and mothering.

Design: The present study utilized dynamic structural equation modeling to explore yearly and daily patterns in fathers' and mothers' parenting quality in a sample of 278 father-mother couples of youth ranging in age from middle-childhood through adolescence from the midwestern United States.

Results: There were no changes in average daily levels of fathering or mothering across years, and there was significant stability in day-to-day fathering and mothering within and across years. Fathering and mothering were interrelated with one another. Yearly-level and daily-level fathering were negatively related to one another, consistent with the idea that better, more positive trait-levels of fathering may be associated with more "fluctuations" in day-to-day fathering.

Conclusions: Our results shed light on patterns in fathering and mothering over time during later child development and across different timescales. Our study highlights the importance of considering fathering and mothering simultaneously to provide a family systems perspective.

Objective: During the transition from late childhood into adolescence, parents' support of their children's autonomy plays an increasingly important role in facilitating healthy emotion regulation and protecting children against the development of internalizing problems. Although theoretical work suggests that fathers' autonomy support may be particularly protective, little empirical work has explored the effects of fathers' autonomy support on internalizing problems. The present study focused on the relations between fathers' autonomy support and adolescent internalizing problems, as well as whether there were interactions between paternal and maternal autonomy support on adolescent adjustment.

Design: Using multilevel modeling with person-mean centering, the present study examined the between- and within-person effects of fathers' and mothers' autonomy support on youth- and parent-reported internalizing problems in a three-wave longitudinal sample of 298 fathers, mothers, and children (M child age at time 1 = 11 years old, 51.5% girls).

Results: Negative between- and within-person effects of paternal autonomy support emerged on adolescents' internalizing problems. The between- and within-person effects of paternal autonomy on youth- and father-reported internalizing problems also interacted with maternal autonomy support. Additionally, two findings suggested that fathers' autonomy support was most beneficial in the presence of higher levels of maternal support, mothers' autonomy support was optimized in the presence of higher paternal support, and maternal support could buffer against the effects of low levels of paternal support.

Conclusions: Fathers may best help buffer and protect children against internalizing problems by fostering healthy emotion regulation via support of autonomy.

Objective: Parental reflective functioning (PRF) emerges during the prenatal period and helps fathers and mothers prepare for the transition to parenthood. Few studies have considered how PRF could support at-risk fathers and their partners across this transition. In a sample of moderate to heavy drinking fathers, an actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) was used to examine concurrent indirect effects between prenatal psychological symptoms and paternal and maternal PRF through interparental relationship satisfaction while accounting for the interdependence among father-mother dyads.

Design: 180 first-time expectant father-mother dyads were recruited in the second to early third trimester of pregnancy. Most fathers were European American (89.44%, 6.15% African American, 1.68% Asian American, 2.73% Mixed race or other; 7.80% Latin American) and had a bachelor's degree or higher (78%). All variables were reliably assessed using self-report at one timepoint. The APIMeM examined dyadic patterns.

Results: Paternal psychological functioning was negatively associated with paternal interparental relationship satisfaction and positively associated with paternal PRF. For mothers' PRF, two couple patterns emerged. Paternal and maternal psychological symptoms were negatively associated with maternal interparental relationship satisfaction and positively associated with maternal PRF. Paternal drinking intensity moderated the associations between maternal psychological symptoms and maternal PRF and maternal interparental relationship satisfaction and maternal PRF.

Conclusions: Paternal psychological symptoms may be a prenatal prevention target for at-risk father-mother dyad relationship satisfaction. Moderate relative to heavy levels of paternal drinking in the prenatal period may have a positive impact on family functioning. Future research should examine these associations longitudinally.

Objective: Clinicians caring for families impacted by substance use disorder often feel uncomfortable assessing for child protective concerns in the setting of non-prescribed parental substance use. This leads to a lack of standardization of care, where some clinicians choose to not ask any questions about the care of children for fear of receiving information that will leave them in an uncomfortable position as a mandated reporter, while others may reflexively report any identification of substance use to child protective services. The primary aim of this descriptive manuscript is to present a framework developed by a multidisciplinary team in a medical setting to address concerns about a recurrence of parental substance use.

Design: We will highlight the development, implementation, and evolution of a clinical decision-making framework designed to help standardize clinicians' discussions around whether substance use could be affecting a parent's ability to safely care for their children.

Discussion: Five main assessment areas will be discussed, including: 1). Safety of the child while substance use is occurring; 2). Safety of parental use patterns; 3). Parental treatment engagement; 4). Willingness to escalate treatment services; and 5). Stability of the home environment. We will present a clinical scenario to highlight how the framework is used as an aid to determine action planning with respect to immediate safety concerns, treatment escalation, and opportunities to maximize recovery supports. We discuss the challenges we've experienced and opportunities that arise in attempting to incorporate the principles of harm reduction within the context of assessments of child safety and well-being.

Objective: The aim of this study was twofold: (a) to examine the impact of birth mother's post-adoption perinatal grief - stemming from ambiguous loss - on their perceptions of their parenting years later and the relationship quality they have with the children who they raise; and (b) to evaluate the potential contribution that social support and substance use severity play in moderating the impact of post-adoption perinatal grief.

Design: We applied an adoption design that consisted of a sample of birth mothers (N = 53) who placed one child for adoption at birth and parented another child in their home following the voluntary adoption placement of the adoptee. At 3-6 months postpartum of the adopted child, we measured birth mother's post-adoption perinatal grief, substance use severity, and level of social support received by their friends, family, and community. When the child the birth mother was parenting reached age 7, birth mothers reported on their relationships with that child, including parent-child conflict, parent-child closeness, parenting satisfaction, and sense of efficacy as a parent.

Results: Findings revealed that high post-adoption perinatal grief was associated with increased parent-child conflict. High post-adoption perinatal grief was also associated with low parenting satisfaction, albeit this effect was mitigated in the context of high social support.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that grief following adoption may result in effects that are sustained years later, including compromised relationships and low parenting satisfaction with the child they later raise, although social support may mitigate the potential negative effects of post-adoption perinatal grief on parental satisfaction. Future work should examine the mechanisms linking post-adoption perinatal grief with future parenting.

Objective. Fathers are of great importance for healthy child development. This randomized controlled study investigated the longer-term effects of an intervention using a soft baby carrier on fathers' observed sensitive caregiving, involvement, and oxytocin and cortisol levels. Design. First-time fathers were randomly assigned to use a baby carrier (n = 41) or baby seat (n = 39) and were asked to use the carrier or seat for at least 6 h per week for 3 weeks. Pretest (M _{child age}  = 2.67 months), posttest (M _{child age}  = 3.99 months), and follow-up (M _{child age}  = 8.25 months) father data were collected. Results. No intervention effects of baby carrier use on fathers' sensitivity, involvement, and oxytocin or cortisol levels at follow-up emerged. Unexpectedly, fathers in the baby seat condition reported an increase in the amount of time spent with the infant. Fathers' sensitivity and oxytocin levels decreased over time, while cortisol levels increased over time, irrespective of condition. Conclusions. This study showed less optimal hormonal levels in fathers over time, suggesting that support during the first months of fatherhood is needed. Furthermore, use of a baby seat may have contributed to fathers enjoying their time with their infant and consequently their involvement in child caregiving.

Objective: Brief, reliable, and cost-effective methods to assess parenting are critical for advancing parenting research.

Design: We adapted the Three Bags task and Parent Child Interaction Rating System (PCIRS) for rating online visits with 219 parent-child dyads (White, n = 104 [47.5%], Black, n = 115 [52.5%]) and combined the video data with survey data collected during pregnancy and when children were aged 1.

Results: The PCIRS codes of positive regard, stimulation of child cognitive development, and sensitivity showed high reliability across the three parent-child interaction tasks. A latent positive parenting factor combining ratings across codes and tasks showed good model fit, which was similar regardless of parent self-identified race or ethnicity, age, socioeconomic disadvantage, marital/partnered status, and parity, as well as methodological factors relevant to the online video assessment method (e.g., phone vs. laptop/tablet). In support of construct validity, observed positive parenting was related to parent-reported positive parenting and child socioemotional development. Finally, parent reports of supportive relationships in pregnancy, but not neighborhood safety or pandemic worries, were prospectively related to higher positive parenting observed at age 1. With the exception of older parental age and married/partnered status, no other parent, child, sociodemographic, or methodological variables were related to higher overall video exclusions across tasks.

Conclusions: PCIRS may provide a reliable approach to rate positive parenting at age 1, providing future avenues for developing more ecologically valid assessments and implementing interventions through online encounters that may be more acceptable, accessible, or preferred among parents of young children.