The relations of infant temperament and parents' marital satisfaction to mother and father involvement in early (T1, approximately 7 months, n = 142) and later (T2, approximately 14 months, n = 95) infancy were examined. At each assessment point, mothers and fathers completed daily diaries together to measure their involvement over four days (i.e., 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days), each partner reported on marital satisfaction, and mothers reported on infants' temperament. Structural equation models indicated that when infants were more temperamentally regulated, parents were more satisfied in their marital relationships. Parents' marital satisfaction mediated the association between more regulated infant temperament and greater mother involvement at T1 (but not at T2) and father involvement at T2 (but not at T1). The findings are discussed in terms of the implications of infant temperament and family relationships for parental involvement.
The present study tested Abidin's (1992) parenting stress model in a sample of low-income African American fathers and their toddlers, specifically examining the mediation effect of fathers' engagement (self-report and observed) on the association between parenting stress and children's social competence and problem behavior. We found that fathers reported moderate levels of parenting stress, but we found no evidence of a direct effect of stress on children's social development. However, parenting stress predicted more engagement in management, which predicted children's increased problem behaviour. These findings highlight the effect of fathering stress on specific forms of father engagement that affect toddlers' social development.