Father Involvement and Child Well-Being in Poor Families

描述（由申请人提供）：过去几十年来，许多人口和经济变化导致了复杂的家庭系统，父亲的角色多种多样且定义不明确，并显着增加了研究和政策对描述父亲对儿童福祉的影响的兴趣。目前的研究提出了一个综合系列的分析，使用的数据从三个城市的研究福利，儿童和家庭，一个新的多方法，主要是非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔儿童在城市社区的低收入家庭的纵向项目。这些数据提供了丰富的信息，从各种来源，包括父亲，母亲和孩子的报告，直接评估和观察的住宅和非住宅的父亲，家庭过程和儿童的结果。拟议的研究将注入一个经济和社会学的理论框架，认为父亲的财务，人力和社会资本对儿童的健康发展轨迹的影响的发展和家庭系统的角度。 本研究的主要目的是：（1）探讨父亲的经济资本、人力资本和社会资本对学龄前儿童认知技能、亲社会行为、情绪和行为问题的独立影响，（2）探讨父亲的居住地、父母冲突和父亲的种族/民族对学龄前儿童认知技能、亲社会行为、情绪和行为问题的调节作用;以及（3）探讨父亲的影响是否通过家庭环境和母亲功能来介导。基于先前的研究和理论，提出了以下假设。(1)父亲的金融资本将发挥类似的功能，住宅和非住宅的父亲，将介导的家庭环境和母亲的压力的质量，并将对儿童的认知结果产生主要影响。(2)父亲的人力资本将有一个更强大的影响儿童的认知和社会情感功能的住宅与非住宅的父亲，并将介导的家庭环境的质量。(3)父亲的社会资本将是儿童的认知和社会情感结果的最重要的预测因素，将由父母的冲突，并将部分介导的家庭环境和母亲的功能的质量。将采用多元回归和结构方程路径建模技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Numerous demographic and economic changes over the past decades have led to complex family systems with diverse and unclearly defined roles for fathers, and have significantly increased research and policy interests in delineating fathers' influence on child well-being. The current research proposes an integrated series of analyses using data from the Three City Study of Welfare, Children and Families, a new multimethod, longitudinal project on predominantly African American and Hispanic children in low-income families in urban neighborhoods. These data provide rich information on both residential and nonresidential fathers, family processes, and child outcomes from a variety of sources, including father, mother and child reports, direct assessments, and observations. The proposed research will inject a developmental and family systems perspective within an economic and sociological theoretical framework that considers the impact of fathers' financial, human, and social capital on children's healthy developmental trajectories. The primary goals of this research are: (1) to delineate the independent effects over time of fathers' financial, human and social capital on preschool children's cognitive skills, prosocial behaviors, and emotional and behavioral problems; (2) to delineate the moderating impact of fathers' residence status, mother-father conflict, and fathers' race/ethnicity; and (3) to address whether fathers' impacts are mediated through the home environment and maternal functioning. Based on previous research and theory, the following hypotheses are developed. (1) Fathers' financial capital will function similarly for residential and nonresidential fathers, will be mediated through the quality of the home environment and maternal stress, and will have a primary impact on children's cognitive outcomes. (2) Fathers' human capital will have a stronger impact on children's cognitive and socio-emotional functioning for residential versus nonresidential fathers and will be mediated by the quality of the home environment. (3) Fathers' social capital will be the most significant predictor of children's cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes, will be moderated by parental conflict, and will be partially mediated through the quality of the home environment and maternal functioning. Multiple regression and structural equation path modeling techniques will be employed.