Divorced Fathering: Testing A Social Interaction Model

描述(申请人提供)：离异父亲是美国增长最快的家庭类型之一，其增长速度比单身母亲更快。高质量的离婚后父亲参与为孩子、母亲和社会提供了直接的好处。不幸的是，随着时间的推移，父亲往往会脱离为人父母的角色。对父亲的社会支持是参与的关键决定因素，但对养育子女的支持几乎没有研究过。总体而言，关于离异父亲的研究很少。已知的大部分信息来自监护母亲的报告、调查和人口普查数据。然而，这些数据来源并不提供关于父亲养育子女的可靠数据，也不能表达父亲的观点。因此，我们对质量参与或育儿行为的决定因素知之甚少。父亲们会在多大程度上利用非正式网络来养育子女？社会环境中的哪些因素促进了父亲的参与？ 本研究的目的是：1)通过对监护和非监护离婚父亲中代表性较低的人群进行随机抽样，解决离婚父亲实证研究的不足；2)使用以前从未收集到的关于父亲-孩子和父亲-知己互动的数据检验社会互动假设；3)探索和列举父亲对各种社会支持来源的依赖以满足特定的育儿需要；4)通过直接观察父亲-知己互动、父子互动和模拟育儿任务，检验知己支持的社会互动模型对父亲和孩子适应和父亲介入的预测作用；5)检验父母角色紧张和同一性突显的同一性理论对父亲适应和离婚后介入的预测作用；6)利用纵向数据处理支持和同一性理论中尚未包括离婚父亲观察到的养育方式的理论命题。具体地说，这项为期4年的研究将在24个月内评估244名离异父亲。将收集三波父亲数据：基线、9个月和18个月。完全监护权父亲和无监护权父亲将被过度抽样，共获得90名完全监护权父亲、90名共同监护权父亲和无监护权父亲。符合条件的父亲必须在过去24个月内离婚，并且有一个年龄在4岁到10岁之间的男孩或女孩。根据试点数据，我们预计90%的父亲会招募知己，大约83%的父亲可能会有孩子参加父子评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Divorced fathers represent one of the fastest growing family types in the United States, increasing at a faster rate than single mothers. Quality post-divorce father involvement provides direct benefits for children, mothers, and society. Unfortunately, fathers tend to disengage in parenting roles over time. Social support for fathers is a key determinant of involvement, yet support for parenting is virtually unstudied. In general, there is sparse research on divorced fathers. Much of what is known comes from reports of custodial mothers, surveys, and census data. These data sources, however, do not provide reliable data on fathers' parenting or give expression to fathers' views. Consequently, we know little about determinants of quality involvement or parenting behaviors. How much do fathers utilize informal networks for parenting? What factors in the social environment promote father involvement? The aims of this study are to: 1) Address the scarcity of empirical research on divorced fathers by oversampling underrepresented subpopulations of custodial and noncustodial divorced fathers using random sampling; 2) Test social interactional hypotheses using never-before-collected data on father-child and father-confidant interactions; 3) Explore and enumerate fathers' reliance on various sources of social support for specific parenting needs; 4) Test social interactional models of confidant support as a predictor of father and child adjustment and father involvement by utilizing direct observation of father-confidant interactions, father-child interactions, and analogue parenting tasks; 5) Test identity theories of parental role strain and identity salience as predictors of fathers' adjustment and post-divorce involvement; and 6) Utilize longitudinal data to address theoretical propositions in support and identity theories yet to include divorced fathers' observed parenting. Specifically, the 4-year study will assess 244 divorced fathers over 24 months. Three waves of father data will be collected: Baseline, 9, and 18 months. Full-custody and no-custody fathers will be oversampled to obtain a total of 90 full-, 90 co-, and 64 no-custody fathers. Eligible fathers must have been divorced within the last 24 months and have a boy or a girl between the ages of 4 and 10. Based on pilot data, we expect 90% of fathers will recruit confidants and roughly 83% of the fathers will potentially have children participating in father-child assessments.