The Impact of Nonresident Fatherhood on Adolescent Sexual Development

描述（由申请人提供）：大量研究表明，非常住父亲身份与青春期性行为风险增加一倍有关，如青春期提前、性处女期提前和危险的性行为。这项研究引起了公众的关注，因为这些结果增加了性传播疾病和少女怀孕的风险，因为它们增加了成年后非婚生育和家庭不稳定的可能性。然而，为了设计削弱这种循环的社会政策，研究必须阐明，是父亲的缺失还是选择家庭进入破裂状态的特征推动了这些联系，因为因果关系和选择假设意味着这些结果出现的不同过程，因此，不同的政策方法来减少它们的流行。最近的一些研究通过比较那些与非居民父亲不一致的兄弟姐妹和堂兄弟姐妹来估计选择的影响，无论是经历还是经历的持续时间，从而最大限度地减少了未观察到的环境和遗传风险对家庭差异的影响。然而，这些研究只调查了（女孩）初潮和第一次性交的年龄，使用了相对较小的相关配对样本，并没有调查可能将非居民父亲身份与性发展或缓和这些联系的环境因素联系起来的机制。拟议的研究将通过检查更广泛的性结果，使用更大的、基因更多样化的相关对样本，调查独特的影响途径，探索父亲参与和继父在场作为调节因素，来扩展家庭内部比较的使用。它还将通过比较具有不同水平遗传亲缘关系的青少年之间的关联，来探索选择效应是环境的还是遗传的。该项目将使用仅有的两个具有全国代表性的关于兄弟姐妹和表兄弟姐妹的数据集和青少年性发展的数据，即全国青少年纵向调查儿童-青年成人调查（CNLSY-YA）和全国青少年健康纵向研究（Add Health），以实现以下目标：1)估计选择在多大程度上推动了非居民父亲身份与青少年性发育之间的联系，以及选择过程是环境的还是遗传的；2)通过比较不同性别领域的非常住父亲身份与性发展之间的关联，以及比较父亲离开孩子生活的时间，阐明可能解释这些联系的机制；3)通过比较不同质量和数量的父亲参与和不同继父同居经历的儿童和家庭的家庭内部效应，确定父亲参与或继父存在是否存在中等联系。总的来说，这个项目旨在澄清非居民父亲对青少年性发展的影响，并在此过程中，不断增长的非居民父亲对下一代家庭形成的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Voluminous research has linked nonresident fatherhood to a doubling of the risk for sexual outcomes in adolescence such as accelerated pubertal timing, earlier sexual debut, and risky sexual behavior. This research has sparked public concern because these outcomes elevate risk of sexually transmitted disease and teenage pregnancy, and because they increase the likelihood of nonmarital childbirth and family instability in adulthood. To design social policies that weaken this cycle, however, research must illuminate whether it is father absence or characteristics that select families into disruption tha drive these links, for the causal and selection hypotheses imply different processes by which these outcomes emerge and, thus, different policy approaches to reducing their prevalence. A handful of recent studies have estimated the influence of selection by comparing siblings and cousins who are discordant for nonresident fatherhood, either the experience of it or the duration of the experience, thereby minimizing the influence of unobserved environmental and genetic risks that vary between families. However, these studies examined only (girls') age at menarche and first intercourse, used relatively small samples of related pairs, and did not investigate mechanisms that may link nonresident fatherhood to sexual development or environmental factors that moderate those links. The proposed study would extend the use of within-family comparisons by examining a wider range of sexual outcomes, using larger and more genetically diverse samples of related pairs, investigating unique pathways of influence, and exploring father involvement and stepfather presence as moderators. It would also explore whether any selection effects are environmental or genetic in origin by comparing associations across adolescents with different levels of genetic relatedness. The project would use two of the only nationally representative datasets with sibling and cousin pairs and data on adolescent sexual development, Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - Young Adult Survey (CNLSY-YA) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), to pursue the following aims: 1) estimate the extent to which selection drives links between nonresident fatherhood and adolescent sexual development and whether the selection process is environmental or genetic in origin; 2) illuminate mechanisms that may account for these links by comparing associations between nonresident fatherhood and sexual development across different sexual domains and comparing associations by the timing of father departure from the child's life; and 3) determine if father involvement or stepfather presence moderate links by comparing within-family effects across children and families with different qualities and quantities father involvement and different experiences of stepfather coresidence. Overall, this project aims to clarify the implications of nonresident fatherhood for adolescent sexual development, and in doing so, the implications of ever-increasing rates of nonresident fatherhood for family formation in next generation.