Father Care: Levels, Sources, and Consequences

描述（由申请人提供）：对国家儿童健康和人类发展研究所早期儿童保育和青年发展研究（NICHD SECCYD）公共数据集进行二次分析的主要目的是调查父亲作为幼儿常规保育提供者（“父亲保育”）的影响。虽然大量的文献表明，父亲更多的参与对养育子女的满意度和儿童的认知和社会发展的好处，目前还不清楚这些好处是否适用于幼儿的经验与父亲照顾作为一种常规安排。相当数量的父亲为13-14%的6至36个月大的儿童提供常规托儿安排，我们发现，在1 364名儿童中，65%以上（双亲家庭儿童的70%）在1至54个月大的一段时间内接受父亲照顾作为主要或补充托儿安排。尽管它的普遍性，父亲照顾的影响还没有得到系统的研究。在对不同类型儿童保育的影响进行研究时，父亲照料通常与其他形式的亲属照料混为一谈，因此没有加以区分（例如，国家儿童健康与发展研究中心幼儿保育研究网络[ECCRN]，2004年）。NICHD的早期儿童保育和青年发展研究（N=1364，48%女性）提供了一个独特的机会，研究儿童的发展差异与变化和他们的经验，父亲照顾儿童的安排。由于儿童保育被定义为非产妇护理在NICHD SECCYD，和类型和小时的儿童保育经验纵向收集的主要和补充安排，有大量的文件的变化，在儿童的经验与父亲照顾作为一种类型的儿童保育安排。为了解决父亲的照顾如何以及何时对儿童产生影响这一关键问题，拟议项目将致力于实现以下具体目标：（1）提供关于儿童在整个学龄前时期父亲照顾经历变化的描述性信息，（2）调查从出生到学龄前父亲照顾变化的多个预测因素，包括家庭人口统计学，就业条件，父亲和母亲的个人特征，和儿童的特点，（3）检查的后果，父亲照顾的父子关系，母子关系，和儿童的社会和认知发展到童年中期。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The central purpose of this secondary analysis of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD) public data sets is to investigate the effects of fathers serving as a routine childcare provider for their young children ("father care"). Although a substantial body of literature has shown benefits of greater father involvement for parenting satisfaction and children's cognitive and social development, it is not clear whether these benefits hold true for young children's experiences with father care as a routine arrangement. Substantial numbers of fathers provide routine childcare arrangement for 13-14% of the children from 6 to 36 months of age, and we have found that more than 65% of its 1364 children (70% of children from two-parent families) received father care as a primary or a supplemental child care arrangement for some amount of time between 1 and 54 months of age. Despite its prevalence, the effects of father care have not been systematically studied. In studies of the effects of different types of childcare, father care is typically lumped with other forms of relative care, and thus not differentiated (e.g. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network [ECCRN], 2004). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N=1364, 48% female) provides a unique opportunity for studying differences in children's development associated with variations and their experience of father care as a child care arrangement. Because child care was defined as nonmaternal care in the NICHD SECCYD, and the types and hours of child care experience were collected longitudinally for both primary and supplement arrangements, there is extensive documentation of variations in children's experiences with father care as a type of child care arrangement. In order to address the key question of how and when father care makes a difference for children, the proposed project will address these specific aims: (1) To provide descriptive information about variations in children's father care experiences throughout their preschool years, (2) to investigate multiple predictors of variations in father care from birth through the preschool years, including family demographics, employment conditions, personal characteristics of fathers and mothers, and child characteristics, and (3) To examine the consequences of father care for father-child relationships, mother-child relationships, and children's social and cognitive development into middle childhood.