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少年发展研究（NICHD SECCYD）公共数据集进行二次分析的中心目的是调查父亲作为幼儿的常规托儿服务提供者（“父亲护理”）的影响。尽管大量的文献表明，父亲更多的参与对养育子女的满意度和孩子的认知和社会发展有好处，但尚不清楚这些好处是否适用于作为常规安排的父亲照顾幼儿的经历。大量的父亲为6至36个月大的孩子提供13-14%的常规托儿安排，我们发现1364名孩子中超过65%（70%来自双亲家庭）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的托儿安排。尽管父亲关怀很普遍，但其影响尚未得到系统的研究。在对不同类型的育儿影响的研究中，父亲的照顾通常与其他形式的相对照顾集中在一起，因此没有区分（例如NICHD早期儿童护理研究网络[ECCRN]， 2004）。NICHD的早期儿童保育和青少年发展研究（N=1364, 48%为女性）提供了一个独特的机会来研究儿童发展与变化相关的差异以及他们作为儿童保育安排的父亲照顾的经历。由于儿童护理在NICHD SECCYD中被定义为非母亲护理，并且儿童护理经验的类型和时间被纵向收集为主要和补充安排，因此有大量的文件记录了儿童在父亲护理作为一种儿童护理安排时的不同经历。为了解决父亲照顾如何以及何时对儿童产生影响这一关键问题，拟议的项目将解决以下具体目标：(1)提供儿童整个学前时期父亲照顾经历变化的描述性信息；(2)研究从出生到学前时期父亲照顾经历变化的多重预测因素，包括家庭人口统计、就业条件、父亲和母亲的个人特征和子女特征；(3)研究父亲照顾对父子关系、母子关系的影响。儿童的社会和认知发展到儿童中期。

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.