Transactional Family Processes Supporting Father Involvement and Child Socio-emotional Wellbeing

摘要： 越来越多的儿童出生时父母未婚， 孩子的出生。这些家庭通常被称为“脆弱家庭”， 在童年时期经历父亲参与或缺席（LFIA），这反过来又 与一系列有害的发展结果有关。尽管大量的 关于家庭过程的奖学金，重要的问题仍然是关于LFIA的预测因素和关于 与LFIA相关的家庭过程。使用5，102个种族多样化，低收入 从建立强大的家庭（BSF）研究的夫妇，这里提出的研究旨在填补这一 首先，测试夫妻关系和共同养育关系的交易模型 质量，沿着父亲的参与，以研究如何夫妇和养育关系 动态与LFIA（目标1）相关联。其次，我们将研究如何夫妻关系，共同- 包括LFIA在内的养育行为与儿童的社会情感有关 （目标2）。最后，我们将根据（a）种族- 族裔，以及（B）居住和不居住的父亲家庭（目标3）。拟议 研究将提供在家庭过程的理解，是相关的进步， 为脆弱家庭的儿童提供的长期影响评估和社会情感结果，并为以下方面提供目标： 采取干预措施，增加父亲的参与，促进儿童的社会情感健康。 拟议的研究将包括博士和硕士水平的学生在研究生院的 社会工作，丹佛大学，从而履行区域R15优先提供学生在一个 没有大量NIH资金的组织，有严格的研究和机会 参与研究过程的各个方面。该项目还将加强 通过促进严格的联邦资助， 在教师中进行研究。

Abstract: An increasing proportion of children are born to parents who are unmarried at the time of the child’s birth. Children in such families, often termed “fragile families”, are more likely to experience low father involvement or absence (LFIA) during childhood, which is in turn associated with a range of deleterious developmental outcomes. Despite the substantial scholarship on family processes, important questions remain about predictors of LFIA and about the family processes associated with LFIA. Using data on 5,102 racially diverse, low-income couples from the Building Strong Families (BSF) study, the studies proposed here aim to fill this gap by, first, testing a transactional model of couple relationship and co-parenting relationship quality, along with father involvement to examine how couple and parenting relationship dynamics are linked to LFIA (Aim 1). Secondly, we will examine how couple relationship, co- parenting, and parenting behaviors including LFIA are linked to children’s socio-emotional outcomes (Aim 2). Finally, we will examine variability in these processes based on (a) race- ethnicity, and (b) residential and non-residential father households (Aim 3). The proposed studies will provide advances in the understanding of family processes that are associated with LFIA and socio-emotional outcomes for children in fragile families, and provide targets for intervention to increase father involvement and promote children’s socio-emotional wellbeing. The proposed studies will include doctoral and masters level students at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, thus fulfilling the AREA R15 priority to provide students at an organization without substantial NIH funding with exposure to rigorous research and opportunity to participate in all aspects of the research process. This project will also strengthen the scientific environment at the applicant institution by promoting rigorous federally funded research among faculty.