Divorced Fathering: Testing A Social Interaction Model

离婚父亲是美国增长最快的家庭类型之一，增长速度快于单身母亲。离婚后父亲的高质量参与为儿童、母亲和社会带来了直接的好处。不幸的是，随着时间的推移，父亲往往会脱离养育子女的角色。社会对父亲的支持是参与的一个关键决定因素，但对养育子女的支持几乎没有研究。一般来说，对离婚父亲的研究很少。我们所知道的大部分来自于对监护母亲的报告、调查和人口普查数据。然而，这些数据来源并没有提供关于父亲养育子女的可靠数据，也没有表达父亲的观点。因此，我们对质量参与或养育行为的决定因素知之甚少。父亲们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）针对离婚父亲实证研究的不足，采用随机抽样的方法，对监护和非监护离婚父亲的代表性不足的亚群进行了过度抽样; 2）使用以前从未收集过的关于父亲与子女和父亲与知己互动的数据来检验社会干预假设; 3）探索和列举父亲对各种社会支持来源的依赖，以满足特定的养育需求;（4）通过直接观察父子关系、亲子关系和模拟亲职任务，检验知己支持对父子适应和父亲参与的预测作用：（5）检验父母角色紧张和身份突显对父亲适应和离婚后参与的预测作用; 6）利用纵向数据来解决支持和身份理论的理论命题，但还包括离婚父亲的观察养育。具体来说，这项为期4年的研究将在24个月内评估244名离婚父亲。将收集三波父亲数据：基线、9个月和18个月。完全监护权和无监护权的父亲将被过度抽样，以获得总共90个完全，90个共同和64个无监护权的父亲。符合条件的父亲必须在过去24个月内离婚，并且有一个4至10岁的男孩或女孩。根据试点数据，我们预计90%的父亲会招募知己，大约83%的父亲可能会让孩子参加父子评估。

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.