The Impact of Nonresident Fatherhood on Adolescent Sexual Development

描述(由申请者提供)：大量研究已经将非居民为父与青春期性结果的风险加倍联系在一起，例如青春期时间加快，更早的首次性行为，以及高风险的性行为。这项研究引发了公众的担忧，因为这些结果增加了性传播疾病和青少年怀孕的风险，也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，要设计削弱这一周期的社会政策，研究必须阐明，是父亲的缺席还是特征选择了家庭的分裂，从而驱动了这些联系，因为因果和选择假设意味着这些结果产生的不同过程，因此，减少其患病率的不同政策方法。最近的几项研究通过比较不适合做非居民父亲的兄弟姐妹和堂兄弟姐妹的经历或经历的持续时间来估计选择的影响，从而将未被观察到的环境和遗传风险的影响降至最低，这些风险因家庭而异。然而，这些研究只调查了(女孩)月经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，而没有调查可能将非居民父亲与性发展或缓和这些联系的环境因素联系起来的机制。这项拟议的研究将扩大家庭内比较的使用范围，通过检查更广泛的性结果，使用更大和更具遗传多样性的亲属配对样本，调查独特的影响途径，并探索父亲的参与和继父的存在作为调节因素。它还将通过比较具有不同遗传关联水平的青少年之间的关联，来探索是否有任何选择效应源于环境或遗传。该项目将使用两个具有全国代表性的数据集，包括兄弟姐妹和表亲配对以及青春期性发展数据，即全国青年-青年成人调查儿童纵向调查(CNLSY-YA)和国家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驱动非居民父亲和青春期性发展之间的联系，以及选择过程是环境还是遗传起源；2)通过比较不同性域中非居民父亲和性发展之间的联系，以及比较父亲离开孩子生活的时间来比较联系，阐明可能解释这些联系的机制；(3)通过比较不同性质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效应，确定父亲参与和继父在场是否存在中度联系。总体而言，该项目旨在澄清非居民父亲对青春期性发育的影响，以及在这样做的过程中，非居民父亲的比率不断上升对下一代家庭形成的影响。 公共卫生相关性：尽管现有研究已经证明了非居民父亲身份与青春期高风险性行为结果之间的关联，但很少有研究使用严格的方法来解释非随机选择对家庭破裂的影响，调查解释这些关联的机制，或者确定可能缓和这些关联的环境因素。这项拟议的项目将利用家庭内部的比较来最大限度地减少选择的影响，评估非居民父亲对青春期一系列性结果的影响，探索这些影响在父亲离别时是否因孩子的年龄而异，并调查父亲的参与和继父的存在作为调节因素，这些分析将阐明父亲在儿童发展中可能发挥的独特作用，并提出具体的政策方法，以最大限度地减少青春期高风险的性结果。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Although existing research has documented associations between nonresident fatherhood and risky sexual outcomes in adolescence, few studies have used rigorous methods to account for the influence of nonrandom selection into family disruption, investigated mechanisms that explain those associations, or identified environmental factors that may moderate those associations. Using within-family comparisons to minimize the influence of selection, the proposed project would estimate the impact of nonresident fatherhood on a range of adolescent sexual outcomes, explore whether those impacts vary by child age at father departure, and investigate father involvement and stepfather presence as moderators, analyses which would illuminate the unique role fathers may play in children's development and suggest specific policy approaches to minimizing risky sexual outcomes in adolescence.