Father Care: Levels, Sources, and Consequences

说明(由申请人提供)：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)公共数据集的这项二次分析的中心目的是调查父亲作为其年幼子女的常规托儿提供者(“父亲照料”)的影响。尽管大量文献表明，更多的父亲参与对父母的满意度以及孩子的认知和社会发展都有好处，但尚不清楚这些好处是否适用于幼儿将父亲照顾作为常规安排的经历。相当多的父亲为13-14%的6至36个月大的儿童提供常规育儿安排，我们发现，在1至54个月大的儿童中，超过65%的1364名儿童(70%来自双亲家庭的儿童)在一段时间内接受了父亲照顾，作为主要或补充育儿安排。尽管普遍存在，但父亲照料的影响还没有得到系统的研究。在对不同类型育儿效果的研究中，父亲照料通常与其他形式的亲属照料混为一谈，因此没有区别(例如，NICHD幼儿保育研究网络[ECCRN]，2004年)。NICHD关于早期儿童保育和青年发展的研究(N=1364，48%为女性)提供了一个独特的机会，可以研究儿童发展中与变异相关的差异以及他们将父亲照料作为儿童照料安排的经验。由于儿童护理在NICHD SECCYD中被定义为非产妇护理，并且主要和补充安排的儿童护理经验的类型和时间都是纵向收集的，因此有大量关于儿童将父亲护理作为一种儿童护理安排的不同经验的文件。为了解决父亲照料如何以及何时对儿童产生影响这一关键问题，拟议的项目将解决这些具体目标：(1)提供关于儿童在学龄前几年父亲照料经历变化的描述性信息；(2)调查从出生到学龄前几年父亲照料差异的多种预测因素，包括家庭人口统计、就业条件、父亲和母亲的个人特征以及子女特征；以及(3)考察父亲照料对父子关系、母子关系以及儿童在童年中期的社会和认知发展的影响。

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.