Previous studies reveal the reinforcement
of gender stereotypes by picture books children read during
the formative years. In the books, boys tend to be portrayed
as active leaders, and girls as passive followers. Women
and girls are under-represented. Men often exhibit career
skills, and women perform traditional tasks in the home.
Even when careers are nontraditional, personality characteristics
and other qualities and behaviors are often stereotypical.
Previous researchers emphazised the narrowly defined roles
of women and children in picture books. In this study, we
focused on the representation of mothers and fathers, and
examined whether men are stereotyped as relatively absent
or inept parents. A content analysis of the gender roles
exhibited in 200 prominent children's picture books demonstrated
that fathers are largely under-represented, and, when they
do appear, they are withdrawn and ineffectual parents. Further
research could establish whether seriously deficient models
of fatherhood in children's literature affect the incidence
of present, caring fathers in society.
Fatherchild and motherchild engagements were
examined longitudinally in relation to children's language
and cognitive development at 24 and 36 months. The study
involved a racially/ethnically diverse sample of low-income,
resident fathers (and their partners) from the National
Early Head Start evaluation study (n=290). Fatherchild and
motherchild engagements were videotaped for 10 min at home
during semistructured free play, and children's language
and cognitive status were assessed at both ages. Fathers'
and mothers' supportive parenting independently predicted
children's outcomes after covarying significant demographic
factors. Moreover, fathers' education and income were uniquely
associated with child measures, and fathers' education consistently
predicted the quality of motherchild engagements. Findings
suggest direct and indirect effects of fathering on child
development.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
Research on parental involvement in educational 'choice',
as well as in educational processes more generally, has highlighted
clear disparities between the close and active involvement of mothers
and the more distant role of fathers. While this article does not question
the broad patterns identified by such studies, it does suggest that,
in some circumstances at least, fathers are both able and willing to
become closely involved in decision-making processes and to take on
much of the 'hard work' of educational choice. Drawing on a longitudinal
study of young people's higher education decision-making processes,
the article presents evidence of detailed paternal involvement. It then
suggests that this apparent 'anomaly' can be explained by the mothers'
and fathers' differential access to cultural and social capital; a lack
of previous experience of active engagement with educational markets;
and, in a few cases, young people's active resistance to the involvement
of their mothers.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
Background: Few studies have investigated the individual
long-term contributions that mothers and fathers make to their children's
schooling.
Aims: (1) To explore the role of early father involvement in children's
later educational attainment independently of the role of early mother
involvement and other confounds, (2) to investigate whether gender and
family structures moderate the relationship between father's and mother's
involvement and child's educational attainment, and (3) to explore whether
the impact of father's involvement depends on the level of mother's
involvement.
Sample: The study used longitudinal data from the National Child Development
Study. The initial sample were those 7,259 cohort members with valid
data on mother involvement at age 7, father involvement at age 7, and
school-leaving qualifications by age 20. Of those, 3,303 were included
in the final analysis.
Method: The measures were control variables, structural factors (family
structure, sibship size and residential mobility), child factors (emotional/behavioural
problems, cognitive ability and academic motivation), and father's and
mother's involvement.
Results: Father involvement and mother involvement at age 7 independently
predicted educational attainment by age 20. The association between
parents' involvement and educational attainment was not stronger for
sons than for daughters. Father involvement was not more important for
educational attainment when mother involvement was low rather than high.
Not growing up in intact two-parent family did not weaken the association
between father's or mother's involvement and educational outcomes.
Conclusion: Early father involvement can be another protective factor
in counter-acting risk conditions that might lead to later low attainment
levels.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
British Psychological Society: www.bps.org.uk
Background: Children's relationships with their non-resident
fathers, and associations between these relationships, children's relationships
with mothers and stepfathers, and the children's adjustment were studied
in 162 children from single-parent families, selected from a representative
community sample in the UK, studied at 2 time points two years apart.
Method: Children were interviewed about their relationships with their
non-resident fathers, mothers and stepfathers. Mothers reported on children's
adjustment and other family variables.
Results: Positive child-non-resident father relationships were correlated
with (a) contact between child and father, (b) the quality of the mother-child
relationship, and (c) the frequency of contact between the mother and
her former partner. Conflict between child and father was correlated
with conflict between child and mother, and child and stepfather. Child-non-resident
father contact and relationships were stable over 2 years, and related
to children's adjustment. These associations were stronger for children
from single-parent families than for those with stepfathers, and for
those whose mothers had been first pregnant as teenagers.
Conclusions: Associations between the quality of children's relationships
with non-resident fathers and their adjustment need to be considered
within the framework of the larger family system. Child-father relationships
are particularly important for children from "high-risk" families.
This study used longitudinal data from the National Child
Development Study to explore factors associated with aspects of fathers'
involvement with their children at age 7, 11 and 16 years in intact
families. Father involvement was predicted by different factors at different
ages but generally it was continuous and multi-dimensional, and strongly
associated with mother involvement. Low parental socio-economic status
and child behaviour problems were negatively related to father involvement
at age 7. With older children, father involvement was inversely related
to family size and poor school performance. Financial difficulties in
the family were not related to father involvement at either age. Domestic
tension was negatively related to certain aspects of fathers' involvement
with younger children. Father's education was generally related to father's
involvement but maternal employment was only related to low father-interest
in child's education at age 7 and 11 years.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
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