RESUMEN
TRUE Dads, a federally funded Responsible Fatherhood intervention, aims to strengthen three of men's key roles in the family: (1) as fathers, building and maintaining positive engagement with their child; (2) as partners, maintaining a positive relationship with their co-parent; and (3) as providers, through fostering employment and economic self-sufficiency. A feature of the program is that low-income fathers and their co-parenting partners participate together in 6 3-hour group workshops, followed by optional participation in an additional 6 3-hour workshops. Fathers in the intervention condition were offered a chance to participate in a 2-week employment program. 1,042 co-parenting teams were recruited and randomly assigned to TRUE Dads' group intervention (60%) or a no-treatment control group (40%). In analyses of single measures, one year after study entry, compared with no-treatment controls, TRUE Dads program participants reported fewer depressive symptoms, less destructive couple communication and domestic violence, and increased employment for fathers. Using expanded latent variable measures of core constructs, Structural Equation Modeling revealed indirect effects of the intervention, in which reductions in both parents' negative symptoms and destructive couple communication were associated with (a) reductions in negative parenting qualities and children's behavior problems and (b) increases in fathers' economic self-sufficiency. Reducing parents' personal distress and improving relationship quality between co-parents appears to be important to enhancing fathers' positive family engagement. From a family policy perspective, the results suggest that integration rather than separation of healthy marriage, responsible fatherhood, and employment programs could provide synergistic power to programs designed to strengthen low-income families.
TRUE Dads, una intervención en la paternidad responsable financiada con fondos federales, tiene como finalidad fortalecer tres de los papeles fundamentales de los hombres en la familia: 1) como padres, construir y mantener un compromiso positivo con su hijo; 2) como compañeros de cocrianza, mantener una relación positiva con el otro padre; y 3) como proveedores, fomentar el empleo y la autonomía económica. Una característica del programa es que los padres de bajos recursos y sus compañeros de cocrianza participan juntos en 6 talleres grupales de 3 horas, y luego pueden participar de manera opcional en otros 6 talleres de 3 horas. A los padres del grupo de intervención se les ofreció una oportunidad de participar en un programa de empleo de dos semanas. Se convocó a 1042 equipos de cocrianza, los cuales fueron asignados aleatoriamente a una intervención grupal de TRUE Dads (60%) o a un grupo de referencia sin tratamiento (40%). En los análisis de medidas simples, un año después del ingreso en el estudio, en comparación con los integrantes del grupo de referencia sin tratamiento, los participantes del programa TRUE Dads informaron menos síntomas depresivos, menos comunicación destructiva de pareja y violencia doméstica, y un aumento del empleo para los padres. Usando medidas variables latentes ampliadas de constructos centrales, el modelo de ecuación estructural reveló efectos indirectos de la intervención, en los cuales las reducciones en los síntomas negativos y la comunicación destructiva de la pareja en ambos padres estuvieron asociadas con (a) disminuciones de las cualidades negativas de crianza y de los problemas de conducta de los niños, y (b) aumentos de la autonomía económica de los padres. La reducción del distrés personal de los padres y la mejora de la calidad de la relación entre los copadres parece ser importante para mejorar el compromiso familiar positivo de los padres. Desde una perspectiva de política familiar, los resultados indican que la integración, en lugar de la separación de un matrimonio saludable, la paternidad responsable y los programas de empleo podrían aportar poder sinérgico a los programas diseñados para fortalecer a las familias de bajos recursos.
Asunto(s)
Responsabilidad Parental , Problema de Conducta , Niño , Divorcio , Padre , Humanos , Masculino , Padres , PobrezaRESUMEN
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged parental resources pertinent to coping with lockdowns. The main objective of this work was to study parenting during the COVID-19 lockdown. Specifically at focus were parental behaviors concerning key domains for the family (daily routine, co-parenting, emotional experience, and support network) and changes related to the pandemic and associated with the parents' employment statuses. An online survey was carried out through an ad hoc questionnaire where participants completed questions about their sociodemographic data and rated how much their family routines, their co-parenting relationship, their emotional experiences, and the support available in the family network varied on a 5-point scale. The participants included 1384 parents, of which 286 responded to open questions regarding impactful experiences during the lockdown. The results showed differences in daily routine, co-parenting, emotional experience, and support network according to the parents' employment statuses. Between-group comparisons showed that at-home parents caring for children with governmental aids generally revealed more positive parenting behavior changes, while at-home parents who were teleworking reported more difficulties in parent-child activities and co-parenting. Furthermore, the content analysis of the data confirmed how important themes such as family dynamics, professional activities, and the relationship with the school community were throughout the participants' accounts of gains and losses. Overall, parents' employment statuses are associated with diverse experiences during lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of family resources and parental resilience, particularly during circumstances jeopardizing the ever-sensitive work-family balance.
RESUMEN
Parent-grandparent co-parenting has become a common mode in Chinese families; however, its correlation with children's development in the long run remains unclear. Herein, a 10-month follow-up survey was conducted among 253 preschool children and their parents from Chinese parent-grandparent co-parenting families. It aimed to examine the bidirectional longitudinal correlation of children's effortful control with mother-grandparent and father-grandparent co-parenting relationships, as well as the dissimilarity of the two co-parenting relationships. In addition, the moderating role of maternal parenting self-efficacy in these relationships was also investigated. A cross-lagged model showed that the (1) mother-grandparent co-parenting relationship (T1) positively predicted the father-grandparent co-parenting relationship (T2), (2) dissimilarity of the mother-grandparent and father-grandparent co-parenting relationships (T1) negatively predicted children's effortful control (T2), and (3) maternal parenting self-efficacy significantly moderated the predictive effect of children's effortful control on a father-grandparent co-parenting relationship. However, a further simple slope analysis showed that after controlling the father-grandparent co-parenting relationship (T1), the children's effortful control (T1) did not significantly predict the father-grandparent co-parenting relationship (T2) either in the high or low maternal parenting self-efficacy group. These results indicated that in Chinese parent-grandparent co-parenting families, the father-grandparent co-parenting relationship was influenced by the mother-grandparent co-parenting relationship, and similar mother-grandparent and father-grandparent co-parenting relationships were conducive to the development of the children's effortful control.