New measure for fathers of children with developmental challenges.

BACKGROUND: There is a relative lack of measures tailored to the study of fathers of children with developmental challenges (DCs). The goal of the current study was to create and validate a brief measure designed to capture the perceptions and experiences of these fathers. The Fathers of Children with Developmental Challenges (FCDC) questionnaire was designed to assess fathers' perceptions of the supports for, and challenges to, their efforts to be involved in the rearing of their children. METHOD: Participants were 101 fathers of children with DCs who completed an online survey. Scale validation included tests to determine reliability, validity and factor structure. Used to establish validity were measures of parenting stress, parenting commitment, parent personality and child social-communicative skills. RESULTS: Analyses indicated that the FCDC is reliable (α = 0.89), demonstrates content validity, construct validity and acts in theoretically expected ways. Factor analysis on the 20-item measure yielded two sub-scales: (1) impact on parenting, and (2) involvement with child intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The FCDC fills a gap in the literature by offering an easy-to-administer self-report measure of fathers' perceptions of supports for, and barriers to, their involvement with their children with DCs. The FCDC could assist professionals in delivering support services specifically for fathers of children with DCs.

Measuring difficult temperament the easy way.

In this study, the authors introduce a new measure of infant temperament, the Pictorial Assessment of Temperament (PAT), and provide information about its psychometric qualities based on findings from a study of 132 mothers and infants. The PAT is a 10-item measure of "difficult" temperament that is quick and easy to use and avoids some of the inherent problems in existing paper-and-pencil measures of temperament (e.g., complexity of response choices, dependence on respondents' educational level and verbal skills). It has convergent validity with the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire and with observed behavior in a laboratory procedure, moderate reliability and stability over time, and moderate agreement between mothers' and fathers' reports. Predictive validity was demonstrated by significant associations with the children's later disruptive behavior, behavior problems, lack of sociability, and negativity in interactions with their mother. Parent characteristics (agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, sensitivity, depression) were not related to scores on the PAT, demonstrating its discriminant validity.

Contributions of a supportive work environment to parents' well-being and orientation to work.

Examined the joint and unique contributions of informal social support in the workplace and formal, family-responsive benefits and policies provided by employers to the job-related attitudes and personal well-being of employed parents with a young child. Eighty married men, 169 married women, and 72 single women with a preschool child completed a survey concerning social support from co-workers and supervisor, utilization of family-responsive benefits and policies, readiness to leave the employer for additional benefits, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role strain, and health symptoms. Among the findings: (a) Fathers and mothers expressed equal levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but mothers reported more role strain and health symptoms; (b) nearly 48% of married women's organizational commitment was accounted for by measures of support in the workplace; (c) informal social support at work was significantly more important to men's well-being than that of women; and (d) formal, family-responsive policies appeared more consequential for the prediction of women's role strain, perhaps because of women's greater responsibility for adjusting work life to meet the demands of family roles.

Husbands' and wives' adjustment to pregnancy and first parenthood.

PIP: There are conflicting reports regarding type and extent of the change in couples' lives due to the arrival of a 1st baby. The present short-term longitudinal study of 39 volunteer couples had 2 major objectives: 1) to examine changes in couples' division of labor during the transition to parenthood; and 2) to investigate husband-wife differences in the associations between indices of marital and parental adjustment during the early postpartum months. Individual questionnaires and interviews were administered in couples' homes on 3 occasions: early pregnancy, late pregnancy, and 3-4 months postpartum. The major findings were that changes in household division of labor from early pregnancy to late pregnancy to 3-4 months postpartum demonstrated a curvilinear pattern, such that late pregnancy was characterized by more egalitarian household roles than was found in early pregnancy or postpartum. Marital adjustment mean scores suggested that marriages were functioning well at 3-4 momnths postpartum. Fathers' greater involvement with the baby was associated with better marital and parental adjustment, whereas fathers' postpartum participation in feminine household tasks was correlated with lower adjustment. In contrast to father, mothers' greater participation in baby care tasks was associated with lower marital adjustment. Mothers usually perceived changes in marriage and lifestyle due to the baby as more bothersome than did fathers. Adjustment to parenthood and marital adjustment measures were more interrelated more frequently for fathers than mothers. These findings underscore the complex associations among husbands' and wives' household roles, marital adjustment, involvement with baby, and adjustment to parenthood.^ieng

The relation between maternal employment status and the stability of attachments to mother and to father.

Recent investigations of the relation between maternal employment and the stability of infant attachments have implied that maternal employment introduces a stressful, unpredictable element into family life. To assess the effect of maternal employment per se, stable and changing maternal employment status were distinguished in this study. Classifications of the quality of infant-mother and of infant-father attachments were made for 59 children at 12 and 20 months of age using the Ainsworth strange situation paradigm. The stability of attachments from 12 to 20 months was examined in 4 groups defined by maternal employment status. 3 of these groups (nonemployed, part-time employed, full-time employed) were characterized by no change in maternal employment status from several months prior to the first assessment of attachment through the 20-month assessment; the fourth group was characterized by maternal employment status that changed between the 2 assessments of attachment. Among the stable conditions of maternal employment status there was no indication of differences in the stability of attachment to either parent whether the mother was employed or not, indicating that maternal employment can lend as much stability to family relationships as the condition of maternal nonemployment. No changes in the quality of attachment to mother and relatively frequent changes in attachment to father (46%) were present when mother changed employment status. The basis for this difference is discussed in terms of maternal versus paternal response to alterations in life-style initiated by mother's employment changes.

Family life education for young adolescents: a quasi-experiment.

The impact of a family life education program for inner-city, minority elementary-school students was investigated. 2 randomly assigned groups of 7th and 8th graders (balanced for gender) completed a self administered survey, both before and after program implementation. In comaprison to the control group, program participants displayed (a) improved knowledge about contraception, reproductive physiology, an adolescent pregnancy outcomes; (b) increased awareness of the existence of specific birth control methods; (c) among 7th gradres, more conservative attitudes toward circumstances under which sexual intercourse was viewed as personally acceptable, and among8th graders, a shift toward more liberal attitudes; and (d) a greater tendency to acknowledge mutual responsibility for contraception. The impact of this intervention and school-based sex education programs in general is discussed within the broader context of the young adolescent's social environment.

Toddler development in the family: impact of father involvement and parenting characteristics.

The family context of toddler development was explored with 75 20-month-olds and their parents. To determine the impact of quantitative and qualitative aspects of fathering, relationships between father involvement in child rearing, parenting characteristics (attitudes and behavior), and child adaptation were investigated. Child characteristics included security of toddler-father and toddler-mother attachment assessed in the strange situation, and toddler affect and task orientation in a problem-solving task. Parental attitudes and father involvement were assessed with questionnaires. Analyses examining associations among father involvement, parenting characteristics, and toddler development demonstrated significant relationships. Extent of father involvement was related to toddler development with both fathers and mothers. However, results highlighted the salience of qualitative characteristics (attitudes, behavioral sensitivity) rather than quantitative characteristics (amount of father's time with child) of parenting for toddler development.