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This study used data from Add Health to examine the relationship between shared participation in religious activities and positive stepfamily functioning as indicated by the closeness of the stepfather–stepchild bond, the closeness of the mother–child bond, the quality of the mother–stepfather relationship, the adolescent's perception of family belonging, and the stability of the mother–stepfather marriage. The study incorporated information on shared religious participation between adolescents and their mothers and stepfathers by examining whether adolescents reported frequently attending religious services or church‐related events with both parents, with one parent, or with neither parent. Shared religious attendance was positively associated with several aspects of stepfamily functioning above and beyond the positive association of family members' engagement in other types of shared activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents in stepfamilies use different labels when describing their stepfather, such as “stepfather” or “mother’s husband.” These labels may reflect youths’ sense of family identity or dynamics. The current study uses nationally representative data (Add Health) on a sample of adolescents living with their mothers and a married stepfather (n = 1192) to examine factors that may be associated with how teens describe their stepfather and changes in this labeling over a year. Findings suggest that closeness with nonresident fathers increases the likelihood that teens avoid the stepfather label, while closeness with mothers increases the likelihood that they adopt the label. Closeness with their stepfather was not associated with how they label him. Other characteristics of the stepfamily are also important predictors of stepfather labeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examine factors associated with positive stepfather–child ties during adolescence. [•] Results reveal substantial variability in stepfather–stepchild relationships. [•] Mother–child and mother–stepfather ties strongly predict stepfather–child ties. [•] Correlates of positive ties are similar by gender, race, and stepfamily duration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Examines the involvement of religious of grandparents with their grandchildren in the United States. Comparison of involvement between religious and less religious grandparents; Connection between religious involvement and grandparenting; Factors that affect the involvement of grandparents with their grandchildren.

Examines the association between educational attainment and grandparenting attitudes and behaviors. Social class differences in kinship patterns; Differences in parenting practices and child-rearing values; Lack of social class differences in various aspects of grandparenthood.

Sudden forms of drastic social change have attracted the attention of developmentalists in recent years through their compelling hum an consequences. Examples include economic depressions, wars, and political transformations. This study focuses on a less visible but no less profound social change and its developmental im plications for children, the declining rural population. Using a sample of Iowa fathers (USA) who grew up on farm s, we compared the family experience and children of men who followed either the path of farm ing or of nonfarm em ployment. Farm children experience greater social inter-dependency with other family members, and this reinforces their feeling of social significance- they mattered for others and also shared responsibility for others. A s might be expected, farm youth acquired stronger attachments to their local community and family which were expressed in subsequent agricultural activities and goals. The antecedents and correlates of rural preferences begin to tell the story of rural farm continuity and change in the next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the troubled economy of the rural Midwest, adolescents come of age with a future that seems increasingly less promising at home than in other places. Their growing recognition of limited opportunities may fuel a resolve to migrate to other regions, which clashes with binding attachments to local people and places. By using preferences for living near family and in the local community, obtained in the 8th and 11th grades, this longitudinal study modeled the social and developmental pathways by which adolescents approach decisions to leave home and settle in other parts of the country. Data come from 351 two-parent families in the Iowa Youth and Family Project, launched in 1989 to investigate the economic stresses and family consequences of the farm crisis. Lack of socioeconomic opportunity, relatively weak and declining ties to parents, kin, and the religious community, and strong educational prospects emerged as potent sources of a declining preference for living near family and in the local community among boys and girls. Whether coupled with family attachments or not, plans to settle elsewhere after education are linked to more elevated feelings of depression and unhappiness about life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which identified several grandparents who felt effective in their role relating to adolescent grandchildren. Discussion on the consequences of their beliefs; How grandparents influence children; Methodology used to conduct the study; Results of the study.

Existing disparities regarding Black Americans' psychological health warrant further investigation of socioecological factors that may be associated with negative and positive dimensions of psychological health in this population. Romantic relationship functioning and neighborhood context are two domains relevant to Black Americans' mental health. However, less is known about how they may serve as independent and interactive prospective predictors of Black Americans' psychological health and potentially in distinctive ways for Black men and women. Using data from 333 partnered Black Americans who participated in the Midlife in the United States study, we investigated relationship adjustment and neighborhood quality as independent and interactive predictors of negative and positive affect 10 years later and examined gender differences in these linkages. Higher neighborhood quality predicted lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect for both men and women a decade later. Additionally, for Black men, the longitudinal association between relationship adjustment and negative affect differed by neighborhood quality such that better relationship adjustment predicted higher subsequent negative affect only for men in lower quality neighborhoods. Findings demonstrate the connections among romantic relationship functioning, ecological resources, and gender in this population and highlight the importance of incorporating socioecological and intersectional perspectives for predicting Black Americans' long-term psychological health. General Scientific Summary: This study suggests that living in higher quality neighborhoods is related to greater positive aspects and lower negative aspects of psychological health over time for Black Americans. Moreover, for Black men specifically, better romantic relationship functioning is connected to poorer psychological health when they reside in lower quality neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79) from 1979 to 2002 and the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY) from 1986 to 2002 to describe the number, shape, and population frequencies of U.S. nonresident father contact trajectories over a 14-year period using growth mixture models. The resulting four-category classification indicated that nonresident father involvement is not adequately characterized by a single population with a monotonic pattern of declining contact over time. Contrary to expectations, about two-thirds of fathers were consistently either highly involved or rarely involved in their children's lives. Only one group, constituting approximately 23% of fathers, exhibited a clear pattern of declining contact. In addition, a small group of fathers (8%) displayed a pattern of increasing contact. A variety of variables differentiated between these groups, including the child's age at father-child separation, whether the child was born within marriage, the mother's education, the mother's age at birth, whether the father pays child support regularly, and the geographical distance between fathers and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is active fathering by nonresident fathers a cause or a consequence of adolescent well-being? Past studies of nonresident father involvement assume a father effects model in which active parenting by fathers improves adolescent adjustment. A child effects model, in which fathers respond to levels of well-being among their adolescent offspring by becoming more or less involved parents, could also account for the positive association between active fathering and adolescent adjustment. We use nationally representative data from the 1995 and 1996 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to estimate the cross-lagged associations between nonresident father involvement and the externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and academic achievement of 3,394 adolescents. Contrary to assumptions from a socialization perspective and findings from past research on nonresident fathers, our results do not support a father effects model. Our data are more consistent with a child effects model in which levels of adolescent well-being cause, rather than result from, levels of nonresident father involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]