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Creating opportunities for people to achieve socioeconomic mobility is a widely shared societal goal. Paradoxically, however, achieving this goal can pose a threat to high-socioeconomic-status (SES) people as they look to maintain their privileged positions in society for both them and their children. Two studies evaluate whether this threat manifests as "opportunity hoarding" in which high-SES parents adopt attitudes and behaviors aimed at shoring up their families' access to valuable educational and economic resources. The current paper provides converging evidence for this hypothesis across two studies conducted with 2,557 American parents. An initial correlational study demonstrated that believing that socioeconomic mobility is possible was associated with high-SES parents being more inclined to attempt to secure valuable educational and economic resources for their children, even when doing so came at the cost of low-SES families. Specifically, high-SES parents with stronger beliefs in socioeconomic mobility exhibited decreased support for redistributive policies and viewed engaging in discrete behaviors that would unfairly advantage their children (e.g., allowing them to misrepresent their identities on school and job applications) as more acceptable relative to both low-SES parents with similar beliefs and high-SES parents who were less optimistic about socioeconomic mobility. A subsequent experimental study established these relationships causally by comparing parents' responses to different types of socioeconomic mobility. Together, the current findings merge insights across psychology and economics to deepen understandings of the processes through which societal inequities emerge and persist, especially during times of apparently abundant opportunity., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Extensive evidence and theory suggest that the development of motor skills during infancy and early childhood initiates a "developmental cascade" for cognitive abilities, such as reading and math. Motor skills are closely connected with the development of spatial cognition, an ability that supports deductive reasoning. Despite the linkage between motor skills and spatial cognition, and spatial cognition with deductive reasoning, no research has explored the developmental connection between early motor skills and reasoning ability, a plausible pathway through which the developmental cascade operates. Drawing data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (N = 1,233; 95% British, 5% other race/ethnicity; 54% male, 46% female; 7% low income, 80% middle income, 12% high income), this study investigated whether there was a relationship between gross and fine motor skills in infancy (22 months of age) and early childhood (42 months of age) and visuospatial deductive reasoning in adolescence (at 10 and 16 years of age). Results indicated that fine but not gross motor skills during early childhood positively predicted reasoning in adolescence. Critically, the fine motor-reasoning association mediated the previously observed link between early fine motor skills and adolescent reading and math ability. These results deepen our understanding of developmental cascade theory and mental model theory by identifying visuospatial reasoning (i.e., mental modeling) as a potential mechanism through which motor skills initiate cognitive development and academic success in reading and math. These findings also highlight the importance of early intervention programs targeting motor skills and illuminate the impact of those interventions on later cognitive and academic skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

There are four distinct, related types of material hardship-basic expense hardship, food insecurity, housing hardship, and medical hardship. Extant research has not sufficiently accounted for the complex relationships between these different types of material hardship. Using 1997 and 2002 data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Study on a national sample of 3- to 17-year-old children ( N = 3563), this study describes the prevalence of each type of material hardship, their relative correlations, and their associations with children's behavior problems, and reading and math scores. Material hardship is more prevalent than income poverty and the four types of material hardship were only moderately correlated with each other. Only basic expense hardship, food security, and one type of medical hardship were associated with increased behavior problems. Only housing hardship was associated with lower math and reading scores. These findings highlight the need to more carefully investigate the distinctions between material hardship types in childhood and the importance of a diversified set of policy responses to protect children from the possible effects of distinct, but interrelated experiences of material hardship.

This paper investigates economic and psychological hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic among a diverse sample (61% Latinx; 16% White; 9% Black; 14% mixed/other race) of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents (90% mothers; mean age = 35 years) and their elementary school-aged children (ages 4-11; 49% female) in rural Pennsylvania (N = 272). Families participating in a local food assistance program reported on food insecurity (FI) and parent and child mood and behavior daily from January to May 2020. Longitudinal models revealed that FI, negative parent and child mood, and child misbehavior significantly increased when schools closed; only FI and parent depression later decreased. FI decreased most among those who received the local food assistance program; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program receipt uniquely predicted decreases in child FI., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

The geographic prevalence of various altruistic behaviors (nonreciprocal acts that improve other people's welfare) is not uniformly distributed, but whether this reflects variation in a superordinate construct linked to national-level outcomes or cultural values is unknown. We compiled data on seven altruistic behaviors across 48 to 152 nations and found evidence that these behaviors reflect a latent construct positively associated with national-level subjective well-being (SWB) and individualist values, even when we controlled for national-level wealth, health, education, and shared cultural history. Consistent with prior work, our results showed that SWB mediated the relationship between two objective measures of well-being (wealth and health) and altruism ( n = 130). Moreover, these indirect effects increased as individualist values increased within the subset of countries ( n = 90) with available data. Together, our results indicate that altruism increases when resources and cultural values provide objective and subjective means for pursuing personally meaningful goals and that altruistic behaviors may be enhanced by societal changes that promote well-being.

The centrality of a fearless temperament as it relates to the construct of psychopathy remains an area of controversy, with some researchers arguing that the relationship between fearless temperament and psychopathy (and associated antisocial behavior) can be explained by shared associations with other core affective and interpersonal traits of psychopathy such as callous-unemotional (CU) traits. The authors investigated real-world subjectively experienced fear in 306 individuals with varying levels of CU traits and antisocial behavior and found that at low levels of subjective fear experience, decreases in subjective fear were associated with greater antisociality. Even after controlling for the positive relationship between CU traits and antisocial behavior, reduced subjectively experienced fear remained a significant predictor of antisocial behavior. These results provide evidence that experienced fear is related to antisocial behavior at lower than average levels of subjectively experienced fear and that this relationship persists after controlling for CU traits.

Children's math learning (N = 217; M age  = 4.87 years; 63% European American, 96% college-educated families) from an intelligent character game was examined via social meaningfulness (parasocial relationships [PSRs]) and social contingency (parasocial interactions, e.g., math talk). In three studies (data collected in the DC area: 12/2015-10/2017), children's parasocial relationships and math talk with the intelligent character predicted quicker, more accurate math responses during virtual game play. Children performed better on a math transfer task with physical objects when exposed to an embodied character (Study 2), and when the character used socially contingent replies, which was mediated by math talk (Study 3). Results suggest that children's parasocial relationships and parasocial interactions with intelligent characters provide new frontiers for 21st century learning., (© 2019 Society for Research in Child Development.)

The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children's early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects will be stronger for lower-SES children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, the study compares the age 4 outcomes of twins discordant for birth weight (N ~ 1,400). Twin fixed-effects models are run on the full twin sample and separately for low- and high-SES children. Results support the study's hypotheses, suggesting that socioeconomic risk accentuates the effects of birth weight on early development., (© 2020 Society for Research in Child Development.)

The facial feedback effect refers to the influence of unobtrusive manipulations of facial behavior on emotional outcomes. That manipulations inducing or inhibiting smiling can shape positive affect and evaluations is a staple of undergraduate psychology curricula and supports theories of embodied emotion. Thus, the results of a Registered Replication Report indicating minimal evidence to support the facial feedback effect were widely viewed as cause for concern regarding the reliability of this effect. However, it has been suggested that features of the design of the replication studies may have influenced the study results. Relevant to these concerns are experimental facial feedback data collected from over 400 undergraduates over the course of 9 semesters. Circumstances of data collection met several criteria broadly recommended for testing the effect, including limited prior exposure to the facial feedback hypothesis, conditions minimally likely to induce self-focused attention, and the use of moderately funny contemporary cartoons as stimuli. Results yielded robust evidence in favor of the facial feedback hypothesis. Cartoons that participants evaluated while holding a pen or pencil in their teeth (smiling induction) were rated as funnier than cartoons they evaluated while holding a pen or pencil in their lips (smiling inhibition). The magnitude of the effect overlapped with original reports. Findings demonstrate that the facial feedback effect can be successfully replicated in a classroom setting and are in line with theories of emotional embodiment, according to which internal emotional states and relevant external emotional behaviors exert mutual influence on one another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose: Earlier ages at menarche are associated with elevations in internalizing and externalizing that persist into adulthood. The present study examines whether early pubertal timing precipitates experiences during adolescence that account for long-term elevations in depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior among early maturing girls., Methods: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health), the study examines significant postmenarcheal life events that might mediate associations of age at menarche with depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior in adulthood: teenage criminal arrest, teenage pregnancy and childbearing, high school dropout, and different forms of postpubertal physical and sexual traumatic assault., Results: Results indicate that earlier menarche was associated with greater likelihood of postmenarcheal discontinued education, physical and sexual assault, and teenage pregnancy and childbearing. Discontinued education, physical assault, and sexual assault mediated associations of pubertal timing with adult depressive symptoms; sexual assault mediated associations of pubertal timing with adult antisocial behavior., Conclusions: Earlier menarche seems to precipitate postpubertal stressful events that, in turn, account for higher rates of psychological problems in adulthood. These results suggest that the adolescent experiences of early maturing girls channel them into life paths where stress, adversity, and other risks to psychological well-being are more likely to be a continuing facet of daily life., (Copyright © 2019 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Numerous studies have shown that children's temperamental characteristics impact the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions. However, these studies have largely focused on middle-class samples, have not compared multiple domains of parenting across mothers and fathers, and have not considered the possibility of nonlinear associations between temperament and parenting. The present study addresses these gaps by examining the potentially nonlinear role of two temperamental characteristics-negative emotionality and sociability-in predicting the quality and quantity of low-income mothers' and fathers' parenting. Data were drawn from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a study of low-income children and families. Results indicated that whereas parenting quality was somewhat impaired when children were temperamentally vulnerable (low sociability, high negativity), parents increased parenting quantity with the same vulnerable children. There was some evidence that parents were most reactive to children who scored either very high or very low on negative emotionality and sociability in both parenting domains. Patterns also suggest that mothers were more reactive to sociability, and fathers to negative emotionality., (© 2019 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.)

Background: Early pubertal timing in girls is one of the best-replicated antecedents of a range of mental health problems during adolescence, but few researchers have examined the duration of these effects., Methods: We leverage a nationally representative sample ( N = 7802 women) managed prospectively from adolescence over a period of ∼14 years to examine associations of age at menarche with depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in adulthood., Results: Earlier ages at menarche were associated with higher rates of both depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in early-middle adulthood largely because difficulties that started in adolescence did not attenuate over time., Conclusions: These findings indicate that the emotional sequelae of puberty extend further than documented in previous research, and suggest that earlier development may place girls on a life path from which it may be difficult to deviate. The American Academy of Pediatrics already provides guidelines for identifying and working with patients with early pubertal timing. Pediatricians and adolescent health care providers should also be attuned to early maturers' elevated mental health risk and sensitive to the potential duration of changes in mental health that begin at puberty., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2018 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

This study examined how the entrances and exits of biological and social fathers into and out of children's households were associated with biological parents' coparenting quality. Piecewise growth curve models tested for variation in these associations between child ages 1 and 3, 3 and 5, and 5 and 9. Data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( n = 2,394). Results indicated that in all three age intervals, a biological father's entrance was associated with a contemporaneous increase in coparenting quality, whereas his exit was associated with a contemporaneous decrease. A biological father's exit between child ages 1 and 3, or 3 and 5, was associated with declining coparenting quality in subsequent intervals. A social father's entrance was consistently associated with a contemporaneous decrease in the biological parents' coparenting quality, whereas his exit was associated with a contemporaneous increase between ages 3 and 5, and 5 and 9., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background and Objectives: The prevalence of corporal punishment is high in the United States despite a 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement urging against its use. The current study tests whether the socioeconomic difference in its use by parents has changed over the past quarter century. It goes on to test whether socioeconomic differences in the use of nonphysical discipline have also changed over time., Methods: Data are drawn from 4 national studies conducted between 1988 and 2011. Each asked how often a kindergarten-aged child was spanked in the past week and what the parents would do if the child misbehaved, with physical discipline, time-out, and talking to child as possible responses. We use regression models to estimate parents' responses to these questions at the 90th, 50th, and 10th percentiles of the income and education distributions and t tests to compare estimates across cohorts., Results: The proportion of mothers at the 50th income-percentile who endorse physical discipline decreased from 46% to 21% over time. Gaps between the 90th and 10th income-percentiles were stable at 11 and 18 percentage points in 1988 and 2011. The percentage of mothers at the 10th income-percentile endorsing time-outs increased from 51% to 71%, and the 90/10 income gap decreased from 23 to 14 percentage points between 1998 and 2011., Conclusions: Decline in popular support for physical discipline reflects real changes in parents' discipline strategies. These changes have occurred at all socioeconomic levels, producing for some behaviors a significant reduction in socioeconomic differences., (Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Associations between having a nonresident father and increased internalizing and externalizing behaviors in adolescence have been well established, however, research has yet to establish the plausible causality of these links or identify the mechanisms that may underlie them. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 - the Young Adult survey (CNLSY-YA), the present study addresses these questions by comparing the behavior of siblings discordant for age at father departure across two outcomes, depressive symptoms ( N = 5108) and delinquent behavior ( N = 4882). Findings indicate that father departure later in childhood is associated with increased delinquency in adolescence but not with greater depressive symptoms. Moreover, father departure in early childhood was not associated with problematic behavior in adolescence. Both findings suggest that parental monitoring rather than disrupted socialization or emotional distress may account for links between having a nonresident father and adolescent delinquency.

Early experiences are critically important for female reproductive development. Although a number of early childhood hardships predict earlier physical development in girls, research on specific populations suggests a distinct effect of childhood sexual abuse compared to other adversities. This study leverages the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 6,273 girls) to test the generalizability of these findings, examining associations of early physical abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect with pubertal timing. Child sexual abuse predicted earlier menarche and development of secondary sexual characteristics, whereas other types of maltreatment did not. In addition to replicating results from smaller, more specialized samples, these findings reinforce the value of considering puberty within a broader "life span" continuum of birth to adolescence., (© 2015 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence © 2015 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Purpose: Although links between early childhood maltreatment and girls' sexual behavior in adolescence have been well established, it is unclear whether different forms of maltreatment are differentially associated with sexual outcomes and whether distinct mechanisms explain associations across maltreatment types., Methods: Using data from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the present study examines whether physical abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect in early childhood differentially predict girls' age at first intercourse and number of sexual partners in early adulthood. The study also tests whether early pubertal timing mediates the link between early maltreatment and sexual behavior (N = 6,364)., Results: Findings indicate that early sexual and physical abuse were equally predictive of earlier age at first intercourse and a greater number of sexual partners, but that only the sexual abuse-age at first intercourse link was mediated by early puberty., Conclusions: These results suggest that sexual abuse and physical abuse are associated with earlier and riskier sexual behavior in girls relative to no maltreatment and to similar degrees. However, only the link between sexual abuse and sexual behavior involves a biological mechanism manifested in early pubertal timing., (Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, including an uncaring nature and reduced empathy, represent a strongly heritable pattern of socio-emotional responding linked with elevated risk for severe, persistent delinquent behavior. Although evidence suggests that CU traits vary continuously across the population, research linking CU traits and delinquency is often conducted with incarcerated or clinical samples, obscuring potential heterogeneity in this relationship across the full range of high-CU individuals. Using a nationally representative sample, this study examines the role of neighborhood income in moderating the association between CU traits and delinquency in terms of both level and type of offending. Findings corroborate the link between CU traits and delinquency and suggest that the link between high-CU traits and violent delinquency may be unique to youth living in low-income neighborhoods.

Although voluminous research has linked nonresident fatherhood to riskier sexual behavior in adolescence, including earlier sexual debut, neither the causality of that link nor the mechanism accounting for it has been well-established. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979-the Young Adult Survey (CNLSY-YA), the present study addresses both questions by comparing the sexual development of siblings discordant for age at father departure from the home and examining results across behavioral (age at first intercourse), biological (pubertal timing), and cognitive (attitudes about childbearing and marriage) sexual outcomes (N = 5,542). Findings indicate that nonresident fatherhood, beginning either at birth or during middle childhood, leads to an earlier sexual debut for girls, but not for boys, an effect likely explained by weak parental monitoring rather than an accelerated reproductive strategy., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.)

This study investigated conditions under which family structure matters most for child well-being. Using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 3,936), a national sample of U.S. families, it was estimated how changes in family structure related to changes in children's behavior between age 3 and 12 separately by household income level to determine whether associations depended on families' resources. Early changes in family structure, particularly from a two-biological-parent to single-parent family, predicted increases in behavior problems more than later changes, and movements into single and stepparent families mattered more for children of higher versus lower income parents. Results suggest that for children of higher income parents, moving into a stepfamily may improve, not undermine, behavior., (© 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

The evidence to date on the federal child-care subsidy program's effect on preschool child-care quality is mixed. However, an as-yet untested outcome of subsidy receipt is subsequent child-care choice. Specifically, it is possible that subsidy receipt in toddlerhood increases the likelihood of attending other publicly funded preschool programs-Head Start and public pre-k-that provide the highest quality care available to low-income families. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ≈ 2,100; approximately 2 years old), this study finds that subsidy receipt during toddlerhood predicts greater use of the other forms of publicly funded care in the preschool year, although only if the earlier subsidy is used in a center. These results highlight a previously unconsidered potential benefit of the subsidy program., (© 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Most children in the U.S. today will experience one or more changes in family structure. The present study explores the implications of this trend for child development by investigating the conditions under which family structure changes matter most to child well-being. Using data from the Maternal and Child Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,492), it estimates how changes in family structure experienced during 4 different developmental periods relate to concurrent and subsequent changes in children's behavioral trajectories. We estimate associations separately for children born to married and unwed parents to determine whether family instability has different associations with children's behavior across policy-relevant family types. Results indicate that changes in family structure during the first 3 years of life predict children's behavioral development more consistently than later changes, changes into a single-parent family have different implications for children's development than changes into a blended family, and changes in family structure matter more for children born to married parents than children born to unwed parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

The federal child-care subsidy program represents one of the government's largest investments in early care and education, but little is known about whether it increases low-income children's access to higher quality child care. This study used newly available nationally representative data on 4-year-old children (N = 750) to investigate whether subsidy receipt elevates child-care quality. Results indicate that subsidy recipients use higher quality care compared to nonrecipients who use no other publicly funded care, but lower quality care compared to nonrecipients who instead use Head Start or public pre-k. Findings suggest that subsidies may have the potential to enhance care quality but that parents who use subsidies are not accessing the highest quality care available to low-income families., (© 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, the present study tested whether the benefits of a marital birth for early child development diminish as parents' risk of having a nonmarital birth increases (N = 2,285). It was hypothesized that a child's likelihood of being born to unmarried parents is partly a function of father characteristics that predict his capacity to promote child development. Results partially supported hypothesis. A positive association emerged between parental marriage and cognitive outcomes at age 3 only for children whose parents were likely to be married at the child's birth, suggesting average differences between children in married and unmarried families may overestimate the benefit of marriage in subpopulations most impacted by nonmarital birth., (© 2012 The Author. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

In 2008, the federal government allotted $7 billion in child care subsidies to low-income families through the state-administered Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), now the government's largest child care program (US DHHS, 2008). Although subsidies reduce costs for families and facilitate parental employment, it is unclear how they impact the quality of care families purchase. This study investigates the impact of government subsidization on parents' selection of child care quality using multivariate regression and propensity score matching approaches to account for differential selection into subsidy receipt and care arrangements. Data were drawn from the Child Care Supplement to the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (CCS-FFCWS), conducted in 2002 and 2003 in 14 of the 20 FFCWS cities when focal children were 3 years old (N = 456). Our results indicate that families who used subsidies chose higher quality care than comparable mothers who did not use subsidies, but only because subsidy recipients were more likely to use center-based care. Subgroup analyses revealed that families using subsidies purchased higher-quality home-based care but lower-quality center-based care than comparable non-recipients. Findings suggest that child care subsidies may serve as more than a work support for low-income families by enhancing the quality of nonmaternal care children experience but that this effect is largely attributable to recipients' using formal child care arrangements (versus kith and kin care) more often than non-recipients.

Rising rates of nonmarital childbirth in the United States have resulted in a new family type, the fragile family. Such families, which include cohabiting couples as well as single mothers, experience significantly higher rates of poverty and material hardship than their married counterparts. Ariel Kalil and Rebecca Ryan summarize the economic challenges facing mothers in fragile families and describe the resources, both public and private, that help them meet these challenges. The authors explain that the economic fragility of these families stems from both mothers' and fathers' low earnings, which result from low education levels, as well as from physical, emotional, and mental health problems. Mothers in fragile families make ends meet in many ways. The authors show that various public programs, particularly those that provide in-kind assistance, do successfully lessen economic hardship in fragile families. Single mothers also turn to private sources of support--friends, family, boyfriends--for cash and in-kind assistance. But though these private safety nets are essential to many mothers' economic survival, according to the authors, private safety nets are not always consistent and dependable. Thus, assistance from private sources may not fundamentally improve mothers' economic circumstances. Policy makers, say Kalil and Ryan, must recognize that with rates of nonmarital childbirth at their current level, and potentially rising still, the fragile family is likely an enduring fixture in this country. It is thus essential to strengthen policies that both support these families' economic self-sufficiency and alleviate their hardship during inevitable times of economic distress. The most important first step, they say, is to strengthen the public safety net, especially such in-kind benefits as food stamps, Medicaid, housing, and child care. A next step would be to bolster community-based programs that can provide private financial support, such as emergency cash assistance, child care, and food aid, when mothers cannot receive it from their own private networks.

Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 723) were used to test whether the effects of fathers' supportive parenting on children's school readiness are greater when mothers are least supportive. We distinguished between academic and social dimensions of school readiness. Mothers' and fathers' parenting was assessed in dyadic parent-child videotaped sessions during the preschool period. Results for both academic and social outcomes indicated that fathers' supportiveness had larger benefits for children at lower levels of mothers' supportiveness. In fact, fathers' supportiveness was associated with children's school readiness only when mothers scored average or below on supportiveness. Mothers' supportiveness was similarly associated with children's social school readiness when fathers scored average or below on supportiveness. However, mothers' supportiveness was associated with children's academic school readiness even when fathers scored above average on supportiveness. The results suggest that fathers may influence child development most as potential buffers against unsupportive mother parenting. Further research is needed to replicate these analyses in a less socioeconomically advantaged sample., (2010 APA, all rights reserved)

This study examined the association between low-income mothers' perceived social support and the prevalence of their children's medically treated accidents and injuries. Data were drawn from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS), an experimental evaluation of 11 welfare-to-work programs in seven U.S. cities. In regression models, maternal social support was significantly associated with the likelihood that children experienced an accident or injury between the ages of 8 and 10 such that children of mothers with very limited support were at the highest risk. This association was robust to the inclusion of a wide range of controls, including a prior measure of accident and injury occurrence. A primary finding was that only children whose mothers had the lowest levels of social support, characterized here as socially isolated, suffered significantly higher rates of injury. This suggests that social isolation presents a meaningful threat to child safety and may play an important role in the etiology of child injury among low-income families.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined associations between unwed mothers' residency and romantic relationships with the biological father during the transition to a new baby and mothers' later parenting stress. It also examined whether fathers' financial and caregiving support accounted for variation in parenting stress across relationship trajectories. DESIGN: Data were drawn from first two waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) (N = 2,736 in 18 cities), with relationship status measured at the focal child's birth and one year later, and parenting stress measured one year after birth. RESULTS: Parenting stress was highest among mothers who broke up with the father during the first year and lowest among those in consistent romantic relationships regardless of parents' coresidence status. Both fathers' financial and caregiving support mediated the association between relationship dissolution and higher maternal parenting stress, although caregiving support accounted for a larger proportion of the variation. CONCLUSIONS: Programs to support low-income, unwed mothers should understand the hardships of a breakup may spill over into other socioemotional domains, such as parenting, when experienced during the transition to a new baby and that mothers who have experienced a breakup may require additional caregiving support services during this vulnerable time.

Using data from a racially and ethnically diverse sample of low-income mothers of 2-year-old children participating in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (N = 883), the authors examined fathers' education and employment, mother-father relationship, and mothers' relationships with kin in the household to explain variation in nonresident father involvement across racial and ethnic groups. Nonresident White fathers were less involved with their children than were African American and Latino fathers. This difference was explained by the status of mother-father relationships. White nonresident fathers were less likely than minority nonresident fathers to maintain romantic relationships with their child's mother. Mothers in the White father group were also more likely to re-partner, which negatively related to biological fathers' involvement. These findings suggest that approaches to strengthen nonresident father involvement in children's lives need to consider how father ethnicity and mother-father relations are associated with differential patterns of father involvement.