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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.

Introduction: Low birth weight (LBW), biological vulnerability that includes preterm birth (PTB) and small for gestational age (SGA), is associated with reduced maternal sensitivity ("making accurate inferences about an infant's physical and emotional needs and responding appropriately") and impaired infant cognitive development. However, research does not examine if preterm birth, SGA, or both drive these associations. This study separated these measures of biological vulnerability to examine associations of LBW, PTB, and SGA with maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive development (controlling for maternal depression, breastfeeding, and demographic covariates). Methods: The sample included 6900 9-month-old infants from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort and used birth certificate data, maternal interviews, assessments of maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive development. Multiple linear regressions examined LBW, PTB, and SGA associations with concurrent measures of maternal sensitivity and infant cognition. Results: Of the biological vulnerabilities, preterm birth had the strongest negative association with maternal sensitivity (F1,6450 = 29.48 versus 15.33 and 5.51, ps <.001) and infant cognitive development (F1,6450) = 390.65 versus 248.02 and 14.43, ps <.001). In the final regression model, preterm birth and maternal sensitivity were uniquely associated with infant cognitive development (R2 =.05, p <.001), after controlling for maternal depression, breastfeeding, and demographics. Conclusion: In this nationally representative infant sample infants, PTB had a stronger negative association with both maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive development in comparison to SGA or LBW. The LBW designation combines infants born preterm with SGA infants, potentially minimizing differences in developmental outcomes of PTB and SGA infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use data on biological fathers (n = 597) and mothers (N = 1,550) from 12 sites of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHS [...]

The present study examined associations between parents' levels of acculturation depressive symptoms, family support, and couple relationship quality with coparenting conflict. We also explored the effects of coparenting conflict on parenting and infant social development in a sample of low-income Mexican American (n = 735) infants (age 9 months) and their parents. Results indicated that couple conflict was the strongest predictor of coparenting conflict. Coparenting conflict had a significant effect on mother--infant interaction and father engagement. The effects of coparenting on father caregiving varied by father's level of acculturation; when there is high coparenting conflict, more acculturated fathers engaged in more caregiving than do less acculturated fathers. Coparenting conflict was not predictive of infant social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men's childhood experiences with their parents, their current relationship with their partners, and demographic factors were examined in relation to father–infant interactions. Participants were 60 racially and ethnically diverse, inner-city men and their 6- to 11-month-old infants. Father–infant interactions were videotaped during semistructured free play in participants' homes. The quality of men's interactions with their infants was assessed using Likert ratings of their responsive–didactic and negative–overbearing behaviors. Men engaged in significantly more responsive–didactic behaviors than negative–overbearing behaviors. A cumulative score of protective demographic factors (i.e., men residing with their infants, being married, completing high school, and obtaining income above the sample's median level) and men's experiences of childhood acceptance from their fathers uniquely predicted their responsive–didactic behaviors. Men's relationships with their partners were homogeneously strong and unrelated to fathering behaviors. This study builds on extant literature by providing a broader conceptualization of father–infant relationships and applying observational methods to the study of fathering in minority, low-income men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]