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Author(s): P. Nina Banerjee [sup.1] , Karen McFadden [sup.2] , Jacqueline D. Shannon [sup.2] , Leslie L. Davidson [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.21729.3f, 0000000419368729, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of [...], 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&apos;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 (F.sub.1,6450 = 29.48 versus 15.33 and 5.51, ps < .001) and infant cognitive development (F.sub.1,6450) = 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 (R.sup.2 = .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.

We present findings based on several of our recent studies that have shown that father engagement has significant effects on children's cognition and language at 24 and 36 months and their social and emotional development at 24, 36 months, and pre-Kindergarten. These studies are guided by the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children over the Life Course Model that stipulates the important contribution of parent characteristics, child and context to parenting and children's outcomes. Specifically, three research questions are addressed: (1) How do resident fathers engage with their young children at 24, 36, and 64 months (pre-K)? (2) How do fathers' human and financial resources and depressive symptoms, partner relationship quality and mother-child interactions, and children's characteristics predict the quality of fathers' engagements with their young children? And (3) how do fathers' engagements affect their young children's cognitive, language, and social and emotional outcomes across the three age groups? Educated fathers and fathers whose partners have supportive relationships with their children are more supportive and less intrusive. In contrast to mothers, fathers' supportiveness matters for children's language, cognitive, and language development across ages and emotional regulation at 24 months. On the other hand, maternal intrusiveness is negatively associated with emotional regulation at 24 and pre-K and language development at pre-K. Father intrusiveness had a small negative effect on language development only at pre-K and no effect at all on social emotional regulation. These findings suggest that programs that aim at increasing fathers' education and that promote and encourage fathers' positive parenting will yield large benefits for children.

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. (Contains 2 tables.)

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 [...]