Are uninvolved fathers really incompetent and unsatisfied? Testing the mediator role of father involvement from fathers’ perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between fathers’ involvement and maternal gatekeeping, gate-opening, and traditional paternal gender roles, as well as to evaluate fathers’ involvement as a mediating role in the relationship between maternal gate-opening, gatekeeping, traditional paternal gender roles, paternal competence, and marital satisfaction. Turkish fathers (N = 239) with a child aged 2–6 years were included in the study. They assessed maternal gatekeeping and gate-opening, their traditional gender roles, parenting competence, and marital satisfaction. Results indicated that fathers’ involvement is positively related to maternal gate-opening and negatively associated with traditional paternal gender roles; in addition, fathers’ involvement has a mediatory role between maternal gate-opening, traditional paternal gender roles and paternal competence and marital satisfaction. The results suggest that fathers who are involved in their children’s lives are more competent and have higher marital satisfaction.     

Democracy begins at home: Democratic parenting and adolescents' support for democratic values

Although it is generally assumed that support for democratic values and beliefs develops as a result of social learning, the concrete socializing circumstances through which this occurs are less obvious. This study investigated the relationship between democratic family functioning and democratic values of adolescents. Adolescents' (N = 1,341, 16- to 17-year-olds) reports on their parents' psychological control, autonomy granting, warmth, and behavioural control were considered predictors of adolescents' democratic orientation. The results demonstrated that the democratic functioning of families was positively related to adolescents' support for democratic values when controlling for the effects of gender, political experience, authoritarianism, empathy, and political activism. Additionally, this study examined the possible role of empathy as a mediator in the relation between democratic family functioning and adolescent's democratic values. The results show that empathy was a partial mediator of a family's contribution to adolescents' democratic orientation.     

Aggression in Toddlers: Associations With Parenting and Marital Relations

This study examined the relation among parenting factors, marital relations, and toddler aggression. A structured questionnaire was administered to both parents of 254 2-year-olds. The authors used correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses to assess the extent to which certain personality traits, drug use, parenting style, and marital conflicts were related to the toddlers' aggressive behavior. Results showed that the maternal child-rearing and parental aggression domains had a direct effect on toddler aggression. The domain of maternal child rearing also served as a mediator for the domains of marital relations, paternal child rearing, parental aggression, and parental drug use. The findings indicated that maternal child-rearing practices, personality attributes, and drug use were more important than paternal attributes in relation to toddler aggression. Implications for prevention among families at risk are discussed.     

Relationship of Recalled Parenting Style to Self-Perception in Korean American College Students

The authors examined the relationship of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles and the number of years in the United States with self-perception (academic competence, morality, and self-reliance) as recalled by Korean American college students (N = 144). Authoritative parenting behaviors were most common in Korean American families, followed by authoritarian behaviors, with permissive behaviors a distant 3rd. Authoritative parenting styles and the number of years lived in the United States were predictive of higher academic competence. Authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were predictive of lower self-reliance, whereas number of years lived in the United States was related to higher self-reliance. Those findings provide partial support for generalizing D. Baumrind's (1971) model of parenting styles to Korean American families, and the findings demonstrate the importance of considering acculturation issues in parenting studies.     

Perceived Maternal Parenting Styles,Cultural Values,and Prosocial Tendencies Among Mexican American Youth

The present study aimed to extend research on parenting and positive development of Latino youth. Participants were 207 Mexican American adolescents (M age = 10.9 years, SD = 0.83 years; 50% girls) who completed measures of their parents' supportive and firm parenting, their own endorsement of respect and traditional gender role values, and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Maternal nativity was also considered as an initial predictor of parenting, adolescents' cultural values, and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Overall, the results demonstrated that maternal nativity was associated with traditional gender roles and specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Parenting dimensions were differentially associated with respect and traditional gender role values and prosocial behaviors. Cultural values, in turn, were associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Gender differences in the processes were also explored.     

From One to Two: Can Visual Feedback Improve the Light Touch Effects on Postural Sway?

The postural control is improved by implicit somatosensory information from lightly touching a rigid bar or explicit visual information about the postural sway. Whether these two additional sources provided at the same time further reduce the postural sway is still unknown. Participants stood on a force plate as quiet as possible lightly touching the bar while received or not visual feedback of the center of pressure position on a monitor screen. Postural sway reduced similarly with the light touch regardless of the additional visual feedback. The findings suggested that providing explicit visual feedback of the center of pressure does not increase the light touch effects on the postural sway. The importance of the implicit somatosensory information on postural control is discussed.     

Book Reviews

BRUNO BETTELHEIM : The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self. The Free Press, New York. 1967. $9.95. (£4 in England).

GERALD O'GORMAN: The Nature of Childhood Autism. (Illustrated, 8 plates)

C. M. HEINICKE and I. J. WESTHEIMER: Brief Separations.     

Parenting From the Outside‐in: Reflections on Parent Training During a Potential Paradigm Shift

This article proposes that a paradigm shift that has implications for practitioners of parenting interventions is emerging. This shift represents a challenge to the dominant model of parent training. The Triple P Parenting Program is discussed as an example of parent training programme to highlight the relevant issues for practitioners, including common practitioner objections encountered in dissemination as identified, in part, by Mazzucchelli and Sanders. It is argued that apart from these objections, there are more essential concerns in relation to the adoption of parent training programmes by practitioners. Rather, the article argues that parent training is “mind‐blind” and that approaches emerging from the field of interpersonal neurobiology represent developmentally sophisticated alternatives for intervention. The Circle of Security programme is discussed as one example of this emerging paradigm shift that integrates attachment, social neuroscience, and psychodynamic theory. Contrasts are highlighted between the models, and considerations for future issues in parent intervention conclude the article.     

Cultural value orientation and authoritarian parenting as parameters of bullying and victimization at school

The purpose of the present study was to examine the existing association between cultural value orientation, authoritarian parenting, and bullying and victimization at school. The participants (N = 231) were early adolescents, randomly selected from 11 different schools in urban and rural areas of Cyprus. Participants completed self reports measuring cultural value orientation, authoritarian parenting, bullying, and victimization. These instruments were the following: the Cultural Value Scale (CVS), the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Revised Bullying and Victimization Questionnaire (BVQ‐R). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine mediation effects. It was found that vertical individualism acted as a mediator between authoritarian parenting and bullying. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between authoritarian parenting and the vertical dimensions of both cultural value orientations (individualism and collectivism), but not with the horizontal dimensions of either cultural orientation. Further, authoritarian parenting was also positively associated with bullying and victimization at school. The main contribution of the present study is the finding that vertical individualism significantly mediates the relationship between authoritarian parental style and bullying propensity.     

The influence of emotional cues on prospective memory: a systematic review with meta-analyses

ABSTRACT

Remembering to perform a behaviour in the future, prospective memory, is essential to ensuring that people fulfil their intentions. Prospective memory involves committing to memory a cue to action (encoding), and later recognising and acting upon the cue in the environment (retrieval). Prospective memory performance is believed to be influenced by the emotionality of the cues, however the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. We conducted a systematic search to synthesise research on the influence of emotion on prospective memory. Sixty-seven effect sizes were extracted from 17 articles and hypothesised effects tested using three meta-analyses. Overall, prospective memory was enhanced when positively-valenced rather than neutral cues were presented (d?=?0.32). In contrast, negatively-valenced cues did not enhance prospective memory overall (d?=?0.07), but this effect was moderated by the timing of the emotional manipulation. Prospective memory performance was improved when negatively-valenced cues were presented during both encoding and retrieval (d?=?0.40), but undermined when presented only during encoding (d?=??0.25). Moderating effects were also found for cue-focality and whether studies controlled for the arousal level of the cues. The principal finding is that positively-valenced cues improve prospective memory performance and that timing of the manipulation can moderate emotional effects on prospective memory. We offer a new agenda for future empirical work and theorising in this area.