Dr. Susan Yoon, OSU, Assistant Professor, College of Social Work, and Dr. Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, OSU, Professor of Psychology
Patterns of Father Involvement and Child Development among Low-Income Families
Children born to low-income parents tend to have poorer developmental outcomes than those born to middle- and upper-income parents, yet family protective factors, such as positive father involvement, can enhance resilient and healthy development among children in low-income families. Identifying distinctive patterns of father involvement and their contributions to diverse aspects of child development is an important focus of inquiry that can inform the development of interventions to promote healthy child development. To this end, we examined patterns of father involvement and their roles in social, behavioral, and cognitive development among low-income children by conducting Latent Class Analysis on data from 2,650 fathers drawn from the Supporting Healthy Marriages program. In this presentation, we discuss four distinct patterns of father involvement (high positive involvement; engaged but harsh discipline; low cognitive stimulation; and lower involvement) and their relations to child outcomes. Our findings highlight the need for active engagement of fathers in parenting interventions to promote child well-being.
A reminder that all participants need to register in order to participate in the fall seminar series. The link to the registration is here: https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqdeuurT4pGtYpugjkDPxlO-EechsTva2w
