|
| ||
|
|
||
Biological Father (biological + father)
Selected AbstractsON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: PARENTAL COHABITATION AND BLENDED HOUSEHOLDS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2008ROBERT APEL In the last several decades, the American family has undergone considerable change, with less than half of all adolescents residing with two married biological parents. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we construct an elaborate measure of family structure and find considerable heterogeneity in the risk of antisocial and delinquent behavior among groups of youth who reside in what are traditionally dichotomized as intact and nonintact families. In particular, we find that youth in "intact" families differ in important ways depending on whether the two biological parents are married or cohabiting and on whether they have children from a previous relationship. In addition, we find that youth who reside with a single biological parent who cohabits with a nonbiological partner exhibit an unusually high rate of antisocial behavior, especially if the custodial parent is the biological father. [source] Resolving Paternity Relationships Using X-Chromosome STRs and Bayesian NetworksJOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 4 2007Didier Hatsch Ph.D. Abstract:, X-chromosomal short tandem repeats (X-STRs) are very useful in complex paternity cases because they are inherited by male and female offspring in different ways. They complement autosomal STRs (as-STRs) allowing higher paternity probabilities to be attained. These probabilities are expressed in a likelihood ratio (LR). The formulae needed to calculate LR depend on the genotype combinations of suspected pedigrees. LR can also be obtained by the use of Bayesian networks (BNs). These are graphical representations of real situations that can be used to easily calculate complex probabilities. In the present work, two BNs are presented, which are designed to derive LRs for half-sisters/half-sisters and mother/daughter/paternal grandmother relationships. These networks were validated against known formulae and show themselves to be useful in other suspect pedigree situations than those for which they were developed. The BNs were applied in two paternity cases. The application of the mother/daughter/paternal grandmother BN highlighted the complementary value of X-STRs to as-STRs. The same case evaluated without the mother underlined that missing information tends to be conservative if the alleged father is the biological father and otherwise nonconservative. The half-sisters case shows a limitation of statistical interpretations in regard to high allelic frequencies. [source] Family Structure, Father Involvement, and Adolescent Behavioral OutcomesJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2006Marcia J. Carlson Research has shown that living away from one's biological father is associated with a greater risk of adverse child and adolescent outcomes; yet, the role of the father-child relationship in understanding this association has not been directly investigated. This study uses data on biological fathers' relationships with their children from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,733) to assess whether father involvement mediates the relationship between family structure (i.e., father absence) and four measures of adolescent behavior. Differences in father involvement are shown to account for a sizeable fraction of the variance in outcomes by family structure. Father involvement does not affect boys and girls differently but is more beneficial when the father lives with the adolescent. [source] Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual IntercourseCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2009Jane Mendle Children raised without a biological father in the household have earlier average ages of first sexual intercourse than children raised in father-present households. Competing theoretical perspectives have attributed this either to effects of father absence on socialization and physical maturation or to nonrandom selection of children predisposed for early sexual intercourse into father-absent households. Genetically informative analyses of the children of sister dyads (N = 1,382, aged 14,21 years) support the selection hypothesis: This association seems attributable to confounded risks, most likely genetic in origin, which correlated both with likelihood of father absence and early sexual behavior. This holds implications for environmental theories of maturation and suggests that previous research may have inadvertently overestimated the role of family structure in reproductive maturation. [source] Living Arrangements and Children's Development in Low-Income White, Black, and Latino FamiliesCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2007E. Michael Foster This article uses longitudinal data from approximately 2,000 low-income families participating in the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program to examine the associations between preschool children's living arrangements and their cognitive achievement and emotional adjustment. The analysis distinguishes families in which children live only with their mothers from children who live in biological father, blended, and multigenerational households. Linkages are examined separately for White, Black, and Latino children. Fixed effects regression techniques reveal few significant associations between living arrangements and child development. These findings suggest that substantial diversity exists in the developmental contexts among children living in the same family structure. Policies seeking to change the living arrangements of low-income children may do little to improve child well-being. [source] Psychosocial Antecedents of Variation in Girls' Pubertal Timing: Maternal Depression, Stepfather Presence, and Marital and Family StressCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2000Bruce J. Ellis Drawing on Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper's evolutionary theory of the development of reproductive strategies, we tested a model of individual differences in girls' pubertal timing. This model posits that a history of psychopathology in mothers results in earlier pubertal maturation in daughters, and that this effect is mediated by discordant family relationships and father absence/stepfather presence. The model was supported in a short-term longitudinal study of 87 adolescent girls. In the primary test of the model, it was found that a history of mood disorders in mothers predicted earlier pubertal timing in daughters, and this relation was fully mediated by dyadic stress and biological father absence. In families in which the mother's romantic partner was not the biological father, dyadic stress accounted for almost half of the variation in daughters' pubertal timing. Stepfather presence, rather than biological father absence, best accounted for earlier pubertal maturation in girls living apart from their biological fathers. We propose that stepfather presence and stressful family relationships constitute separate paths to early pubertal maturation in girls. [source] Shifting Childrearing to Single Mothers: Results from 17 Western CountriesPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2003Patrick Heuveline We investigate how recent changes in the Western family have affected childhood living arrangements. For 17 developed countries, we use multistate life table techniques to estimate childhood trajectories of coresi-dence with biological fathers versus other maternal partners. In all countries childhood exposure to single parenting is more often caused by parental separation than out-of-partnership childbearing. Both exposure to single parenting and expectancy of childhood spent with a single non-cohabiting mother vary widely across countries, with the United States exhibiting the highest levels of each at early 1990s rates. The greatest international variations concern parental cohabitation,its prevalence, durability, and the degree to which its increase has compensated for a decrease in the expectancy of childhood spent with married parents. Overall, we find little evidence of international convergence in childrearing arrangements, except that in countries where parental marriage has declined over time, childrearing has predominantly shifted to single mothers. [source] Psychosocial Antecedents of Variation in Girls' Pubertal Timing: Maternal Depression, Stepfather Presence, and Marital and Family StressCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2000Bruce J. Ellis Drawing on Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper's evolutionary theory of the development of reproductive strategies, we tested a model of individual differences in girls' pubertal timing. This model posits that a history of psychopathology in mothers results in earlier pubertal maturation in daughters, and that this effect is mediated by discordant family relationships and father absence/stepfather presence. The model was supported in a short-term longitudinal study of 87 adolescent girls. In the primary test of the model, it was found that a history of mood disorders in mothers predicted earlier pubertal timing in daughters, and this relation was fully mediated by dyadic stress and biological father absence. In families in which the mother's romantic partner was not the biological father, dyadic stress accounted for almost half of the variation in daughters' pubertal timing. Stepfather presence, rather than biological father absence, best accounted for earlier pubertal maturation in girls living apart from their biological fathers. We propose that stepfather presence and stressful family relationships constitute separate paths to early pubertal maturation in girls. [source] Fathering and adolescents' psychological adjustment: the role of fathers' involvement, residence and biology statusCHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2008E. Flouri Abstract Background Studies on fathering and child mental health are now increasingly looking for specificity in children's psychological adjustment, indicating whether the impact of fathering is diagnostically specific or non-specific. Methods Data from 435 fathers of secondary school-aged children in Britain were used to explore the association between resident biological fathers', non-resident biological fathers' and stepfathers' involvement and children's total difficulties, prosocial behaviour, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems (all measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) in adolescence. Results After controlling for child-, father- and family-related factors, fathers' involvement was negatively associated with children's total difficulties and hyperactivity, was positively associated with children's prosocial behaviour, and was unrelated with children's emotional symptoms, conduct problems and peer problems. There was no non-resident biological father effect. Compared with resident biological fathers, stepfathers reported more total difficulties, conduct problems and hyperactivity in their children even after adjusting for involvement. Conclusions Whether this reflects stepfathers' low tolerance levels or biological fathers' complacency, as sociobiologists would argue, or whether this is due to pre-existing predispositions of children in families which separate and restructure, to the effects of these multiple family changes or to the high exposure of children in restructured families to parental risk factors, is, given the data available and the study design, unclear. However, this study showed that, compared with their peers in biological father families, adolescents in stepfather families are perceived to be at higher risk of behaviour problems, and that father involvement is related to specific aspects of child adjustment. [source] | ||||||||||