Fathers' behaviors and children's psychopathology

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Abstract

The psychological literature on how fathers' behaviors may be related to children's psychopathology has grown substantially in the last three decades. This growth is the result of research asking the following three overarching questions: (1) what is the association between family structure, and particularly biological fathers' non-residence, and children's psychopathology, (2) what is the association between fathers' parenting and children's psychopathology, and (3) what is the association between fathers' psychopathology and children's psychopathology. The three broad theoretical perspectives relevant to this literature are the standard family environment model, the passive genetic model, and the child effects model. The evidence from studies comparing the first two models seems to suggest that the origin of the association between parental divorce and children's emotional and behavioral problems is largely shared environmental in origin, as is the association between resident fathers' parenting and children's emotional and behavioral problems, according to studies comparing the standard family environment model with the child effects model. However, research needs to compare appropriately all theoretical perspectives. The paper discusses this, and also points to the importance of considering theory-driven specificity in modeling effects.

Introduction

The last two decades have witnessed a growing concern and interest in the role that fathers play in the lives of their children (Calzada et al., 2004, Phares, Lopez, et al., 2005, Stolz et al., 2005), and recently a lot of good studies have been carried out to model links between fathers' and children's behaviors. This interest in fathers can, in part, be attributed to the growing interest in the rapid pace of family change in the last three decades. The consequences, especially for children, of these changes have been the subject of a heated debate. In developmental psychopathology this debate usually involves evidence for the following three associations: the association between family structure, and particularly biological fathers' non-residence, and children's psychopathology, the association between fathers' parenting and children's psychopathology, and the association between fathers' and children's psychopathology. The three broad theoretical perspectives that drive the research on fathers' absence and child psychopathology, but also on paternal parenting and child psychopathology, are the standard family environment model, the passive genetic model, and the child effects model (Amato & Cheadle, 2008). This paper discusses the evidence for these associations, and concludes that to move the field forward future studies need to consider theory-driven specificity in modeling effects, and to compare alternative theoretical perspectives.

Section snippets

Children's psychopathology and fathers' non-residence

Voluminous evidence has been collected since the 1970s to either support or refute (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999) Moynihan's (1965) ‘pathology of the matriarchy’ hypothesis that the absence of a father is destructive to children, particularly boys, because it means that children will lack the economic resources, role models, discipline, structure, and guidance that a father provides. As a result, we now know a lot about links between children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems

Child psychopathology and father's parenting

The research on father's parenting and child psychopathology is relatively less voluminous than the research linking father's non-residence and child psychopathology, and follows mainly the standard family environment model. Evidence from the studies following this model is that, in general, quality of father–child interaction is significantly associated with emotional and behavioral outcomes in both young and older children even after controlling for quality of mother–child interaction, that

The standard family environment model

Research following assumptions of the standard family environment model both increased and improved after the publication of some important reviews in 2000 (Cabrera et al., 2000, Lamb, 2000, Lamb, 2004). Three recent changes that resulted from these reviews are particularly noteworthy for both theory development and intervention design: the emphasis on specificity, the shift of focus on testing differential as well as absolute parenting effects, and the gradual realization of the importance of

The child effects and the passive genetic models

In contrast to the significant increase in the number of recent studies testing father effects models, only few studies have tested child effects models (e.g., Coley and Medeiros, 2007, Hawkins et al., 2007, Jaffee et al., 2004), and even fewer have compared models. The evidence from studies comparing the passive genetic model with the standard family environment model to explain the association between parenting (although without usually differentiating between mother's and father's parenting)

Child psychopathology and father's psychopathology

Relevant to the evidence discussed so far is the research on the association between fathers' psychopathology and children's psychopathology. The role of paternal psychopathology on child psychopathology has been examined in studies since the 1980s, although a lot of progress was made after Phares and Compas (1992) voiced the need to routinely explore paternal psychopathology when studying child psychopathology. A decade later Connell and Goodman's (2002) meta-analysis concluded that, although

Conclusions

This paper discussed some of the evidence for the links between child psychopathology and father's residence/non-residence, parenting and psychopathology, and identified priorities for future research that will likely move forward not only the field of abnormal behavior but that of child development in general as well. There are many issues to be addressed in future research, and the preceding sections pointed to several directions. Rather than reiterate these here, this section will briefly

Acknowledgements

The author was supported by a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and is grateful to Michael Lamb, Paul Ramchandani, and Lars Malmberg for their comments on earlier versions of the article.

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