Positive Parental Engagement: Investigating the Role of the Mother-Father Relationship

Promoting positive parental engagement (e.g., reading to the child, practicing nursery rhymes with the child, playing with the child) is beneficial for children. Previous research has largely been limited to only maternal reports and relatively affluent families. The current study longitudinally inv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family psychology 2018-12, Vol.32 (8), p.1005-1014
Main Authors: Baker, Elizabeth A., DeLuca Bishop, Haylee, Stigall, Logan A., van Dulmen, Manfred H. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child Welfare - psychology
Child, Preschool
Childbirth & labor
Correlation of Data
Family
Family structure
Father-Child Relations
Fathers
Female
Human
Humans
Male
Marital Status
Marriage - psychology
Middle Aged
Models, Psychological
Mother-Child Relations
Parent Child Relations
Parent Report
Parental Engagement
Parental Involvement
Parental Role
Parenting - psychology
Parents & parenting
Path analysis
Poverty
Poverty - psychology
Race
Reading
Surveys and Questionnaires
Systems Theory
Well Being
Young Adult
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Summary:Promoting positive parental engagement (e.g., reading to the child, practicing nursery rhymes with the child, playing with the child) is beneficial for children. Previous research has largely been limited to only maternal reports and relatively affluent families. The current study longitudinally investigated spillover between positive experiences in the mother-father relationship and positive parental engagement using an ethnically and economically diverse sample of parents. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,780 mother-father dyads)-and guided by family systems theory-we tested a series of path analysis models. Positive relationship experiences predicted positive parental engagement over time (from child's birth-5 years of age) for both mothers and fathers. Furthermore, strength of associations between positive relationship experiences and positive parental engagement largely did not differ based on family structure, poverty, or race. These findings highlight the importance of investigating the mother-father relationship using a family systems framework to better understand positive parental engagement.
ISSN:0893-3200
1939-1293
DOI:10.1037/fam0000470