ECED 2340 Family & Community Engagement Project: Topics: Cultures and Family Structures

Aim: To identify consistency and differences in parental perceptions of impact, need for support and ‘sense making’ in children with a disability,children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness and children who are technology dependent.

The efficacy and consequential validity of an ecological approach to behavioral intervention with families of children with developmental disabilities were examined. The approach aimed to transform coercive into constructive parent–child interaction in family routines. Ten families participated, including ten mothers and fathers and ten children 3–8 years old with developmental disabilities. Thirty-six family routines were selected (2–4 per family). Dependent measures included child problem behavior, routine steps completed, and coercive and constructive parent–child interaction. For each family, a single case, multiple baseline design was employed with three phases: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. Visual analysis evaluated the functional relation between intervention and improvements in child behavior and routine participation. Nonparametric tests across families evaluated the statistical significance of these improvements. Sequential analyses within families and univariate analyses across families examined changes from baseline to intervention in the percentage and odds ratio of coercive and constructive parent–child interaction. Multiple baseline results documented functional or basic effects for 8 of 10 families. Nonparametric tests showed these changes to be significant. Follow-up showed durability at 11–24 months postintervention. Sequential analyses documented the transformation of coercive into constructive processes for 9 of 10 families. Univariate analyses across families showed significant improvements in 2- and 4-step coercive and constructive processes but not in odds ratio. Results offer evidence of the efficacy of the approach and consequential validity of the ecological unit of analysis, parent–child interaction in family routines. Future studies should improve efficiency, and outcomes for families experiencing family systems challenges.

This study examined the longitudinal association between fathers’ early involvement in routine caregiving, literacy, play, and responsive caregiving activities at 9 months and maternal depressive symptoms at 4 years. Data for 3,550 children and their biological parents were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. Analyses in a structural equation modeling framework examined whether the association between father involvement and maternal depressive symptoms differed for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and for families of children with other disabilities or delays from families of children who were typically developing. Results indicated that father literacy and responsive caregiving involvement were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms for mothers of children with ASD. These findings indicate that greater father involvement may benefit families of children with ASD and highlight the need to support and encourage service providers to work with fathers.

Moving from family-centred to childcentred models of service delivery can be stressful for parents as their young children with developmental delays and disabilities transition into school. The purpose of this paper was to explore and compare predictors of both distress and well-being in parents during this transition period.

The main goal of the study was to provide and contrast data on quality of life for families in Slovenia that have children with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities (IDD) and families that have children with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The sample comprised 25 families with children with IDD and 19 families with children with ASD selected from schools in several villages in Slovenia. The data were collected using the FQOLS-2006. The data analysis exploring the relationship between the two study groups (IDD and ASD) using the six measurement dimensions ( Importance, Attainment, Satisfaction, Opportunities, Initiative, Stability) showed the mean ratings for all six measurement dimensions were higher for the IDD group than for the ASD group, although both groups rated Importance quite highly. Within the nine domains examined, there were some differences between the two groups. For the two main outcome measures, Attainment and Satisfaction, the scores for Satisfaction were consistently higher for the IDD group than for the ASD group. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data revealed that two of the nine domains, Family Relationships and Community Interaction, appear to contribute positively to family quality of life for both groups in this sample, while family life relating to the other seven domains requires remediation. Data from this family quality of life study provides evidence to suggest to policy makers and service providers that there might be a substantial amount of work to be done in the future to provide appropriate and efficient support for families with children with disabilities, especially for those with ASD, so that these families can lead lives of quality.

Background Valid tools to assess family needs for children with physical disabilities are needed to help tune paediatric rehabilitation care processes to individual needs of these families. To create such a family needs inventory, needs of families of children with a physical disability (age 0-18 years) were identified. We examined differences in the number and type of needs listed by families when asked for by means of an interview compared with using an inventory. Methods Forty-nine families of children with a wide variety of physical disabilities (mean age 7.7 years; SD 4.6) participated in semi-structured interviews, focusing on family needs. They also checked an inventory of 99 items (based on a previously conducted literature review), regarding their family needs. In addition, individual interviews with healthcare professionals, and panel meetings with healthcare professionals and parents were held to further identify relevant family needs for the inventory. Results The individual parent and healthcare professional interviews raised 41 needs that were not included in the original inventory of 99 items. Moreover, the panel meetings raised a further 49 needs. After restructuring and reformulating several items, a 187-item Family Needs Inventory - Paediatric Rehabilitation ( FNI-PR) was created. The parent interviews revealed significantly less family needs (mean number of needs = 10.8; SD = 6.0) compared with using the inventory (mean number of needs = 31.7; SD = 19.7) ( P < 0.0001). Most expressed family needs were related to both general and specific information concerning the child's development and treatment, aids and information about legislation and to rules relating to compensation of costs. Conclusion Based on responses of parents and healthcare professionals the FNI-PR has been developed, a comprehensive inventory for family needs that can be used in paediatric rehabilitation. An inventory checked by parents resulted in more family needs than a single open-ended question. The inventory may facilitate the implementation of family-centred care.

Initial intervention processes for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) largely focused on direct efforts to impact core cognitive and academic deficits associated with the diagnosis. Recent research on risk processes in families of children with ID, however, has influenced new developmental system approaches to early intervention. Recent risk and resilience processes are reviewed that connect stress, family process, and the high rates of behavioral problems in children with ID that have substantial influence on child and family outcomes. These models are linked to emerging evidence-based intervention processes that focus on strategic parent skill training and mindfulness interventions that reduce parental stress and create indirect benefits for children's behavioral competencies. A family-focused developmental systems approach (M. J. Guralnick, 2011) is emphasized.

Participation in high quality early intervention programs is critical for eligible young children who experience atypical development for their future academic success. High quality programs promote access to services, incorporate instructional strategies that encourage children's participation, and advocate public policy that supports professional development and collaboration among families, early childhood educators, and early intervention providers. Although program implementation according to evidence-based practice is recognized as the key, little research currently exists documenting the implementation of evidence-based practices in early intervention programs. The primary goal of this mixed-methods study was to determine if families, early childhood educators, and early intervention service providers were knowledgeable about evidence-based practices for early intervention and if these practices were currently being implemented consistently throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Families (n = 11), early childhood educators (n = 149), and early intervention providers (n = 66) completed online surveys, and 12 participants participated in semi-structured interviews to report their experiences. Early intervention providers reported a significantly higher perception than early childhood educators that early intervention services were implemented according to evidence-based practice. Early childhood educators were knowledgeable about evidence-based practices in early intervention, but they did not feel they were implemented in their programs. Study findings are discussed in the context of providing early childhood educators with recommendations for improving the quality of early intervention implementation for children with atypical development in their community preschools including access, participation, and policy support.

This study, funded by Williams Institute, investigated child development and parenting in 106 families headed by 27 lesbian, 29 gay, and 50 heterosexual couples with young adopted children. Parents and teachers reported that, on average, children were developing in typical ways. Measures of children’s adjustment, parenting approaches, parenting stress, and couple relationship adjustment were not significantly associated with parental sexual orientation. However, several family process variables—parenting stress, parenting approaches, and couple relationship adjustment—were found to be significantly associated with children’s adjustment, regardless of parental sexual orientation. Implications for understanding the role of gender and sexual orientation in parenting, as well as for legal and policy debates, are discussed.

Opponents of lesbian and gay parental rights claim that children with lesbigay parents are at higher risk for a variety of negative outcomes. Yet most research in psychology concludes that there are no differences in developmental outcomes between children raised by lesbigay parents and those raised by heterosexual parents. The analysis here challenges this defensive conceptual framework and analyzes how heterosexism has hampered intellectual progress in the field. The authors discuss limitations in the definitions, samples, and analyses of the studies to date. Next they explore findings from 21 studies and demonstrate that researchers frequently downplay findings indicating difference regarding children's gender and sexual preferences and behavior that could stimulate important theoretical questions. A less defensive, more sociologically informed analytic framework is proposed for investigating these issues. The framework focuses on (1) whether selection effects produced by homophobia account for associations between parental sexual orientations and child outcomes; (2) the role of parental gender vis-á-vis sexual orientation in influencing children's gender development; and (3) the relationship between parental sexual orientations and children's sexual preferences and behaviors.

Limited research exists about the unique experiences and possible marginalization of children with sexual minority parents. From a larger longitudinal project of diverse adoptive families, we examined cross-sectional data using mixed methods from interviews with 49 adopted children ( M = 8 years; 47 % female) in 27 two-father and 22 two-mother families. Using thematic analysis, we coded themes of awareness of difference, microaggressions, and resilience (i.e., coping and positive family conceptualizations). Children experienced 'feeling different' and microaggressions from peers, but generally at a low to medium intensity and with neutral (not negative) emotion. More instances of resilience and positive family conceptualizations were reported than microaggressions or feelings of difference, suggesting that children develop positive perceptions of their family and navigate experiences of difference with resilience. Filling important gaps in the literature, we discuss implications of our results for practice and policy.

In this study, we examined associations between qualities of families' social contexts and experiences of coparenting. In a sample of 92 adoptive families, we assessed perceived social support among 23 lesbian, 28 gay, and 41 heterosexual adoptive parent families and its association with parents' perceptions of their coparenting alliances. Results showed that parents in same- and other-sex couples reported receiving similar amounts of social support from family, friends, and significant others. Perceived social support was positively associated with stronger coparenting alliance among all family types. Perceived support from family members explained more variance in parenting alliance than did support from friends or significant others. These findings add to knowledge about fundamental family processes and enhance understanding of parenthood among lesbian and gay adoptive couples.

This paper addresses how the law affects LGBQ-parent families. We first outline the legal landscape that LGBQ parents face in the US, underscoring that it varies drastically by state and creates inequity for families. Reviewing existing social science research, we then address how the law affects three processes for LGBQ people: desiring parenthood, becoming a parent, and experiencing parenthood. Our review indicates that the law affects if and how LGBQ people become parents. LGBQ people consider the law as they make decisions about whether to pursue adoption, donor insemination, or surrogacy and often view the latter two pathways as the most legally secure. Further, the law continues to be salient for LGBQ parents throughout parenthood and affects family well-being. Specifically, legal inequity diminishes parent's well-being, the relationship among couples who are parenting, and parents' ability to effectively advocate for their children in institutional settings like healthcare contexts. Finally, we address directions for future research for scholars interested in the law, family processes and outcomes, and LGBQ families.

Public debate on same-sex marriage often focuses on the disadvantages that children raised by same-sex couples may face. On one hand, little evidence suggests any difference in the outcomes of children raised by same-sex parents and different-sex parents. On the other hand, most studies are limited by problems of sample selection and size, and few directly measure the parenting practices thought to influence child development. This research note demonstrates how the 2003-2013 American Time Use Survey ( n = 44,188) may help to address these limitations. Two-tier Cragg's Tobit alternative models estimated the amount of time that parents in different-sex and same-sex couples engaged in child-focused time. Women in same-sex couples were more likely than either women or men in different-sex couples to spend such time with children. Overall, women (regardless of the gender of their partners) and men coupled with other men spent significantly more time with children than men coupled with women, conditional on spending any child-focused time. These results support prior research that different-sex couples do not invest in children at appreciably different levels than same-sex couples. We highlight the potential for existing nationally representative data sets to provide preliminary insights into the developmental experiences of children in nontraditional families.

Considerable research has examined reciprocal ties between religiosity/spirituality (R/S) and parenting within families headed by heterosexual married and single parents (Mahoney, 2010). Yet, no systematic studies have explored interlinkages between parenting and R/S within families headed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) identified parents, despite evidence of the importance of R/S in the lives of LGBTQ people (Herek, Norton, Allen, & Sims, 2010). We asked LGBTQ participants (N = 75) in an online survey to describe how their religious and/or spiritual identity or beliefs influenced their parenting. Three primary themes emerged from analysis of the responses. LGBTQ parents used R/S to (a) teach their children beliefs and values, (b) facilitate spiritual dialogue and critical thinking so that their children could make informed decisions about R/S, and (c) provide a sense of belonging to a community and connections to others and/or a higher power. These findings suggest that, similar to heterosexual parents, LGBTQ parents draw on their religious and spiritual identity, values, and resources to support their children’s R/S development. The findings also highlight the unique motivations and strategies that LGBTQ parents use to facilitate their children’s R/S development within a social context that stigmatizes their family.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the experience of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in New South Wales, Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with 34 grandparents and their narratives transcribed and studied using paradigmatic analysis to reveal common themes among the stories told. Identity theory further informed the discussion of these findings. Woven throughout the grandparent narratives is a story of paradox – of experience simultaneously made up of pain/pleasure, myth/reality, inclusion/exclusion, being deserving/undeserving, visible/invisible and voiced/silenced. The findings signal a significant role-identity conflict for grandparents who are parenting grandchildren. This study points to the need for policy and practice that more closely reflects the complexity of experience associated with the grandparent-as-parent role.

This article documents the prevalence and national profile of American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, based on data from the American Community Survey/Census 2000 Supplementary Survey. In 2000 there were estimated to be nearly 53,000 AI/AN grandparent caregivers age 45 and older in the United States. Almost half of the caregiving grandparents had been raising a grandchild for five years or longer. The findings reveal a portrait of grandparents committed to raising their grandchildren despite the fact that many were living in extreme poverty, with ill health, and with limited resources and services. One-third of grandparent caregivers were living below the poverty line, and only one-quarter of these were receiving public assistance. Even when compared with their noncaregiving AI/AN peers, grandparents raising grandchildren were disproportionately female, poor, living with a functional disability, and living in overcrowded conditions. Implications for social work practice are presented and recommendations for policy and research are discussed.

This study addresses the physical health of caregiving grandmothers in a sample of 1015 grandmothers raising grandchildren. The study focuses on closeness and conflict in key relationships and demographic factors related to grandmothers' self-reported health in skipped-generation and three-generation families. It was found that conflict between grandmother and grandchild was related to poor health in skipped-generation families, whereas conflict between grandmother and parent was related to poor health in three-generation families. Although closeness between grandmother and grandchild was related to better health in skipped generation families, conflict was more salient, overriding this effect. Results suggest that conflict is particularly negative on a daily basis, when contention occurs within the household. This study confirms the importance of psychosocial factors related to self-assessed health and implies that interventions might ease conflict, promote problem solving, and assist distressed family members.

Participation of extended family members, particularly custodial grandparents, has generally resulted in better outcomes for abused children and relief for an overburdened child welfare system. This research explores the risk of adolescent perpetrated violence in custodial grandparent households with data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Findings suggest that living arrangements with custodial grandparents have a significant and differential impact on rates of violent offending for chronic and serious offenders by race and gender.

An adaptation of the Family Stress Model was examined using structural equation modeling with data from 193 custodial grandmother-grandfather dyads. The model's measurement and structural components were largely invariant by grandparent gender. For grandmothers and grandfathers alike, the effects of their psychological and marital distress on grandchildren's adjustment difficulties were mediated by dysfunctional parenting. The effects of family-related contextual forces on grandchildren's adjustment were also indirect through direct effects on grandparents' psychological and marital distress.

The aim of the current study was to explore the relationship between the psychological health of grandparents raising grandchildren, and those grandchildren’s social, emotional and behavioral issues. The study also assessed the relationship between psychological well-being in grandparents and access to informal social support. The sample comprised 100 grandparents who were raising grandchildren. Regression analyses revealed that grandparents caring for grandchildren with abnormal emotional and hyperactive symptoms scored higher on measures of anxiety, stress, and depression, and were more likely to report less life satisfaction. Grandparents with greater access to informal support experienced less depression, although greater access to informal social support did not lessen the impact of raising grandchildren with social, emotional, or behavioral issues. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed.

The article offers information on We're Grandparents with Resources, Access, Nurturing, and Direction (GRAND), a social research design and development pilot project to address the needs and strengths of grandparents who raise their grandchildren. It mentions that the phases of the project include needs assessment, implementation and design of psychoeducational group, and evaluation of the impact of the programme

Using data from the Year 9 Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( N ∼ 3,182), we investigated the characteristics grandfamilies (grandparents raising their grandchildren with no parent present, N = 84) and compared them to other key groups, including children's nonresident parents and other economically disadvantaged families with children. Results show that grandparents raising their grandchildren were generally better off in terms of educational attainment, marital status, and economic well-being than the child's parents. Grandparents raising their grandchildren also had characteristics very similar to other disadvantaged mothers. Academic and socioemotional well-being were poorer among children in grandfamilies compared with those living with their mothers, but parenting practices were very similar. These findings suggest that although children in grandfamilies may be at a disadvantage academically and socioemotionally, grandparent caregivers are in many ways similar to other fragile-family mothers. Overall, this study enhances our knowledge of an important yet understudied family type.

This paper examines the mediating effect of child–grandparent conflict on the relationship between child trauma exposure and grandparenting stress.

Caring for a child with a disability can be a unique and challenging experience, with families often relying on informal networks for support. Often, grandparents are key support resources, yet little is known about their roles and experiences. Reporting on data collected in a larger Australian study, this article explores grandparents’ experiences of caring for a child with a disability and the impact on their family relationships and quality of life.

Using data on 67,558 children (age 0 to 17) from the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the association between complex living arrangements and children’s health is examined. The authors consider children residing in a wide range of living arrangements, including with stepparents, single fathers, custodial grandparents, and nonkin foster parents. Findings suggest that children’s health varies by family structure. The authors find a key role for living with a biological father when predicting children’s health. Children living with a single father are less likely to have poor health outcomes than most other groups, whereas those with a stepfather have reduced health outcomes. The same is not true for those living with a single mother or stepmother. Children being raised by a grandparent and those in foster care have particularly poor health outcomes. Mediation analysis suggests income and health insurance status do not explain these relationships.

Evidence suggests that children in out-of-home care function better when placed in kinship compared with foster care. Less is known about the functioning of children in the unique form of kinship care where grandparents are caring full-time for their grandchildren in informal care arrangements. As grandparent carers are increasingly taking on this role, it is timely to investigate the functioning of the children in this form of care and the characteristics of the grandparents themselves. We compared the functioning of children in the two types of care. We also investigated carer characteristics, including the relationship between child functioning, social support and daily hassles on carer stress. One hundred fourteen cares and 180 children were assessed on a range of demographic and clinical measures. Children in grandparent care were displaying better behavioural and adaptive functioning than children living with foster carers. Grandparent carers reported higher levels of distress in the carer role. Predictors of carer stress included severity of child behaviour problems and daily hassles. Both group of carers and the children in their care would benefit from increased support from treatment services.

Background: A growing number of Canadian children live in the care of their grandparents, called skip-generation families. Reasons for this include teen pregnancy, death of a parent, mental/physical illnesses, and addictions. These grandparents and grandchildren are at increased risk of physical and mental illness, yet have few resources available to them.
Conclusion: When grandparents are prioritized as primary caregivers for their grandchildren, our study suggests they receive insufficient community resources to meet their emotional, respite and financial needs. Further research involving this population in Canada is required. Paediatricians can play an essential role in recognizing these vulnerable families and advocating for additional supports and services.

This study illustrates the types of multiracial microaggressions, or subtle forms of discrimination toward multiracial people, that transpire in family settings. Utilizing a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) Method and a Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA), multiracial participants (N = 9) were interviewed in three focus groups to describe the types of microaggressions they encounter in their families. Five domains emerged including (a) isolation within the family, (b) favoritism within the family, (c) questioning of authenticity, (d) denial of multiracial identity and experiences by monoracial family members, and (e) feelings about not learning about family heritage or culture. We discuss how encouraging discussions of race and ethnicity in multiracial families is conducive to promoting healthier identities and well-being for multiracial people.

Despite the recent growth in multiracial children among American children, we know very little about their well-being. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (N = 17,706), we evaluated the likelihood of living in poverty and near poverty for multiracial and monoracial children. Most multiracial groups have poverty or near poverty rates that are in between Whites and their respective minority monoracial counterparts, with Asian-Whites reporting a risk of poverty equivalent to Whites and Black-Hispanics reporting risks as high as Black and Hispanic children. Family structure and educational and occupational attainment characteristics explain some or all of the White/non-White differentials in poverty for multiracial groups, even as monoracial children still exhibit higher risk than Whites. We consider these patterns’ implications for practitioners working with lowincome families.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss several topics appearing elsewhere in the issue, including information on multiethnic families in the U.S., racial socialization and multiracial adolescents, and research on the well-being of monoracial kindergarten children.

A study was conducted to investigate adults' attitudes toward the multiracial children of African-American and European-American parents. Findings demonstrated that both African-American and European-American respondents perceived the multiracial child with friends of the respondent's own race as being less socially accepted than multiracial children with friends of a different race.

This two-year autoethnographic action research study explores the processes a multiethnic/multiracial family uses to maintain their children’s heritage language of Spanish and the family’s multiculturalism. Data sources (including interviews and participant observations in the home and the dual-language school) specifically focus on the eldest child, Nelia, from her kindergarten and first-grade years where she attended a public dual-language program. The findings illuminate the integral link between the family’s ideology toward valuing bilingualism and the necessity of school support.

The role and meaning of ethnicity and race in the U.S. are being redefined by Hispanic and racial intermarriages that produce new marriages and families. Intermarried couples and families, as well as multiracial and multiethnic children, increasingly populate America; more than 7 million people reported more than one race in the 2000 census. Intermarried families are racially and socioeconomically diverse, though most unions involve a white person and a minority partner. As intermarriage continues to increase, with further blurring of racial and ethnic group boundaries, America's notion of race and ethnicity is destined to change. Data on interracial families derived from various censuses are presented.

Mixed-race or multiethnic youth are at risk for mental and physical health problems. We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to compare family characteristics of adolescents of a mixed-race or multiethnic background with those of a monoracial or monoethnic background. Mixed-race or multiethnic youth reported feeling less supported by parents and reported less satisfactory parent-adolescent relationships. Mixed-race/multiethnic youth were more like monoracial White youth in terms of being independent but were more like racial or ethnic minorities (African Americans, Hispanics) in regard to family activities. Reasons for these findings are explored. We discuss the need for future research on the experiences of mixed-race/multiethnic youth.

Research on the relationship between parental incarceration and foster care
placement is limited in three ways: (1) it focuses solely on maternal imprisonment
and provides neither (2) strong causal tests nor (3) tests of mediation. In this article, we address these gaps by providing a rationale for how paternal imprisonmentmay increase children’s risk of foster care placement and by using Danish registry data to conduct a strong causal test of this relationship (using a recent policy change) and to test relevant mechanisms. The results provide compelling evidence of a causal effect of paternal imprisonment on children’s risk of foster care placement in Denmark and imply that changes in family finances and family structure do little to explain these effects.

Stress proliferation theory suggests that parental incarceration may have deleterious intergenerational health consequences. In this study, I use data from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) to estimate the relationship between parental incarceration and children's fair or poor overall health, a range of physical and mental health conditions, activity limitations, and chronic school absence. Descriptive statistics show that children of incarcerated parents are a vulnerable population who experience disadvantages across an array of health outcomes. After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and familial characteristics, I find that parental incarceration is independently associated with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavioral or conduct problems, developmental delays, and speech or language problems. Taken together, results suggest that children's health disadvantages are an overlooked and unintended consequence of mass incarceration and that incarceration, given its unequal distribution across the population, may have implications for population-level racial-ethnic and social class inequalities in children's health.

The current study aimed to describe the prevalence of children of incarcerated parents (COIP) in a sample of homeless/highly mobile children, examine the relationship between parental incarceration and other risk factors, and investigate the effect of parental incarceration on child academic and mental health outcomes. The authors compared COIP (n=45) to children whose parents were never incarcerated (n=93) within a sample of 138, 4- to 7-year-old ethnically diverse children residing in emergency homeless shelters. Children’s caregivers provided information about children’s history of parental incarceration and other family experiences. Children’s teachers reported academic and mental health outcomes in the subsequent school year. Compared to children with no history of parental incarceration, COIP experienced more negative life events. Regression models revealed that a history of parental incarceration was a significant predictor of teacher-reported internalizing problems. These results have implications for the identification and treatment of the highest risk homeless/highly mobile children.

High rates of incarceration in the United States have motivated a broad examination of the effects of parental incarceration on child well-being. Although a growing literature documents challenges facing the children of incarcerated men, most incarcerated fathers lived apart from their children before their arrest, raising questions of whether they were sufficiently involved with their families for their incarceration to affect their children. The author used the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,071) to examine father–child contact among incarcerated fathers and found that most incarcerated fathers maintained a degree of contact with their children through either coresidence or visitation. Moreover, the results revealed robust reductions in both father–child coresidence and visitation when fathers are incarcerated—between 18% and 20% for coresidence and 30% to 50% for the probability of visitation. The findings suggest that these reductions are driven by both incapacitation while incarcerated and union dissolution upon release.

Mounting evidence links paternal incarceration to harmful outcomes for the children of incarcerated fathers. These findings hold across a host of important behavioral, developmental, and attainment outcomes, including mental health and behavioral problems, substance use, educational attainment, and social inequality. The process by which paternal incarceration causes poor outcomes is much less clear, however. Declines in quality parenting by the partners of former inmates represent one important domain where theory would suggest important effects but where the research evidence lags far behind. This Article analyzes the effects of paternal incarceration on parenting quality and finds that paternal incarceration has no effect on positive parenting behaviors but significantly increases problematic parenting behaviors, including negative conflict resolution tactics and physical abuse. The implications of the results for childhood well-being and development are also discussed.

Parental incarceration is often an adverse childhood experience that has been characterized as an enduring trauma that involves ongoing and repeated stressors. In this study we focus on the role of parental incarceration in predicting child trauma symptomology as well as key mediating family processes such as visitation and children's caregiving arrangement. We utilize a comparison group design of single caregiver and child dyads (N = 45) among similarly disadvantaged single caregiver families to first determine mean differences in child trauma symptomology. Findings revealed that both child and caregiver reports of child trauma symptomology were significantly higher in single caregiver families impacted by parental incarceration and these levels were in the clinical range (parent reports) or approached the clinical range (child reports). We then tested a mediational model examining family processes linked to child trauma symptomology. Parental incarceration was associated with more serious visitation problems (than other contexts of visitation to a nonresident parent) and children being raised by someone other than a biological parent. Parental incarceration also significantly predicted parent and child reports of child trauma symptoms. The effect of parental incarceration on parent reports of child trauma symptomology was fully mediated by the quality of children's visitation suggesting the importance of developing interventions aimed at alleviating child distress during visits in correctional settings.

A half century ago, relatively few US children experienced the incarceration of a parent. In the decades since, incarceration rates rose rapidly (before leveling off more recently), and today a historically unprecedented number of children are exposed to parental incarceration. In this article, Kristin Turney and Rebecca Goodsell walk us through the evidence that parental incarceration impairs children's wellbeing throughout the life course. Given the fact that already vulnerable children are also the most likely to experience having a parent behind bars, they write, these trends increase inequality among children.
After documenting the scope of parental incarceration, Turney and Goodsell review mechanisms that may link parental incarceration to children's wellbeing, such as the parent's physical absence, the trauma associated with the criminal justice process, and the stigma of having a parent in jail or prison. They also review research into how parental incarceration affects four aspects of children's wellbeing: behavior, education, health, and hardship and deprivation. In each of these areas, parental incarceration has detrimental consequences for children.
The authors then turn to programs designed to improve the wellbeing of children of incarcerated parents. Interestingly, they note, despite the fact that fathers' rather than mothers' incarceration appears to have worse consequences for children, many such programs focus on incarcerated mothers--although some aim to treat both parents, or the family as a whole. Yet, they find, few such interventions have been conclusively shown to improve children's wellbeing during and after parental incarceration. Turney and Goodsell suggest three other types of interventions that might help reduce disparities among children of incarcerated parents: programs that strengthen parents' relationships, increase families' economic wellbeing, and treat parents' substance abuse.

Children experiencing parental incarceration face numerous additional disadvantages, but researchers have often relied on these other co‐occurring factors primarily as controls. In this article, we focus on the intimate links between crime and incarceration, as well as on the broader family context within which parental incarceration often unfolds. Thus, parents’ drug use and criminal behavior that precedes and may follow incarceration periods may be ongoing stressors that directly affect child well‐being. We also use our analyses to foreground mechanisms associated with social learning theories, including observations and communications that increase the child's risk for criminal involvement and other problem outcomes. These related family experiences often channel the child's own developing network ties (peers, romantic partners) that then serve as proximal influences. We explore these processes by drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from a study of the lives of a sample of respondents followed from adolescence to young adulthood, as well as on records searches of parents’ incarceration histories. Through our analyses, we find evidence that 1) some effects attributed to parental incarceration likely connect to unmeasured features of the broader family context, and b) together parental incarceration and the broader climate often constitute a tightly coupled package of family‐related risks linked to intergenerational continuities in criminal behavior and other forms of social disadvantage

Children of incarcerated parents are exposed to factors that place them at risk for delinquency. Few studies have examined the effects of having an incarcerated parent after controlling for other experiences such as contextual risk factors and family processes. Past studies have also not examined effects of recent, but not current, parental incarceration on children. The present study examines an archival dataset, in which children aged 10–14 years and their parents/guardians reported children’s risk experiences (e.g., exposure to poverty, parental substance use), family processes (e.g., level of family victimization, family conflict), and children’s delinquent behaviors at two time points. Parents also reported their recent and past incarceration history. Hierarchical linear regression analyses show that a history of parental incarceration predicted family victimization, delinquent behaviors of children’s older siblings, and delinquent behaviors of the child participants, over and above children’s demographic characteristics and other risk experiences. Recent parental incarceration predicted family conflict, family victimization, and parent-reports of children’s delinquency after also controlling for previous parental incarceration. The role of family processes in research and intervention directions involving children of incarcerated parents is discussed.

Parental incarceration (PI) is negatively associated with emotional, educational, and psychological child outcomes. However, few studies explore potential mechanisms through which these outcomes are transmitted or the means by which prosocial outcomes might develop. This study used data from two waves of a population cohort study of children aged 9 years and followed up aged 13 years living in Ireland. Children and parents (N = 8,568) completed measures of PI, primary caregiver (PCG) depression, PCG-child relationship quality, and child behavioral adjustment. We then conducted a secondary analysis on this national longitudinal study of children in Ireland. Using sequential mediation models, we observed a mediated indirect effect of PI on prosocial outcomes via PCG depression and PCG-child relationship quality. PI at age 9 was associated with increased difficulties and reduced prosocial behavior at age 13. Additionally, PI at age 9 affected PCG depression and the PCG-child relationship quality. Additionally, child prosocial outcomes, and emotional and behavioral difficulties were less apparent where PI had a weaker effect on PCG depression and the quality of PCG-child relationship. Supports that can mitigate the impact of PI for vulnerable caregivers and children are discussed.

Parental incarceration has wide-ranging impacts on families. One key effect may be disruption to the care and legal custody of children, yet few studies have examined processes and outcomes relating to care planning for children of prisoners. This paper presents findings of interviews with 151 primary carer prisoners in two Australian states which aimed to address this research gap. The study examined care planning for children upon parental arrest, sentencing and imprisonment, stability of care arrangements and primary carer prisoners' involvement and satisfaction with care planning. Around one third of prisoners had discussions regarding children's care arrangements at arrest and imprisonment, although the issue was more commonly raised at sentencing. While there was much variation in the stability of care arrangements, children placed in out-of-home care experienced the most instability. A minority of prisoners reported being involved in care planning and decision-making for children upon imprisonment, and around one third rated care planning process poorly. Prisoners were more satisfied with care planning when there were fewer movements of children, where prisoners felt involved with decision-making, and when police officers, lawyers and corrections staff inquired about the welfare of their children. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Using data on 67,558 children (age 0 to 17) from the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the association between complex living arrangements and children’s health is examined. The authors consider children residing in a wide range of living arrangements, including with stepparents, single fathers, custodial grandparents, and nonkin foster parents. Findings suggest that children’s health varies by family structure. The authors find a key role for living with a biological father when predicting children’s health. Children living with a single father are less likely to have poor health outcomes than most other groups, whereas those with a stepfather have reduced health outcomes. The same is not true for those living with a single mother or stepmother. Children being raised by a grandparent and those in foster care have particularly poor health outcomes. Mediation analysis suggests income and health insurance status do not explain these relationships.

n this paper, the authors critically examine the plight of single parent families with young children. Next, they lay out in detail the contributions of the behavioral perspective to practice model development research with single-parent families of children under the age of 12. The authors discuss implications for future theory driven practice model development research with cultural specific single parent families. They believe that future model development research efforts with culturally diverse single parent families will aid in advancing the state of cultural competence research in social work while assisting single parents relieve suffering and enhance child and family well-being.

Research on family structure has led some to claim that sex-based parenting differences exist. But if such differences exist in single-parent families, the absence of a second parent rather than specific sex-typed parenting might explain them. We examine differences in mothering and fathering behavior in single-parent households, where number of parents is held constant, and we describe individualist and structuralist perspectives for potential sex-based parenting behaviors. We compare 3,202 single mothers and 307 single fathers in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten Cohort). Results suggest that, although there are small differences in the parenting behaviors of single mothers and single fathers, differences are sensitive to demographic disparities and do not translate to academic deficits for children in either family type.

Research has established a negative association between single motherhood and child social-emotional development. This study examines whether Child Development Accounts, an economic intervention that encourages families to accumulate assets for children’s long-term development, buffer the association between single motherhood and child well-being and reduce social-emotional development disparities between children of unmarried and married mothers. The study analyzes data from a policy experiment of Child Development Accounts in Oklahoma, USA, which randomly selected a group of Oklahoma infants born in 2007 and randomly assigned their mothers to the treatment or control group. The intervention provides to the treatment group a Child Development Account built on the existing Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan with additional financial incentives and information. The analytic sample includes 1,072 children in the treatment group and 1,049 in the control group. Children’s social-emotional development is measured by mothers’ reports of a shortened version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire in the 2011 follow-up survey when these children were about age 4. Findings suggest that Child Development Accounts have significantly positive effects on social-emotional development for children living with unmarried mothers and eliminate the disparity in socialemotional development between the children of single mothers and those of married mothers. The study considers the implications of using such asset-building initiatives to improve child development.

The paper provides a brief overview of the research literature on the impacts of family structure and family change on child outcomes, with a particular focus on parental separation. It takes as a starting point the existence of pervasive associations between family change and child outcomes and addresses a range of issues that are examined in the research literature. Do family changes primarily have short-term impacts on children, or do they also have more enduring impacts? How does remarriage affect child outcomes? What impact do frequent changes of family structure have on child outcomes? What are the mechanisms that link family structure and family change to child outcomes? How much of the impact is attributable to income changes consequent on parental separation? How much is attributable to the absence of a parent figure? How much is attributable to poorer mental health of lone parents following a parental separation? How much is attributable to the conflict between parents which often accompanies a parental separation? And how much of the association between family change and child outcomes is due to non-causal mechanisms, such as selection effects? The paper will sketch out answers to these questions, as far as these can be determined from the published results of research.

The phenomenon of absent fathers is a common occurrence in today's homes that appears to be escalating, especially in Black households across the United States. The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experiences of successful Black men who were raised in absent-father homes as well as the lived experiences of their resilient single mothers. The authors share themes that captured the participants' experiences and provide recommendations for community counselors, school counselors, and counselor educators.

Data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (N = 35,938) were used to examine the relationship between family structure and child well-being. I extended prior research by including children in two-biological-parent cohabiting families, as well as cohabiting stepfamilies, in an investigation of the roles of economic and parental resources on behavioral and emotional problems and school engagement. Children living in two-biological-parent cohabiting families experience worse outcomes, on average, than those residing with two biological married parents, although among children ages 6-11, economic and parental resources attenuate these differences. Among adolescents ages 12-17, parental cohabitation is negatively associated with well-being, regardless of the levels of these resources. Child well-being does not significantly differ among those in cohabiting versus married stepfamilies, two-biological-parent cohabiting families versus cohabiting stepfamilies, or either type of cohabiting family versus single-mother families.

This paper reports on the experiences and views of children and young people of single-parent families, as findings from a European Union-funded research project undertaken in England, Greece and Cyprus. The objectives of the research project were to investigate how children and young people of single-parent families understand and experience their worlds as members of these families: whether and to what extent they experience poverty and social exclusion and how they cope with the challenges that this confronts them with. Methodology was replicated in each of the countries; however, this paper draws on the English experiences. Semistructured interviews (40) and focus groups (four) were undertaken with children of single parents. In addition, focus groups were undertaken with children of two-parent families (four), focus groups with single parents, focus groups with two-parent families (four) and individual interviews with key professionals. Detailed discussion guides were followed, with open-ended questions to allow participants to express their feelings and ideas in their own words. The research sample included children from single-parent and two-parent families, aged 6 years to 16 years, balanced in terms of age, gender and geographical location. Findings demonstrate the children's and young people's understanding of the impact of poverty and social exclusion on their family life and their everyday experiences. The positive benefits of being in a single-parent family are highlighted, with ‘time poverty’ raised as a significant issue. Children and young people are aware of their poverty and how it influences exclusion from friendships, play, leisure and community activities. Policy needs to take account of the systematic reality of children's experiences; alliances with adults that support meaningful involvement and participation by children and young people will make a significant contribution to this.

Violence is one of the most prevalent elements in the lives of homeless families with young children. This violence may come in various forms: domestic violence, street violence, violence in one’s childhood, witnessing violence, and other avenues and modes. Violence disrupts the normal bonding between parent and child. It isolates and degrades families. Early childhood professionals can support parents and children who are victims of violence through support, education, and nurturance.

Although research has documented the majority of homelessness experienced by individuals and families in the US to be transitional rather than chronic, the mechanisms by which some families successfully escape homelessness while other do not remains relatively unclear. To provide more information to this area of inquiry, this study analyzed the transitional nature of homelessness for a sample of families with school-aged children who were homeless under the McKinney-Vento definition. By conducting a survey with over 1000 homeless families with children enrolled in two public school systems in Central Florida, we find that over a quarter of families exit homelessness in less than six months. We compare these families to those that remained homeless to examine the potential importance of demographic differences and other potential barriers to securing housing. Many of the commonly assumed barriers were not significant predictors of continued homelessness; the most salient difference between the groups was income underscoring the importance of employment opportunities for families to allow them to exit homelessness.

The social interaction learning framework was used to explore whether positive parenting practices (noncoercive discipline, clear expectations, and praise and incentives) mitigated any effects of parent mental health (psychological distress and parenting stress) on child externalizing behaviors in a predominantly African American sample of homeless parents residing in transitional housing (N = 52, 79.6% female). The results showed that the positive relationship between psychological distress and child behavior was attenuated when parents provided high levels of praise and incentives. In addition, a positive relationship between parenting stress and child behavior existed only when parents transmitted low levels of praise and incentives. No significant findings existed for noncoercive discipline and clear expectations. The results suggest the need to further understand the positive aspects of parenting in the context of homelessness that can promote child adjustment even if parental mental health is compromised

How families overcome homelessness receives much less research attention than risk factors for becoming homeless. Qualitative focus groups with 14 formerly homeless women were held in diverse neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Grounded in an ecological approach and employing a hermeneutic research design, this study includes their perspectives regarding factors that facilitated successful rehousing. The method was also trauma informed, and specific recommendations for research with this population are offered. The results are divided into two sections. The first identifies factors associated with successfully transitioning out of homelessness. These included perceived benefits of overcoming homelessness, connecting to social services, and the seemingly randomness of stabilization. Second, participants’ recommendations for supporting homeless families are offered. These included the removal of common barriers to housing by addressing poor credit and criminal records; reforming payee systems; providing mediated peer-mentoring programs; ensuring equitable access to emergency shelter for women who become homeless but are not in another risk category (e.g., addiction); offering supportive services in community agency settings; and ensuring that schools are better prepared to assist homeless families. These women also expressed a desire to participate in the broader political realm to have a greater say about the institutions that impact their lives.

In this article, I draw on data from my qualitative dissertation study of the literacy practices of five families who resided in a homeless shelter to complicate the relationship between literacy, education, and inequality. Homelessness is examined through the lens of sponsorship to understand the differential access the families have to powerful sponsors of literacy and how schools and the marketplace may dismiss existing literacies that families use in their everyday lives. Their assimilation narratives reveal that the parents believed strongly in the promise of education to change the life trajectory of their children. Parents engaged in literacy for social and cultural purposes as well as middle class literacy practices that are valued in schools. Despite these attempts to assimilate, the parents and the children in the study did not benefit in significant ways and continually struggled against and resisted deficit perspectives surrounding homelessness and the inner city neighborhoods from which they came. The wide gulf between the official
portrait of homelessness, largely defined by statistics and influenced by deficit perspectives, and the counterportraits that illustrate the lived realities of the families suggests educational reform must address the larger context of inequality in the United States.

Conducted in an emergency homeless shelter, this study aimed to validate parents' expressed emotion (EE) from the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) with observed parenting practices in a very high-risk population and examine how different aspects of parents' EE, including positive emotional expressions, related to observed parenting and children's school adjustment. Using 3 different coding approaches, we assessed the reliability and validity of 4 aspects of the FMSS—critical statements, positive statements, negative affect, and warmth—in relation to negative and positive parenting behaviors and children's behavioral and relational adjustment in school. The FMSS was administered to 39 parents about their 4- to 7-year-old children. Parent–child dyads participated in a 45-min videotaped sequence of games and tasks later coded for parenting behavior. Results indicated that parents' warmth during the FMSS was related to more positive and effective observed parenting behaviors. Critical statements and negative affect during the FMSS were related to more coercive parenting behaviors. Negative affect also was related to teachers' reports of children's increased externalizing behavior, less prosocial behavior with peers, and more conflict with teachers. Criticism maintained associations with observed parenting, even for parents who provided less than 5 min of speech. This study provides preliminary but promising evidence for the validity of FMSS scores in a high-risk sample of families and, specifically, for aspects of the FMSS to be efficient correlates of parenting behavior and aspects of children's school adjustment. Challenges, limitations, and promising features of the FMSS for use with highly disadvantaged parents are discussed.

This study provides robust evidence that maternal mental illness places families with young children at risk for homelessness, contributes to the scant literature elucidating directional and causal links between mental illness and homelessness, and contributes to a stagnant but important literature on family homelessness.

Emerging research indicates that significant numbers of formerly homeless families residing in permanent supportive housing have caregivers with substance use and mental health disorders, and children with histories of exposure to violence, abuse, and out-of-home placement. These factors place children at risk for adverse psychosocial outcomes, including later homelessness, providing a strong rationale for embedding child-focused prevention and intervention services in supportive housing contexts. This article describes a developing community–university partnership whose goal is to advance practice and research in the adaptation and dissemination of mental health prevention and early intervention for children in supportive housing.

Despite the expanding research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and corpus of studies on intergenerational maltreatment in high-risk families, studies have not examined intergenerational ACEs more broadly, much less in severely disadvantaged families. This study investigated the intergenerational continuity of ACEs in mothers and young children aged 4 to 6 years living in emergency homeless shelters. It also examined whether unpacking ACEs into categories of exposure to maltreatment versus family dysfunction affected intergenerational continuity patterns or child socioemotional problems in school. Negative parenting, in the form of observed inept coercive discipline with children, and cumulative sociodemographic risk were examined as additional predictors of child ACEs and socioemotional problems. Mothers (N = 95; aged 20–45; 64.2% African American, 3.2% African Native, 11.6% Caucasian, 7.4% biracial/multiracial, and 13.6% other) completed questionnaires on parent and child ACEs and cumulative risk factors. They participated in videotaped parent–child interactions rated for observed coercive discipline, and teachers provided reports of children’s socioemotional problems. Results indicated that higher parental ACEs predicted higher child ACEs, with higher numbers of parental ACEs in either category (maltreatment or family dysfunction) predicting higher levels of child ACEs in both categories. However, child exposure to maltreatment, but not family dysfunction, significantly predicted elevations in children’s socioemotional problems. Findings underscore the role of intergenerational childhood adversity in homeless families and also emphasize that unpacking ACEs in children may illuminate key areas of vulnerability for school adjustment.

his study researched the experiences of homeless families with young children between the ages of four and eight. Many families experience homelessness every year; therefore, it is important for early childhood educators to have an understanding of how homelessness affects families with young children so that educators can effectively serve the needs of homeless families as they seek to find more permanent situations for themselves and their young children. Many early childhood educators may not understand how homelessness affects young learners. This research sought: (1) to understand reasons families with young children become homeless; (2) to become aware of beneficial resources available to families and their perceptions of the resources; (3) and to examine the developmental effects that homeless living situations can have on young children. The outcomes of this study will be used to inform early childhood educators about practices as they seek to serve young children ages four to eight living homeless. Research suggested common themes as to why and how parents and young children are affected by homelessness.

This study explored the impact of multiple deployments on the health and well-being of the partners(married or de facto) and children of Australian military personnel who have deployed frequently. Permission to contact military partners was sought from a sample of Australian Defence Force (ADF) members. Partners provided data on deployment history, physical health, mental health, and their children’s emotions, and behaviors. Associations between multiple deployments and health and well-being of partners and children were assessed using logistic regression. Data were collected from 1,332 Australian Defence Force partners (response rate 36%) with 1,095 children aged between 4 and 17 years. Almost half (47%) of partners had experienced more than one deployment, mainly to Timor-Leste, Iraq, and Afghanistan. There was little evidence of associations between numbers of deployments and the health of the partner. In contrast, more behavioral problems were reported for children who experienced two or more deployments with odds ratios generally greater than 2 and significant trends with increasing numbers of deployment. Although military families who experience multiple deployments may, by selection, be more resilient than those who have fewer deployments, these results suggest that adverse impacts on the children may accrue with increasing parental absences because of deployment.

Little is known about the family-related stress and postdeployment adjustment of single versus partnered parents deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This study examined exposure to family-related stressors during and after deployment, as well as postdeployment psychological symptoms in a national sample of 318 single (n 74) and partnered (n 244) parent veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Results demonstrated that single parents experienced higher levels of concern about life and family disruptions during deployment, lower levels of social support during and after deployment, and poorer postdeployment family functioning than partnered parents. Single parents also reported higher posttraumatic stress symptom severity, but not depression or anxiety symptom severity, compared with partnered parents. Family-related stressors demonstrated different associations with mental health for single and partnered parents, suggesting that some stressor– symptom relations may be more salient for single parents, and others may be more salient for partnered parents. Findings suggest that the deployment and postdeployment experiences of parents differ based on their partnered status, which has implications for the design and provision of services to single and partnered parents.

Over the past decade, studies into the impact of wartime deployment and related adversities on service members and their families have offered empirical support for systemic models of family functioning and a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms by which stress and trauma reverberate across family and partner relationships. They have also advanced our understanding of the ways in which families may contribute to the resilience of children and parents contending with the stressors of serial deployments and parental physical and psychological injuries. This study is the latest in a series designed to further clarify the systemic functioning of military families and to explicate the role of resilient family processes in reducing symptoms of distress and poor adaptation among family members. Drawing upon the implementation of the Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS) Family Resilience Program at 14 active-duty military installations across the United States, structural equation modeling was conducted with data from 434 marine and navy activeduty families who participated in the FOCUS program. The goal was to better understand the ways in which parental distress reverberates across military family systems and, through longitudinal path analytic modeling, determine the pathways of program impact on parental distress. The findings indicated significant cross-influence of distress between the military and civilian parents within families, families with more distressed military parents were more likely to sustain participation in the program, and reductions in distress among both military and civilian parents were significantly mediated by improvements in resilient
family processes. These results are consistent with family systemic and resilient models that support preventive interventions designed to enhance family resilient processes as an important part of comprehensive services for distressed military families.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe deployed National Guard members’ and their families’perceptions of their experience with family reintegration, and the causes and conditions of challenges reintegration presents after deployment. Methods: A total of 26 National Guard members and 19 family members participated in individual (n = 22), couples (n = 6), or focus group (n = 17) interviews. In-depth interviews were used to assess needs and maximize input from military families regarding deployment-related experiences and reintegration issues. Qualitative coding and analysis of data were completed using NVivo. Results: Finding their way back in is the key process that the military members must complete to successfully reestablish their desired social connections with the family and reclaim their place within the family. Several conditions shape the degree of challenges with reintegration that veterans and their family will encounter. These include preparation for deployment, length and type of deployment, communication during deployment, and finally, awareness of how deployment changes the military member and the family. Conclusion: Support resources dedicated to providing National Guard members and their families with assistance in preparing for deployments and educating them about the importance of communication during deployment should be maintained and expanded. Broader educational efforts that increase awareness of what to expect regarding how deployment changes the military member and the family are needed.

Since 9/11, military service in the United States has been characterized by wartime deployments and reintegration challenges that contribute to a context of stress for military families. Research indicates the negative impact of wartime deployment on the well being of service members, military spouses, and children. Yet, few studies have considered how parental deployments may affect adjustment in young children and their families. Using deployment records and parent-reported measures from primary caregiving (N = 680) and military (n = 310) parents, we examined the influence of deployment on adjustment in military families with children ages 0–10 years. Greater deployment exposure was related to impaired family functioning and marital instability. Parental depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms were associated with impairments in social emotional adjustment in young children, increased anxiety in early childhood, and adjustment problems in school-age children. Conversely, parental sensitivity was associated with improved social and emotional outcomes across childhood.

Family-centered preventive interventions have been proposed as relevant to mitigating psychological health risk and promoting resilience in military families facing wartime deployment and reintegration. This study evaluates the impact of a family-centered prevention program, Families OverComing Under Stress Family Resilience Training (FOCUS), on the psychological adjustment of military children. Two primary goals include (1) understanding the relationships of distress among family members using a longitudinal path model to assess relations at the child and family level and (2) determining pathways of program impact on child adjustment. Multilevel data analysis using structural equation modeling was conducted with deidentified service delivery data from 280 families (505 children aged 3-17) in two follow-up assessments. Standardized measures included service member and civilian parental distress (Brief Symptom Inventory, PTSD Checklist-Military), child adjustment (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and family functioning (McMaster Family Assessment Device). Distress was significantly related among the service member parent, civilian parent, and children. FOCUS improved family functioning, which in turn significantly reduced child distress at follow-up. Salient components of improved family functioning in reducing child distress mirrored resilience processes targeted by FOCUS. These findings underscore the public health potential of family-centered prevention for military families and suggest areas for future research.

Using survey data from 292 mothers married to members of the U.S. military, the authors examined relations among military deployment factors, quality of maternal care, and child attachment behavior with the mother. The results revealed that maternal perceptions of quality of care, mothers' depressive symptoms, and fathers' involvement when not deployed were significantly associated with children's attachment behavior. In addition, fathers' combat exposure was negatively associated with children's attachment behavior. Mothers' quality of care partially mediated the association between fathers' involvement and children's attachment behavior as well as the association between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's attachment behavior. A notable finding of this study was that deployment-related factors were both directly and indirectly related to children's attachment.

Young children (birth through 5 years of age) are disproportionately represented in U.S. military families with a deployed parent. Because of their developmental capacity to deal with prolonged separation, young children can be especially vulnerable to stressors of parental deployment. Despite the resiliency of many military families, this type of separation can constitute a developmental crisis for a young child. Thus, the experience may compromise optimal child growth and development. This article reviews what is known about the effects of the military deployment cycle on young children, including attachment patterns, intense emotions, and behavioral changes and suggests an ecological approach for supporting military families with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Specifically, home‐based family focused interventions seem to warrant the most serious consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Military families with young children face unique psychological and relational challenges during reintegration because of attachment disruption. This can increase psychological stress for service members. We examined three phases of the deployment cycle: predeployment, deployment, and reintegration to reveal risk and resilience factors that may impede or promote attachment relationships. We also explored the impact of predeployment preparation and deployment communication on service members’ parenting stress at reintegration. We conducted (N = 30) semistructured interviews with fathers who were deployed within 2 years of the study, and whose youngest child was 6 years old or younger during the deployment. We found that military fathers whose families did not have preparation strategies for maintaining father–child relationship during the deployment experienced more parenting stress after the deployment than did fathers whose families did use preparation strategies. All participants reportedly communicated with their children during deployment, although number of communication methods did not predict later parenting stress. The most common reintegration experiences were described as an adjustment period, parental stress, and time off of work. Strategies for building attachment as a means of promoting resilience throughout the deployment cycle are identified and discussed.

Family dynamics and the individual differences of each family member can impact their stress. For families in the military, stress occurs regularly due to factors such a reassignments, deployments, and the frequency of changes. For some families, the stress that occurs over time helps family members to develop resiliency. Learning to cope with stress can teach skills in adapting to stressful lifestyle factors (e.g., mobility and relocation). Members of many military families develop these skills, while other families need a strong supportive network to facilitate their adjustment to military lifestyle stress. This is a review of the literature on the issues of how families and their children cope with and adapt to the stress of the military lifestyle. Suggestion are given for how families and school can work together to support children in military families to adapt to the military lifestyle. These suggestions can be applied to other types of transient families.

This study examined how family factors that diminish feelings of loss (frequent communication) and reflect system-level adaptation (effective household management) during deployment were associated with enhanced resilience and fewer vulnerabilities during reintegration and, ultimately, the promotion of family functioning following deployment. Multiple reporters from active duty (AD) military families (N = 214 families; 642 individuals) were examined, including AD members, civilian spouses, and their adolescent offspring. Most service members were men and enlisted personnel (95.3% male; 87.9% enlisted). Most AD and civilian spouses were between the ages of 31 and 40 (68.2% and 72.4%, respectively). Adolescent gender was relatively equal between boys (46.3%) and girls (53.7%), and their average age was 13.58. A SEM assessed the influence of communication frequency (reported by both AD and civilian spouses) and household management during deployment (reported by civilian spouses) on subsequent family functioning (reported by AD spouse, civilian spouse, and adolescent). The mediating role of positive and negative aspects of post-deployment family reintegration (reported by AD spouse, civilian spouse, and adolescent) was also assessed, as indicators of family resilience and vulnerability. Communication during deployment and civilian spouses’ household management during deployment were associated with multiple family members’ reintegration experiences. In turn, reintegration experiences were linked to self-perceptions of subsequent family functioning and, in some cases, other family members’ perceptions of family functioning. Similarities and differences among family members are discussed. While deployment and reintegration create systemic family changes and challenges, results indicated opportunity for growth that can reinforce connections between family members.

Highlights
• Communication and quality time facilitate coping in military children
• Behavioral and emotional problems are common in children during parental deployment
• Maintaining family routines is helpful for children during deployment
• Military parents and spouses need self-care during deployment and reintegration
• Military families are resilient by strategizing plans and setting goals

The article discusses cultural constructions of family learning under the Literacy for Life program of the University of British Columbia in Canada and the conflict that occurs when school teachers work with families from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. A strategic program priority is community engagement where Chinese immigrants and Sudanese refugees were subjected to an emergent literacy development program to focus on the differences on parenting, child development, and learning.

Racial/ethnic minority youth live at the intersection of diverse cultures, yet little is known about cultural socialization outside families or how cultural socialization in multiple settings conjointly influences adolescent well-being. In a sample of 236 8th graders (51 % female; 89 % Latinos, 11 % African Americans), we examined adolescents' perceptions of family and peer cultural socialization toward the heritage culture and the mainstream American culture. A variable-centered approach demonstrated that the socioemotional and academic benefits of family cultural socialization were most evident when peer cultural socialization was congruently high. Although family and peer cultural contexts are often assumed to be drastically different, we identified similar proportions of adolescents experiencing congruently high, congruently low, and incongruent cultural socialization from families and peers using a person-centered approach. Although the incongruent group received relatively high levels of cultural socialization in one setting, their well-being was similar to the congruently low group. The findings highlight the importance of considering cultural socialization across multiple developmental settings in understanding racial/ethnic minority youth's well-being.

Based on 11 diverse Asian American (AA) communities, this article discusses the similarities and differences across East, South, and Southeast Asians. Of two parts in this journal issue, Part 1 presents a review of literature and census data to understand the cultural and structural factors of different types of coethnic communities (strong, weak, or dispersed). Culturally, Asian families differ in culture, language, and religion. Structurally, class, education, and job skills also differ for diverse Asian families. Taken together, the article proposes a combined cultural-structural framework to understand unique characteristics in distinctive communities. The key findings from the literature and census data revealed differences in the types of communities and their resources. Lower achieving AA subgroups tend to have weaker communities with fewer resources and opportunities in general. Higher achieving AA subgroups have stronger coethnic networks with more resources and opportunities. This article challenges the monolithic view of AA students and finds more differences when comparing these communities. Educators and other practitioners need cultural and structural awareness to know how to best support AA students. Stakeholders and school officials can work together by building partnerships to support struggling AA families and communities.

This two-year autoethnographic action research study explores the processes a multiethnic/multiracial family uses to maintain their children’s heritage language of Spanish and the family’s multiculturalism. Data sources (including interviews and participant observations in the home and the dual-language school) specifically focus on the eldest child, Nelia, from her kindergarten and first-grade years where she attended a public dual-language program. The findings illuminate the integral link between the family’s ideology toward valuing bilingualism and the necessity of school support.

The current review paper summarizes the literature on parental emotion socialization in ethnically diverse families in the United States. Models of emotion socialization have been primarily developed using samples of European American parents and children. As such, current categorizations of “adaptive” and “maladaptive” emotion socialization practices may not be applicable to individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. The review examines current models of emotion socialization, with particular attention paid to the demographic breakdown of the studies used to develop these models. Additionally, the review highlights studies examining emotion socialization practices in African American, Asian American, and Latin American families. The review is synthesized with summarizing themes of similarities and differences across ethnic groups, and implications for culturally sensitive research and practice are discussed.

This article explores the nature and extent of Primary Learning Skill (PLS) that the Hispanic young children acquire who do not attend any early educational institutions. Literature reviewed for this paper indicated that Hispanic children were the poorest and the fastest growing group who often did not receive formal educational exposure due to varied socio-economic and ethno-contextual factors. Using Primary Level Assessment Systems (we-reading, pre-writing, pre-mathematical, and socio-emotional domains) administered among 48 parents with 3-to 4-year-old children, this work provides a glimpse on aspects of pre-academic socialization. While most parents indicated their goals for their children are to instill love for learning, an overall picture emerged pertaining to academic socialization suggest that parents themselves needed to reorient their behavior that would help their children acquiring primary level skills. It also appears that some form of educational as well as enrichment programs for the children at home would help in altering the perception of education.

Examines the relationship between maternal perceptions of family coping strategies and family strengths in Hispanic, African-American and Caucasian families of young children with and without disabilities. Influence of coping strategies internal to family on family functioning; Approach to understanding family coping strategies in different ethnic groups.

Using recent data from the American Community Survey, the author investigated how the dynamics of immigration influence our understanding of the adoption–schooling relationship.The results suggest that implications of immigrant and adoption statuses could be understood within specific familial contexts. Thus, no statistical differences were found in the outcomes of foreign-born adoptees in U.S. native families and their peers with immigrant parents. Instead, the most favorable patterns of schooling progress were found among U.S.-born adoptees living in immigrant families. Among immigrants, the analysis indicated similar patterns of achievement among Hispanic and White adoptees that are inconsistent with the predictions of segmented assimilation theory. However, there was a Hispanic disadvantage relative to Whites among immigrant children living with biological and stepparents. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for kinship selection and assimilation processes and the contention that alternative theoretical frameworks should be used to understand the implications of adoption status.

Using data from the birth cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study ( n = 1,200) and the Mexican Family Life Survey (n = 1,013),this study investigated the living arrangements of Mexican-origin preschool children. The analysis examined children’s family circumstances in both sending and receiving countries, used longitudinal data to capture family transitions,and considered the intersection between nuclear and extended family structures. Between ages 0–1 and 4–5, Mexican children of immigrants experienced significantly more family instability than children in Mexico. They were more likely to transition from 2-parent to single-parent families and from extended family households to simple households. There were fewer differences between U.S. children with immigrant versus native parents, but the higher level of single parenthood among children of natives at ages 0–1 and the greater share making transitions from a 2-parent to a single-parent family suggest ongoing erosion of children’s family support across generations in the United States

This paper examines the association between the Great Recession and real assets among families with young children. Real assets such as homes and cars are key indicators of economic well-being that may be especially valuable to low-income families. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,898), we investigate the association between the city unemployment rate and home and car ownership and how the relationship varies by family structure (married, cohabiting, and single parents) and by race/ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic mothers). Using mother fixed-effects models, we find that a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate is associated with a -0.5 percentage point decline in the probability of home ownership and a -0.7 percentage point decline in the probability of car ownership. We also find that the recession was associated with lower levels of home ownership for cohabiting families and for Hispanic families, as well as lower car ownership among single mothers and among Black mothers, whereas no change was observed among married families or White households. Considering that homes and cars are the most important assets among middle and low-income households in the U.S., these results suggest that the rise in the unemployment rate during the Great Recession may have increased household asset inequality across family structures and race/ethnicities, limiting economic mobility, and exacerbating the cycle of poverty.

Historically, American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) children have been disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In this study, nationally representative child welfare data from October 1999 was used to compare urban AI/AN children to non-Indian children placed into out-of-home care. Compared to non-Indian children, urban AI/AN children were older, were more often male, came from poorer homes, and were more frequently placed into group homes/residential placements. Urban AI/AN caregivers had a greater prevalence of alcohol abuse and mental health problems compared with non-Indian caregivers.

A survey of 101 American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) parents in Los Angeles was conducted to explore perceptions of child neglect among urban AIAN parents and factors associated with perceptions.
Participants rated substance abuse by parents as the most serious type of neglect. Providing material necessities and providing adequate structure were ranked as the least serious types of neglect. Gender, education, marital status, and indirect experience with Child Protective Services were significantly related to perceptions of neglect among urban AIAN parents.

Currently, the majority of American Indian families live in urban areas. A number of statistics demonstrate that urban American Indian families deal with a variety of stressors such as poverty and isolation. However, very little is known about how these families perceive their lives. This report provides an exploratory study examining the status of 20 urban American Indian mother/child dyads. Mothers were asked about the role of American Indian culture in their lives, their views of life in general, and their attributions for their child's mild misbehavior. Two measures of child aggression were collected as well. The links between maternal perceptions and child aggression were complex, indicating the need for more studies of urban American Indian families.

This paper examines whether family structure and its transitions are associated with internalizing and externalizing psychiatric disorders among Puerto Ricanorigin children. It uses longitudinal data (three waves) from the Boricua Youth Study, which includes probability samples of children in the South Bronx (New York) and San Juan (Puerto Rico) (n = 2,142). We also examine factors which may explain how family structure and transitions may be related to child psychiatric disorders. Our results show that for both internalizing and externalizing disorders there were no significant differences between children of cohabiting (biological or step) parents or of single parents compared to children of married biological parents. In Puerto Rico only, transitioning once from a two-parent family to a single-parent family was related to child internalizing disorders. Family transitions were not associated with externalizing disorders at either site. Context may be an important factor shaping the risk that family dissolution is followed by an internalizing disorder among children.

The authors were drawn to the media phenomenon created by Amy Chua’s book Battle Hymn o f the Tiger Mother about her parenting experiences raising two daughters. Chua’s parenting style is quite strict by US standards. The authors classify her style as Ethnic Minority, considered a subset of Authoritarian parenting style as compared to Authoritative style that is related to high academic achievement. Thispaper examines Asian parenting style and its relationship with students’ academic performance through the lens of western parenting style literature and Confucianism. Concerning the parenting style literature,a framework of variables is introduced that defines each style. We found these variables relate to Confucianism that places value on education and family dynamics. In this paper, three conclusions are reached: 1) the Ethnic Minority parenting style needs to be more prominent in the parenting style literature and more research needs to be conducted, particularly with Asian descendants. 2) Asian parenting style needs to be singled out and examined with an in-depth look at its relationship with children’s academic performance. 3) Confucianism with an emphasis on education and family dynamics, seems to foster the academic achievements of children. This impact needs to be further explored.

Demographic trends across Europe involve a decrease in fertility and mortality rates, and an increase in divorce and stepfamily formation. Life courses and living arrangements have become less standardized and the structure of families has changed. In this article, we examine to what extent contemporary family structure and composition resulting from demographic changes affect emotional exchange between children and their parents, both from adult child to parent and from parent to child. Because the general level of well-being has been shown to be lower in Eastern Europe, thereby potentially affecting emotional exchange within families, we focus our research on Eastern Europe. We use the 'conservation of resources theory' to derive hypotheses on how family structure may affect intergenerational emotional exchange. Family ties are assumed to be important resources of affection that people want to obtain and retain throughout their lives. Data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) are used to test our hypotheses. In general, our data offer more support for the idea that families are resilient than for the often heard assumption that families are in decline as a consequence of the changed family structure and composition.

Using data on 67,558 children (age 0 to 17) from the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the association between complex living arrangements and children’s health is examined. The authors consider children residing in a wide range of living arrangements, including with stepparents, single fathers, custodial grandparents, and nonkin foster parents. Findings suggest that children’s health varies by family structure. The authors find a key role for living with a biological father when predicting children’s health. Children living with a single father are less likely to have poor health outcomes than most other groups, whereas those with a stepfather have reduced health outcomes. The same is not true for those living with a single mother or stepmother. Children being raised by a grandparent and those in foster care have particularly poor health outcomes. Mediation analysis suggests income and health insurance status do not explain these relationships.

As family structure in the United States has become increasingly dynamic and complex, children have become more likely to reside with step- or half-siblings through a variety of pathways. When these pathways are accounted for, more than one in six U.S. children live with a step- or half-sibling at age 4. We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N ~ 6,550) to assess the independent and joint influences of residing with a single parent or stepparent and with step- or half-siblings on children’s aggressive behavior at school entry. The influences of parents’ union status and complex sibship status on aggressive behavior are independent. Family resources partially explain the association between residing with an unpartnered mother and aggressive behavior regardless of sibship
status. However, the resource hypothesis does not explain the association of complex sibship with aggressive behavior.

To test the existence of the “magic moment” for parental marriage immediately post-birth and to inform policies that preferentially encourage biological over stepparent marriage, this study estimates the incidence and stability of maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock. Data came from the National Survey of Family Growth on 5,255 children born nonmaritally. By age 15, 29 % of children born nonmaritally experienced a biological-father marriage, and 36 % experienced a stepfather marriage. Stepfather marriages occurred much later in a child’s life—one-half occurred after the child turned age 7—and had one-third higher odds of dissolution. Children born to black mothers had qualitatively different maternal marriage experiences than children born to white or Hispanic mothers, with less biological-parent marriage and higher incidences of divorce. Findings support the existence of the magic moment and demonstrate that biological marriages were more enduring than stepfather marriages. Yet relatively few children born out of wedlock experienced stable, biological-parent marriages as envisioned by marriage promotion programs.

Current patterns of family formation in Australia mean that signify cant numbers of children are growing up in families include step-parents or step-siblings, or are headed by cohabiting rather than married parents. Further, these families may extend beyond the one household. It is this situation that is explored in this paper, with a focus on how fathering of young resident children differs when fathers have children living in another household. It is expected that when a father has children living in another household, his capacity to be involved with children living within the current couplefamily may be somewhat diminished. This paper explores to what extent this is true, by examining father involvement using Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Multivariate analyses of these data found that on some aspects of father involvement, those fathers with children living elsewhere did have diminished levels of involvement. Partnered fathers with children living elsewhere were less involved in some aspects of care of resident children. Children in these families had less time in the day when they were with their father without their mother also
present. Further, fathers who had children living elsewhere spent less time doing child care tasks. These findings were apparent in multivariate analyses, which also took account of a wide range of family, parental and child characteristics.

There are several studies on the best way to raise a child, ie, what would be the consequences of our actions for our children. We tend to think of how to educate children in a traditional family, but society has undergone many changes and, hence, family structures have undergone changes too. Today, we find a large number of stepfamilies facing the same issues concerning how to educate a child. Stepfamily configuration often entails more than just the addition of a new parent figure. The objective of this study was to shed some light on how these stepfamilies deal with issues of parenting style and practices. We reviewed the Brazilian and international literature concerning parenting styles and practices in stepfamilies. The papers identified were organized and submitted to analysis. We identified very few papers addressing parenting styles and practices, pointing to an important but unaddressed social change as reflected in new family structures. There is a need for longitudinal studies aimed at understanding not only a particular moment in time, but also moments within a context, ie, an analysis with a holistic approach without preconceived ideas.

There has been little research into parenting in stepfamilies. In this study, 66 New Zealand stepfamily parents completed an online questionnaire that examined four areas of parenting that have emerged as important for stepfamily functioning in international research. These included parent and stepparent preparation for parenting roles; the discipline of children in the early stages; the maintenance of childcare activities by parents; and, conflict between parents and children. As with overseas research, the majority did not discuss the management of children prior to repartnering. One in four parents attempted to share discipline with stepparents during the first year, a practice that has previously been found to be problematic. On the other hand, parents reported maintaining most childcare activities, and stepparents assisted with less intimate activities, such as housework and transport. Discipline, the stepparent role, and children's loss of status were common areas of disagreement between parents and children.

This article adds to the growing literature describing correlations between children's educational outcomes and family structure. Popular discussions have focused on the distinction between two-parent families and single-parent families. This article shows that educational outcomes for both types of children in blended families--stepchildren and their half-siblings who are the joint children of both parents--are similar to each other and substantially worse than outcomes for children reared in traditional nuclear families. We conclude that as a description of the data, the crucial distinction is between children reared in traditional nuclear families (i.e., families in which all children are the joint children of both parents) and children reared in other family structures (e.g., single-parent families or blended families). We then turn from "stylized facts" (i.e., simple correlations) that control only for family structure to "descriptive regressions" that control for other variables such as family income. When controls for other variables are introduced, the relationship between family structure and children's educational outcomes weakens substantially and is often statistically insignificant.

The article discusses the promotion of a healthy stepfamily intervention among couples in Australia. It reviews the reasons and the perceived benefits on interventions for stepfamilies. It investigates the Australian data from a stepfamily program which is designed for healthy stepfamily relationships. Research shows that stepfamily interventions were preventive, designed to promote healthy stepfamily relationships and to prevent adjustment problems. Among the reasons for these interventions include knowledge on stepfamily life, gain a greater understanding of other's viewpoints within the family, develop parenting skills and improve family relationships. However, stepfamilies were eligible for the intervention is the couple was in a committed relationship of at least six months.

Studies of coparents typically center on the relationship between parents who share a biological child; limited attention in research on community-based programs is given to the coparenting relationship within a stepfamily, even though clinicians note the challenges inherent in this relationship. We examined changes in coparenting agreement, parenting efficacy, and parental involvement for 96 stepparents following participation in a coparenting-focused community education program. A significant main effect of time was found for improvement in coparenting agreement, yet a significant time × gender interaction effect suggests that this is driven by improvements for stepmothers only. Parenting efficacy improved, regardless of gender, race, residence, or curriculum. A significant time × race interaction effect on change in parental involvement indicates increases in parental involvement for European American participants only. Finally, increases in coparenting agreement were associated with increases in parenting efficacy, and increases in parenting efficacy were associated with increases in parental involvement.

Coparenting refers to the support parents bring to each other when rearing a child. Supportive coparenting ensures cohesiveness of the family, which is linked with child outcomes. Little is known, however, about the coparental relationship in stepfamilies between the custodial parent, usually the mother, and the new partner, and how it compares to coparenting with the father. This study addressed mother-reported coparenting in stepfamilies and also compared it with that in first-marriage families. Three dimensions of coparenting were considered: family integrity, disparagement, and conflict. Mothers ( N = 300) completed questionnaires on their coparenting relationship with the father and with the partner, marital satisfaction, and attachment. Half the mothers were living in a stepfamily with a child between 5 and 13 years old from a previous marriage, and half in a first-marriage family. The main results show that (a) mothers promote family integrity in stepfamilies either with the partner, or with the father, but not with both; (b) the older the child, the less the mothers reported integrity with the father in both families, and the more they reported disparagement against the partner and conflict with the partner in stepfamilies; and (c) maternal marital satisfaction is linked with all dimensions of coparenting with the father in first-marriage families, but only with disparagement against the partner and conflict with the partner in stepfamilies. Overall, coparenting has similar characteristics in both types of families, but also presents differences that should be considered when working with parents who are committed to a new relationship.

Historically, there have always been stepfamilies, but until the early 1970s, they remained largely unnoticed by social scientists. Research interest in stepfamilies followed shortly after divorce became the primary precursor to stepfamily formation. Because stepfamilies are structurally diverse and much more complex than nuclear families, they have created considerable challenges for both researchers and clinicians. This article examines four eras of stepfamily scholarship, tracing the development of research questions, study designs and methods, and conceptual frameworks from the mid‐1970s to the present and drawing implications for the current state of the field.

The stepfamily literature is replete with between‐group analyses by which youth residing in stepfamilies are compared to youth in other family structures across indicators of adjustment and well‐being. Few longitudinal studies examine variation in stepfamily functioning to identify factors that promote the positive adjustment of stepchildren over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 191 stepchildren (56% female, mean age = 11.3 years), the current study examines the association between the relationship quality of three central stepfamily dyads (stepparent–child, parent–child, and stepcouple) and children's internalizing and externalizing problems concurrently and over time. Results from path analyses indicate that higher levels of parent–child affective quality are associated with lower levels of children's concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1. Higher levels of stepparent–child affective quality are associated with decreases in children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 2 (6 months beyond baseline), even after controlling for children's internalizing and externalizing problems at Wave 1 and other covariates. The stepcouple relationship was not directly linked to youth outcomes. Our findings provide implications for future research and practice.

Using data on 67,558 children (age 0 to 17) from the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the association between complex living arrangements and children’s health is examined. The authors consider children residing in a wide range of living arrangements, including with stepparents, single fathers, custodial grandparents, and nonkin foster parents. Findings suggest that children’s health varies by family structure. The authors find a key role for living with a biological father when predicting children’s health. Children living with a single father are less likely to have poor health outcomes than most other groups, whereas those with a stepfather have reduced health outcomes. The same is not true for those living with a single mother or stepmother. Children being raised by a grandparent and those in foster care have particularly poor health outcomes. Mediation analysis suggests income and health insurance status do not explain these relationships.

The present randomized controlled trial examined the effectiveness of Parent Management Training Oregon for foster parents with foster children (aged 4–12) with severe externalizing behavior problems in long-term foster care arrangements. Foster children’s behavior problems are challenging for foster parents and increase the risk of placement breakdown. There is little evidence for the effectiveness of established interventions to improve child and parent functioning in foster families. The goal of Parent Management Training Oregon, a relatively long and intensive (6–9 months, with weekly sessions) parent management training, is to reduce children’s problem behavior through improvement of parenting practices. We specifically investigated whether Parent Management Training Oregon is effective to reduce foster parenting stress. A significant effect of Parent Management Training Oregon, compared to Care as Usual was expected on reduced parenting stress improved parenting practices, and on reduced child behavior problems. Multi-informant (foster mothers, foster fathers, and teachers) data were used from 86 foster families (46 Parent Management Training Oregon, 40 Care as Usual) using a pre-posttest design. Multilevel analyses based on the intention to treat principle (retention rate 73 %) showed that Parent Management Training Oregon, compared to Care as Usual, reduced general levels of parenting stress as well as child related stress and parent-related stress (small to medium effect sizes). The clinical significance ofthis effect was, however, limited. Compared to a decrease in the Care as Usual group, Parent Management Training Oregon helped foster mothers to maintain parental warmth (small effect size). There were no other effects of Parent Management Training Oregon on self-reported parenting behaviors. Child behavior problems were reduced in both conditions, indicating no additive effects of Parent Management Training Oregon to Care as Usual on child functioning. The potential implication of reduced foster parenting stress for placement stability is discussed.

In the literature on work–family balance, role and boundary issues are commonly discussed in relation to parents who work outside of the home. Work and family are considered as two different spheres of activity, with different role identities and cultural meanings. For foster carers, however, in very significant ways, their family is their work and their work is their family – so roles are not so clearly separated and boundaries are not so clearly defined. This paper reviews theoretical approaches to the work–family interface and draws on qualitative data from 40 interviews with long-term foster carers. It provides an analysis of their accounts of their roles as professional carers and/or committed parents to explore how they manage different and potentially contradictory role identities. The study found that foster carers primarily identified as carers or as parents, but that some foster carers could move flexibly between these roles while others could not. For foster carers who could be flexible, the two roles enriched each other rather than causing stress and role conflict. Implications for supporting professional foster carers who can also meet the parenting needs of long-term foster children are discussed.

This paper analyses how social support enhances family resilience in kinship foster families by involving the families in an educational group programme. Sixty-two kinship foster families from Spain participated in the research. The data were collected before the programme (interviews) and after the programme (interviews and focus groups), and these were analysed by content analysis with the programme Atlas.ti. The results show that the factors that contribute most to the development of family resilience are as follows: (i) feeling able to look for solutions when facing problems; (ii) an increase of their network of formal support; (iii) being able to offer support to other foster families; and (iv) feeling that the support they give to parents’ foster children is socially recognized.

Foster care has a significant impact on biological children in the foster family (Thompson & McPherson, 2011). A review of the literature uncovered seven common themes describing this impact. Based on these themes and the curriculum developed in one state to train prospective foster parents, a new curriculum was developed. This new curriculum targeted youth whose parents were preparing to receive children into their homes. The purpose of this article is to present the development process of a unique, research-based tool that helps prepare families for receiving children.

he article presents a study which examines the characteristics of contact visits and children's perceptions of their emotional relationship with foster carers and biological parents. The study used the Affect Scale to rate the relationship quality of foster children with foster carers and birth parents. Results show the importance of improving contact visits using intervention strategies.

The main aim of this study was to identify the factors which are related to the greatest emotional and behavioral problems among children in the context of a foster family. Participants were 104 non-relative foster children and their respective foster families. A structural equation model was designed and tested in order to identify an explanatory model among the most relevant of the studied variables. The results showed that the model obtained offers a satisfactory structural fit and provides good explanatory power for children's problems. More specifically, the data reveal the important role played by affective relationships and parental discipline style in relation to children's problems within the foster family. Other factors involved were also analyzed. These results indicate that both parenting style and the kind of affect shown by foster parents towards the child are important predictors of the latter's problems. Criticism/rejection on the part of foster parents increases problems through its influence on both the foster carer's burden and the child's self-esteem. These results are useful in order to prepare and support foster carers.

A large number of children are currently living in Alternative Care. The relationship they establish with their temporary caregivers can play a significant role in their development. However, little has been published regarding attachment with temporary Caregivers. Objective: The aim of this review is to analyse the existing published studies regarding attachment styles in children living in alternative care (Children's Homes and Foster Care). The review analyses rates of attachment styles and associated factors (including characteristics of settings, children and caregivers) in both settings.

Families who foster offer essential care for children and youth when their own parents are unable to provide for their safety and well-being. Foster caregivers face many challenges including increased workload, emotional distress, and the difficulties associated with health and mental health problems that are more common in children in foster care. Despite these stressors, many families are able to sustain fostering while maintaining or enhancing functioning of their unit. This qualitative study applied an adaptational process model of family resilience that emerged in previous studies to examine narratives of persistent, long-term, and multiple fostering experiences. Data corroborated previous research in two ways. Family resilience was again described as a transactional process of coping and adaptation that evolves over time. This process was cultivated through the activation of 10 family strengths that are important in different ways, during varied phases.

Historically, American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) children have been disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In this study, nationally representative child welfare data from October 1999 was used to compare urban AI/AN children to non-Indian children placed into out-of-home care. Compared to non-Indian children, urban AI/AN children were older, were more often male, came from poorer homes, and were more frequently placed into group homes/residential placements. Urban AI/AN caregivers had a greater prevalence of alcohol abuse and mental health problems compared with non-Indian caregivers.

Guided by narrative theorizing, the present study analyzed the ways foster parents create and tell foster entrance narratives (FENs) to their foster child. Thematic and content analyses of 101 foster parents’ FENs illuminated nine emergent themes—birth parent consequences, deep connection, special, untold, birth parent learning, temporary, pragmatic, forever, and better off. Structural equation modeling revealed significant relationships between FEN themes and foster parents’ perceptions of foster child adjustment and foster parent–child relational closeness. Findings demonstrate the way foster parents narratively manage birth parent identity, how FENs clarify family boundaries, and the impact of (not) telling FENs on relationships outside the family.

The current systematic review aimed to evaluate the variables influencing foster parents’ parenting stress, distress and parenting style, thereby supporting their adjustment and well-being as well as that of foster children. A PRISMA-guided search was conducted in three databases. Observational studies examining parenting stress, parenting distress (subsuming anxiety, depression and stress symptoms) and parenting style—all assessed through validated tools—were considered. A total of 16 studies were included, comprising N = 1794 non-relative foster parents (age range = 30–67 years). Results showed heightened parenting stress over time, both overall and compared to parents at large. Neither foster parents’ nor foster children’s socio-demographic characteristics significantly contributed to the increase in parenting stress; yet child-related stress and children’s externalizing problems were its main predictors. Foster parents’ couple cooperation was associated with reduced parenting stress. Moreover, the authoritative parenting style was associated with parental warmth, while the authoritarian style was associated with foster parents’ greater perceived burden, greater criticism and rejection toward the foster child. Evidence supports the mutual influence between foster parents and children. Foster care services should support foster parents’ needs within a concentric modular system, to ultimately provide better care for both foster parents and children.

Objective. The purpose of this article is to examine whether and how the residential racial diversity of transracially adopted children (i.e., nonwhite children adopted by white parents) varies from those of biological children in white monoracial families and biological children in mixed-race families.

This randomized controlled replication study examined the effectiveness of child parent relationship therapy (CPRT) with 49 adoptive families. Statistically significant improvement and large treatment effects for child behavior problems, parent–child relationship stress, and parents' empathic interactions with their children indicated the effectiveness of CPRT over treatment as usual. Findings confirm Carnes‐Holt and Bratton's ( ) results and provide strong support for CPRT as a responsive intervention for adoptive families.

Recent research in adoption has considered the factors and processes that underlie the adjustment of children and families. However, little research has been conducted on certain types of adoptive families, specifically on families with both adoptive and biological children often designated as mixed families. This subject is addressed by the present study which also analyzes the association between the type of adoptive family and children’s outcomes—prosocial and problem behavior—parenting stress and the relational family environment. It also examines whether children’s gender, age at adoption and the number of children in the home moderate these effects. 102 parents of adoptive children (ACF) 33 parents of both adoptive and biological children (ABCF) and 102 parents of biological children (BCF) participated in the study. Target-children were aged from 6 to 12 years. The Portuguese versions of the SDQ-P, PSI-SF and FES (Interpersonal Relationship dimension) were used. Results showed that the type of adoptive family—ACF and ABCF—significantly explained the variance of children’s behavioral problems and parenting stress. The child’s gender was shown to moderate the relationship between ACF parents and their perception of child’s prosocial behavior. The results give relevant clues as to the importance of distinct outcomes in adoptive families—ACF and ABCF—compared to families with only biological children and should, therefore, be a resource for professionals involved in the adopters’ suitability assessment and adoption intervention.

Using recent data from the American Community Survey, the author investigated how the dynamics of immigration influence our understanding of the adoption–schooling relationship.The results suggest that implications of immigrant and adoption statuses could be understood within specific familial contexts. Thus, no statistical differences were found in the outcomes of foreign-born adoptees in U.S. native families and their peers with immigrant parents. Instead, the most favorable patterns of schooling progress were found among U.S.-born adoptees living in immigrant families. Among immigrants, the analysis indicated similar patterns of achievement among Hispanic and White adoptees that are inconsistent with the predictions of segmented assimilation theory. However, there was a Hispanic disadvantage relative to Whites among immigrant children living with biological and stepparents. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for kinship selection and assimilation processes and the contention that alternative theoretical frameworks should be used to understand the implications of adoption status.

Contemporary child adoption in the UK and USA has been conceptualised as an extended kinship network of adopted children, birth relatives and adopters (Reitz and Watson, 1992; Grotevant and McRoy, 1998). This contrasts sharply with the traditional model of adoption as a form of family substitution. Yet, such a reconceptualisation raises many questions about the meaning of kinship for those involved. This paper draws on data from a series of biographical interviews with twenty-two parents who adopted children within the UK over a twenty-four-year period in order to explore post adoption ‘family relationships’ from the perspective of adoptive parents. It develops an analysis of definitions of ‘kinship’ created by adoptive parents in order to shape family relationships following adoption, particularly the processes through
which birth relatives are rendered marginal or integral to adoptive family life. The relevance of current adoption policy and professional practices to these processes are explored.

Although increasing numbers of gay and lesbian individuals and couples are adopting children, gay men and lesbian women continue to face increased scrutiny and legal obstacles from the child welfare system. To date, little research has compared the experiences of gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents over time, limiting conceptual understandings of the similarities they share and the unique challenges that gay and lesbian adoptive parents may face. This study compared the adoption satisfaction, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and social support at 2, 12, and 24 months postplacement of 82 parents (60 heterosexual, 15 gay, 7 lesbian) adopting children from foster care in Los Angeles County. Few differences were found between heterosexual and gay or lesbian parents at any of the assessments or in their patterns of change over time. On average, parents in both household types reported significant increases in adoption satisfaction and maintained low, nonclinical levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress over time. Across all family types, greater parenting stress was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower adoption satisfaction. Results indicated many similarities between gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents, and highlight a need for services to support adoptive parents throughout the transition to parenthood to promote their well-being.

This study, funded by Williams Institute, investigated child development and parenting in 106 families headed by 27 lesbian, 29 gay, and 50 heterosexual couples with young adopted children. Parents and teachers reported that, on average, children were developing in typical ways. Measures of children’s adjustment, parenting approaches, parenting stress, and couple relationship adjustment were not significantly associated with parental sexual orientation. However, several family process variables—parenting stress, parenting approaches, and couple relationship adjustment—were found to be significantly associated with children’s adjustment, regardless of parental sexual orientation. Implications for understanding the role of gender and sexual orientation in parenting, as well as for legal and policy debates, are discussed.

Objective The aim of this study was to characterize the role of attachment in adoption, first by assessing the influence of adoptive parents on their late-adopted children and second by investigating the role of children's attachment on an emotional understanding task. Design On children's arrival into adoptive families, parents' attachment was evaluated. After 12-18 months, children's attachment towards mothers and fathers was assessed. Twelve months later, children participated in an emotional understanding task. Method Parents' attachment was assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview. Children's attachment and emotional understanding were evaluated respectively using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task and the Test of Emotion Comprehension. Results A correspondence of 80% (security vs. insecurity) and 60% (security vs. avoidant or ambivalent insecurity K= 0.40) between mothers' and children's pattern of attachment was found. A secure state of mind in both adoptive parents was a protective factor towards children's attachment disorganization. Finally, there was a significant association between children's security of attachment and their performance on the emotional understanding task. Conclusion Adoption appears to be an intervention that assures the adoptive child an opportunity to catch up on emotional development and to partially resolve prior traumatic attachment experiences; adoptive parents play a central role in the emotional adjustment of their children.

The phenotypic differences between children and their adoptive parents in transracial adoptions make the child’s adoptive status readily apparent in public. Consequently, adoptees field more frequent questions and comments about the adoption. The present study examines the nature of public conversations about ethnicity and adoption of 41 elementary school age girls adopted from China and the ecological factors related to less frequent occurrences of such conversations and to the positive nature of these experiences. Results indicate that family structure (single parent vs. two parents) and parental bicultural competence predict membership in the favorable condition (reporting fewer public interaction experiences and reporting more positive experiences, respectively). Child’s age and racial diversity of the town of residence do not predict these outcomes. Implications for families, adoption professionals, teachers and researchers are discussed.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of children placed with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adopters, and to examine children's problem behaviors and positive psychosocial adjustment across the three family types.
Background: There is evidence that children with hard-to-place profiles may be more likely to be matched with lesbian and gay parents. In addition, children adopted from care face greater developmental difficulties than children raised by their birth families, although adoptive parents may buffer the negative effects of early adversity on their children's psychosocial adjustment.
Conclusion: Adopted children displayed similar levels of problem behaviors and positive adjustment in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parented families. Early adversity and having a physical problem/disability accounted for much of the variance in problem behaviors whereas parenting did not. In contrast, it was suggested that parenting processes, namely, parental closeness, may help to explain children's positive adjustment.

Emotional availability (EA) in parent-child interactions is associated with positive child outcomes, including attachment security. However, little is known about EA in adoptive families. This study investigated the associations between secure representations of attachment in adopted children and the adoptive parents' EA. The participants (n = 75) included 26 mothers, 23 fathers, and 26 children who were aged 3 to 9 years. Children completed the Attachment Story Completion Task. Adult-child dyadic relationships were assessed using the EA® System. The results showed that the children's and parents' EA, age when adopted, and time elapsed since adoption were associated with more secure children's attachment representations. Implications for family support and public policy are discussed.

Marriage promotion policy agendas have focused research attention on coparenting relationships, but little is known about coparenting among teen parents. Using qualitative interviews with 76 teen mothers and fathers supplemented with site observations at a school and clinic, the authors investigated coparenting relationships and those relationships’ embeddedness in extended families and social institutions. They identified prevalent coparenting trajectories and analyzed individual-, interaction-, and institutional-level influences on coparenting. Coparenting trajectories diverged depending on whether the couple stayed together and assumed traditionally gendered parenting roles. Participants perceived that coparenting relationships strongly shaped their current and future socioeconomic, emotional, and practical circumstances and their success at “being there” for their child. Extended families, institutions, and social programs often pushed teen parents apart, although many participants felt they needed a functional relationship with the other parent. Coparenting relationships, considered jointly with extended families and social institutions, are fundamental for understanding teen parenthood and shaping effective social policies.

This study examines the puzzle of disparities experienced by U.S. teen parents’ young children, whose health and development increasingly lag behind those of peers while their parents are simultaneously experiencing socioeconomic improvements. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001–2007; N ≈ 8,600), we assess four dynamic patterns in socioeconomic resources that might account for these growing developmental and health disparities throughout early childhood and then test them in multilevel growth curve models. Persistently low socioeconomic resources constituted the strongest explanation, given that consistently low income, maternal education, and assets fully or partially account for growth in cognitive, behavioral, and health disparities experienced by teen parents’ children from infancy through kindergarten. That is, although teen parents gained socioeconomic resources over time, those resources remained relatively low, and the duration of exposure to limited resources explains observed growing disparities. Results suggest that policy interventions addressing the time dynamics of low socioeconomic resources in a household, in terms of both duration and developmental timing, are promising for reducing disparities experienced by teen parents’ children.

Our aim was to estimate the effects of Healthy Families Massachusetts, a statewide home visiting program serving first-time adolescent parents, on parenting, child development, educational attainment, family planning, and maternal health and well-being. Methods. We used a randomized controlled trial design to randomly assign the 704 participants to a group receiving home visiting services or a control group. Between 2008 and 2012, telephone and in-person interviews were conducted and administrative data obtained at 12 and 24months after enrollment. Intention-to-treat analyses compared group differences across 5 outcome domains: parenting, child health and development, educational and economic achievement, family planning, and parental health and well-being. Results. The home visiting program had a positive influence on parenting stress, college attendance, condom use, intimate partner violence, and engagement in risky behaviors. No negative findings were observed. Conclusions. A paraprofessional home visiting program specifically targeting young mothers appears effective in domains of particular salience to young parents and their infants and toddlers. Expanding participation in the program appears a worthy goal for program administrators and policymakers

This study examined the association between perceived family economic stress, quality of father-son relationships, and depressive symptoms among African American adolescent fathers. Data were collected during pregnancy from 65 African American adolescents who were first-time fathers, ages 14-19. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that higher paternal relationship satisfaction was associated with fewer depressive symptoms among adolescent fathers. Additionally, depressive symptoms were higher among adolescent fathers who reported experiencing higher levels of conflict with their fathers. Further, paternal conflict moderated the effect of perceived family economic stress on depressive symptoms. That is, among adolescent fathers experiencing low levels of conflict with their fathers, high perceived family economic stress was associated with more depressive symptoms. Study findings suggest that the risk for depressive symptoms is highest among adolescent fathers experiencing low family economic stress and highly conflictual relations with their fathers. These results highlight the complexities of paternal relationships and perceived economic stressors on depressive symptoms during pregnancy for African American adolescent fathers. The importance of expanding research on influential familial relationships and economic stressors on adolescent African American fathers is discussed.

Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (2001-2006; N ≅ 7,900), the authors examined child-care arrangements among teen parents from birth through prekindergarten. Four latent classes of child care arrangements at 9, 24, and 52 months emerged: (a) 'parental care,' (b) 'center care,' (c) 'paid home-based care,' and (d) 'free kin-based care.' Disadvantaged teen-parent families were overrepresented in the 'parental care' class, which was negatively associated with children's preschool reading, math, and behavior scores and mothers' socioeconomic and fertility outcomes compared with some nonparental care classes. Nonparental care did not predict any negative maternal or child outcomes, and different care arrangements had different benefits for mothers and children. Time spent in nonparental care and improved maternal outcomes contributed to children's increased scores across domains. Child-care classes predicted maternal outcomes similarly in teen-parent and nonteen-parent families, but the 'parental care' class predicted some disproportionately negative child outcomes for teen-parent families.

Objective
The authors sought to examine the effectiveness of Family Spirit, a paraprofessional-delivered, home-visiting pregnancy and early childhood intervention, in improving American Indian teen mothers’ parenting outcomes and mothers’ and children’s emotional and behavioral functioning 12 months postpartum.
Method
Pregnant American Indian teens (N=322) from four southwestern tribal reservation communities were randomly assigned in equal numbers to the Family Spirit intervention plus optimized standard care or to optimized standard care alone. Parent and child emotional and behavioral outcome data were collected at baseline and at 2, 6, and 12 months postpartum using self-reports, interviews, and observational measures.
Results
At 12 months postpartum, mothers in the intervention group had significantly greater parenting knowledge, parenting self-efficacy, and home safety attitudes and fewer externalizing behaviors, and their children had fewer externalizing problems. In a subsample of mothers with any lifetime substance use at baseline (N=285; 88.5%), children in the intervention group had fewer externalizing and dysregulation problems than those in the standard care group, and fewer scored in the clinically “at risk” range (≥10th percentile) for externalizing and internalizing problems. No between-group differences were observed for outcomes measured by the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scale.
Conclusions
Outcomes 12 months postpartum suggest that the Family Spirit intervention improves parenting and infant outcomes that predict lower lifetime behavioral and drug use risk for participating teen mothers and children.

This study determined the effectiveness of an experimental emergent literacy intervention, targeting teenage mothers attending an educational facility. Using a pretest/posttest research design, 27 participants completed a 7-week intervention based in the classroom, targeting a range of emergent literacy skills that they could utilize when reading with their children. Assessment tracked changes in the type and frequency of participants' reading behaviors demonstrated during videoed shared reading interactions with their young children, as well as changes to aspects of the home literacy environment. Data analysis was completed by an independent coder who was blinded to the group (research or comparison) and time point (pre or post) allocation. Results indicated significantly greater frequency of vocabulary, questioning, and book/print features-focused reading behaviors from pretest to posttest. No changes were observed in reading behaviors relating to letter/sound features. The data provide evidence to support the efficacy of an emergent literacy intervention in changing the shared reading behaviors of teenage mothers.

Georgia had the third highest 2010 repeat teenage birth rate in the United States and has had one of the worst rates for years. Since 2001, Georgia's Second Chance Home Network, administered by the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential, has provided housing and support to parenting teenagers—almost two-thirds of whom were in custody of and referred by Georgia's Department of Children and Family Services—to help them become nurturing and self-sufficient parents, to avoid repeat teenage pregnancies, and to promote healthy development of their children. Data were collected from each resident at intake, discharge, and three follow-up points at three, 12, and 24 months after discharge. Evaluation has consistently revealed improvements in several key outcomes, including education, housing, income, self-sufficiency, parenting, repeat pregnancy, and child outcomes. The 2012 evaluation revealed benefits in all these areas and found that those who stayed longer demonstrated better outcomes, especially related to the core outcomes of educational status, employment, and stable residence. Methods and findings about these outcomes are featured in this article.

Given the risk for less optimal developmental attainment in children born to adolescent and young mothers, this study examined associations among child characteristics, parenting stress, and child risk for developmental delay from birth to age five years in mother-child dyads who attended a free-of-cost teen parenting program. Participants were 133 mothers and their target child classified in five age groups; mothers self-reported on the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form. While 68 % of children showed typical development across age groups, 32 % showed increased risk of developmental delay in five areas and overall using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Maternal age did not increase the odds of child's developmental delay. Multivariate analyses showed that the adjusted odds ratio of delay was higher among boys (vs girls), in Personal-social (aOR = 6.2) and Overall (aOR = 2.7). Compared to baseline age group (1-9 months), the odds of delay were higher in age 10-18 months for Personal-social (aOR = 5.3); in age 19-31 months for Communication (aOR = 13.5) and Overall (aOR = 6.3); and in age 32-44 months for Communication (aOR = 7.0). The odds of a delay were higher in children of mothers with higher parenting stress in three of the five developmental areas (Fine Motor, Problem Solving, Personal-social) and Overall. Children's ages 3-4 and boys were associated with increased odds of delay in language and personal-social areas. Beyond screening for child developmental delay, surveillance for highly stressed mothers may be important to broaden risk reduction efforts among adolescent and young mother-child dyads served in primary care settings.

Guided by a risk and resilience framework, this study used a prospective longitudinal, multiple-reporter design to examine how social support from a mother figure during pregnancy interacted with Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' self-esteem to inform their parenting efficacy when their children were 10 months old. Using reports of perceived social support by adolescent mothers (Mage = 16.24, SD = 0.99) and their mother figures (Mage = 40.84, SD = 7.04) in 205 dyads, and controlling for demographic factors (i.e., adolescent age, adolescent nativity, family income, mothers' educational attainment, adolescent - mother coresidence) and adolescents' social support from a significant other, the findings indicated that social support during pregnancy was positively associated with adolescent mothers' future parenting efficacy when adolescent mothers had relatively lower self-esteem. The findings were consistent for adolescents' and mothers' reports and emphasize the value of social support from a mother figure among adolescent mothers with lower self-esteem. Implications for interventions are presented.

Early parenting experiences and child outcomes of adolescent mothers depend greatly on the mother's intellect, personal adaptability, and cognitive readiness. A plethora of research indicates that parenting adolescent females experience higher rates of depression and stress, attain fewer years of formal education, lack employment skills, live in higher rates of poverty, and tend to their children's needs inconsistently and less effectively compared to older mothers; these issues are indicative of poor child outcomes. A high percentage of adolescent girls engage in disorganized attachment relationships with their children. This paper focuses on disorganized attachment in infants of adolescent mothers, and includes factors that may assist adolescents and their infants to achieve more positive outcomes. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Introduction
Expectant and parenting teens experience many challenges to achieving self-sufficiency and promoting their children's healthy development. Teen parents need support to help them address these challenges, and many different types of programs aim to support them. In this systematic review, we examine the research about programs that aim to support aspects of teen parents' self-sufficiency by promoting their educational outcomes and healthy birth spacing.
Discussion
Effective programs to support expectant and parenting teens have diverse characteristics, indicating there is no single approach for promoting teens' education and healthy birth spacing. More rigorous studies of programs to support teen parents are needed to understand more about how to support teen fathers and the program characteristics associated with effectiveness.

Purpose
Teen parents are at risk of high stress, economic instability, and lack of adequate access to medical care. The COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate these inequities for teen parents and their children. Recognizing this, the Generations program, a patient-centered medical home providing primary medical care, social work, and mental health services to teen headed families, adapted our processes to meet the needs of our patients. After implementing several outreach initiatives, we conducted a needs assessment to (1) discern if our outreach efforts had been successful in assisting our patients (2) further characterize the unique needs of teen parents amidst COVID-19.
Conclusions
Teen parents in the Generations program reported increased levels of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Loss of employment, lack of childcare, and barriers to distance learning were common. The survey respondents reported high rates of accessing their medical team and participating in telemedicine, suggesting that the Generations program outreach efforts were successful. The results of the survey highlight the need for additional program measures to address socioeconomic challenges and decrease stress caused by COVID-19 to ensure that we transform and secure the future health of our adolescent parents and their children beyond the pandemic.