Sanford Braver - US grants

The past literature on marital dissolution has documented that the children and the custodial parent often experience acute and lasting emotional, social, cognitive and financial distress. Unexpectedly, there is also evidence that the noncustodial parent (NCP) suffers at least as much in the short term, primarily because of the loss of the child. The past literature also demonstrates that a common manifestation of the NCP's distress is decreased involvement, both personal and financial (child support), with his child. Unfortunately, there is little in this past work to explain why some NCPs continue their involvement with their children and others do not. The present project proposes a four-year longitudinal study to determine the factors that predict the nature of the NCP-child relationship after separation. We developed a conceptual model based upon a social exchange theoretic perspective in which the NCP-child relationship is viewed as subject to all the usual principals of dyad-maintenance. Using the cost-benefit analysis that is thus implied we will examine the material, symbolic, and affectional rewards and costs that should predict continued involvement. As rewards increase or costs decrease we expect more involvement. From a sample of 20 recently divorced families, which will be more representative than those in past work, we will gather interview data as well as archival child-support records. The interviews will follow a structured format using pre-established measures from the literature and from our own past research. Additional measures will be developed especially for the project. Special measures will be taken to prevent or correct for attrition. Our cost-benefit analysis model will be tested using the improper linear model technique. We also propose exploratory regression analysis, to provide a wider analysis of the factors that predict continued involvement. Finally, as subsidiary analyses we analyze the predictors of custodial parent's, child's, and NCP's post-divorce adjustment.

statistics /biometry

Children whose parents divorce are often at significantly increased risk for a number of mental health problems, including childhood depression, conduct disorder, and school problems. The present application proposes the development and evaluation of a preventive intervention to ameliorate this risk targeted at the recently divorced non-custodial father (NCF), who is known to have profound effects on the mental health outcomes of his child. We reformulate findings about the mechanisms of these effects into a theory of the mediators of the NCF's impact on the child. This theory then drives the design of a preventive intervention which should theoretically benefit the mental health of the child. The theory focuses on the two key mediators of the child's mental health within the NCF's control: Interparental conflict, and the quality of the NCF-child relationship. In turn, these two mediators should be impacted by: (1) the NCF's perceived control over post-divorce family issues, (2) his motivation and skills for effectively managing conflict with the ex- spouse, (3) his level of commitment to the parenting role, and (4) his level of basic parenting skills, variables which become the immediate change goals of our 10-session group intervention, DADS FOR LIFE. In two simultaneous experimental field trials, we will evaluate a total sample of 320 recently divorced families in which the NCF is randomly assigned to either receive this program or a placebo (literature only) control. The first trial involves men whose ex-wives have chosen to simultaneously participate in New Beginnings. our efficacious program for custodial mothers (CMs), and will assess the additive effects of DADS FOR LIFE; the second trial involves men whose wives declined participation in the mother program and assesses the impact of our program when taken alone. The participants are expected to be approximately equally distributed into the two experiments. Each is a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial. Gender of target child will be a second factor in each design. Age of target child is the final factor, younger (4-7) vs older (8-12). The evaluation features multiple measure, multiple informant assessment of families, on outcome and putative mediator variables at Pre-test, Post- test and a one year Follow-up. Interviews with both parents are by telephone. Children's reports, and teacher report questionnaires of the major dependent variable, child's mental health, will also be obtained at all three waves. Analyses of covariance, measurement modeling techniques, and mediational analyses via structural equations models test the impact of the program, and assess the validity of the causal sequence posited in the theory of the intervention. The project also contains two special components: (1) To gauge the program's effect on certain dependent variables requires systematic observation of dyadic interaction, both between NCF and child, and between NCF and CM. Since this work is very intensive, a subsample will participate in these micro-analytic studies of dyadic interaction. (2) The evaluation also assesses the impact of the program on four outcome variables likely to additionally show effects of program impact: mental health of the CM; of the NCF; either spouse's resort to legal actions resulting in Court filings; and child support compliance.

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Research is notably lacking on how fathers impact the mental health and behavioral problems of their adolescent children, though studies have begun to show that fathers do influence adolescents in important ways. Particularly understudied, but at high risk, are children with stepfathers and children of Mexican American heritage. A Conceptual Model is developed that emphasizes the construct of "meanings" that children give to fathering behaviors. The meanings investigated derive from attribution theories and the working models and scripts tradition, which focus on the adolescent?s schema or representation of important social-emotional aspects of the father-child relationship. The Model gives rise to 6 Specific Aims: (1) identify father behaviors influencing child mental health and behavioral problems (net of mothering and other controls); (2) identify social/contextual variables predicting father behaviors; (3) identify "meanings" fathering holds for children that influence mental health; (4) identify social/contextual variables predicting children?s meanings; (5) determine how meanings mediate between fathering behaviors and child mental health; and (6) determine how the above factors and relationships may differ (or be moderated) by children?s gender, ethnicity or father-types (birth-father or stepfather). A longitudinal study is proposed at two sites, Phoenix, AZ (ASU site) and Riverside-San Bernardino, CA (UCR site) that includes 400 families for three waves. Families will be evenly divided into two ethnicities (Mexican American and European American), two child genders, and two father-types (birth-father and stepfather). Families will be recruited through schools. Multi-agent reporting will be used for most constructs, with relevant reports obtained from mother, father, child, teacher, and school records. Most variables are assessed with standardized instruments that have been successfully used with Spanish-speaking respondents in previous studies. Most of the proposed ?meanings" measures have been designed specifically for this study, successfully pre-tested, and include narrative and "quasi-narrative" methods. A 4-cohort, cohort sequential design is employed and the Specific Aims are analyzed with Latent Growth Models.