Brent A. McBride - US grants

Abstract

Collaborative Research in the Socialization of Preschoolers' Beliefs Across Parent and Peer Relationships

Kelly K. Bost & Brent A. McBride

Family relationships are the crucible within which children's social competencies are forged and honed, however, the payoff for the child's social competence is derived from interactions in the peer group. Children well equipped (by virtue of the quality of their family relationships) with interaction skills, beliefs about the desirability of social activities, and convictions that social initiations will lead to positive outcomes tend to become central, accepted members of their peer groups during childhood. Furthermore, these children frequently accumulate social power in the peer group that can be parlayed into preferential access to the physical and social resources available in the group. These facts form the crux of a paradox because parent-child relationships tend to emphasize affiliation, coherence, and nurturance/protection at the expense of competition, conflict, and deception whereas this balance is often reversed in the peer group. The question arises: What is learned in the family that prepares children for the very different social demands imposed by the peer group during early childhood? In this project, we will collect data that can begin to answer this question.

Investigators from Auburn University and the University of Illinois pool their expertise in parent-child and peer relationships for this 4-year longitudinal study. A total sample of 100 families (50 at each site) will be recruited. Insofar as possible, two-parent families will be recruited (a minimum of 50% for the total sample) so that assessments of both mother-child and father-child relationships can be obtained. Assessments of sibling interactions and relationships will be obtained when possible. Because attachment theory proposes the most well articulated characterization of parent-child relationships available in the developmental sciences, assessments of both child and parent will emphasize the 'secure base' aspects of their relationship. Parents will be assessed in terms of their demonstrated ability to serve as a secure base for their child and in terms of the availability of a 'secure base script' in assessments of the adults themselves. Starting in the second project year (as the children turn 3.0-3.5 years of age) assessments will take place also in their peer groups. A standard battery of social competence assessments will be collected and friendship and social dominance status also will be ascertained. Between 3.5- 4.0 years of age, the availability of secure-base scripts in child-parent narratives will be assessed, using tasks developed for this purpose. Both classroom and parent-child assessments will continue in the third project year (as the child turns 4.0 to 4.5 years of age). Investigators at the Illinois site will place an additional emphasis on collecting, decoding and analyzing data with respect to the nature and quality of father-child relationships and children's broader social networks and supports.

An emerging trend in recent research has involved determining the impacts of paternal involvement on their children's development. Unfortunately, research in this area has been riddled with theoretical and methodological problems, including narrow conceptualizations of involvement, overdependence on data from father-absent families and samples lacking ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and over-reliance cross-sectional designs. These shortcomings have limited our understanding of the complexity involved in fathers' approach parental tasks and of how variability in this complexity affects children's learning and development. Inconsistencies in available evidence on the impact of father involvement have further hampered efforts to develop federal "family supportive" policies include an appreciation for the unique and diverse roles fathers play in their children's development. The intent of the current project is to overcome many of these limitations. This project will addresses the following research questions: First, how does father involvement in school and home settings vary as a function of child age, family structure, family socioeconomic status, and ethnicity? Second, are higher levels of father involvement in these settings associated with more positive behavioral and academic outcomes for children than lower levels of involvement? Third, is father involvement stable across time? Is the impact of father involvement on children's behavior and academic achievement stable over time? Fourth, does father involvement mediate the impact of school-, neighborhood-, and family-level resources on children? Fifth, what are the antecedents of father involvement in home and school settings, and do these antecedents remain stable across time? Drawing from a nationally representative data base of U. S. children and their families (i.e., the first and second waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement), this project will explore how demographic and behavioral variables are related to paternal involvement in home and school settings, and how parental involvement impacts children's development. In overcoming limitations of previous research in this area, the current study may provide more definitive conclusions than afforded by previous research on the antecedents and characteristics of father involvement and the extent to which differences in these parental characteristics and patterns of involvement influence child development.

Interest in the roles played by fathers in the development of their children has increased dramatically in recent years. This increased interest has been paralleled by a shift in societal expectations for fatherhood. Although extant evidence indicates that some fathers devote more time to caring for their children than was the case in previous generations, these observed increases in involvement are small, and fathers continue to spend significantly less time than mothers caring for children. In addition, neither researchers nor practitioners have a clear understanding of the reasons that some fathers are more involved in their children's care than others whether these reasons differ for different socioeconomic and ethnic groups, or the extent to which differences in paternal involvement affect children's social development and academic achievement. Findings from this study will add to our understanding of the unique ways in which paternal involvement impacts their children's learning and development and will identify the demographic and cultural factors associated with higher levels of father involvement. Information gained from this project will provide a useful framework for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in the time when families are struggling with changing societal expectations for fathers and parental roles are being refined at both the familial level and the cultural level.