Testing the Father–Child Activation Relationship Theory: A Replication Study With Low-Income Unmarried Parents

• In Event: New Directions in Paternal Caregiving of Young Children

Abstract

Introduction: Theoretical models highlighting the father-child relationship and its role in child development have emerged. Paquette (2004) introduced the father-child activation relationship theory, proposing that fathers play an important role in children’s exploration of the world given that men tend to engage in behaviors that excite, surprise, and temporarily destabilizes their children. Despite much theorizing, little empirical evidence exists to support the theory. Volling et al. (2019) recently found that both mothers and fathers display activation parenting profiles, but additional work is needed. The current study aimed to replicate and extend prior research by applying a person-centered approach to a diverse sample of low-income, unmarried couples with young children.
Hypotheses: It was hypothesized that activation parenting profile characterized by moderate levels of sensitivity, positive regard, and cognitive stimulation, as well as moderate levels of intrusiveness and low levels of detachment, would emerge for both fathers and mothers. It was hypothesized that additional parenting profiles (e.g., supportive, intrusive) would emerge. Given the exploratory nature of the study, directional hypotheses regarding the links between parents’ profiles and child outcomes were not advanced.
Study Population: Data were from the Building Strong Families (BSF) project, a large-scale evaluation of a healthy marriage program conducted in 2005-2011 in the United States with low-income, unmarried heterosexual couples who were expecting or recently had a child. Participants were 672 mothers and fathers and their preschoolers, who took part in the 36-month follow-up observational assessments of parent–child interactions.
Methods: Fathers’ and mothers’ parenting behaviors were observed and videotaped separately during the two-bags task, a 10-min semistructured, free-play interaction task between the parent and child. A 7-point rating scale ranging from 1 (not at all characteristic) to 7 (very characteristic) was used to code parents’ sensitivity, intrusiveness, detachment, positive regard, negative regard, stimulation of cognitive stimulation (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999). Latent profile analysis was used in Mplus to examine fathers’ and mothers’ parenting profiles. One-way analyses of variance were used in Stata to examine the links between parenting profiles within the same family and children’s developmental outcomes, including children’s behavior problems, prosocial behaviors, emotional insecurity, receptive language, and effortful control.
Results: Three distinct parenting profiles for both fathers and mothers (i.e., supportive, activation, and intrusive) emerged, with the activation profile showing a pattern of moderate intrusiveness combined with sensitivity, positive regard, and cognitive stimulation. Four family configurations were created: (a) supportive mother/supportive father (23.74%), (b) supportive mother/activation father (9.24%), (c) activation mother/activation father (27.31%), and (d) activation mother/supportive father (39.71%). Children with supportive mothers and fathers had higher receptive language scores compared with those from other family groups, and had higher prosocial scores compared with children with activation mothers and activation fathers, but not other family groups (i.e., activation father/supportive mother or supportive father/activation mother). Results support the father-child activation relationship theory by noting a pattern of parenting behaviors used by fathers (and mothers) in which parents are moderately intrusive, challenging, or directive with their children, yet still sensitive and positive in their interactions.

Authors

• Joyce Yea-Eun Lee, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Brenda L Volling, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shawna J. Lee, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
  Non-Presenting Author