Paternal Positivity, Child Internalizing and Externalizing Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Meta-analyses have shown that positive maternal parenting, characterized by warm affect, supportiveness, and close bonds, is negatively correlated with children’s mental health (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Individual studies investigating associations between paternal positivity and child mental health reveal small-to-moderate negative associations, while other studies show weak or no associations. To date, there does not exist a meta-analysis examining the associations between father’s positivity and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. This current study presents a series of meta-analyses (N= 59 studies) examining the role of paternal positive parenting in relation to children’s socioemotional functioning, both concurrently and longitudinally. Further, this study investigates various study, sample, demographic, and measurement moderators that may explain the heterogeneity in findings. The pooled effect sizes for concurrent internalizing problems (N = 30; r = -.10), longitudinal internalizing problems (N = 8; r = -.07), concurrent externalizing problems (N = 40; r = -.15), and longitudinal externalizing problems (N = 19; r = -.11), were significant and small in magnitude. Moderator analyses revealed that in the concurrent internalizing and longitudinal externalizing meta-analyses, effect sizes were stronger among samples of children from low and diverse socioeconomic groups compared to middle/upper income groups. In both the concurrent and longitudinal externalizing meta-analysis, effect sizes were stronger when a single informant reported on the outcome compared to multi-informant, and when questionnaires were used to measure parenting compared to interview or observation. Finally, the association between father positivity and longitudinal externalizing problems was stronger in samples that had a larger proportion of females. Findings inform practices and policies that aim to support children’s mental health.

Authors

• Daniel Foster, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Rodrigues, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author