National Institutes of Health:
Activities in Support of the Fatherhood Initiative
Through September 2000

HHS Fatherhood Initiative

In an effort to improve the Federal Government's support of fatherhood and to help strengthen families, the National Institutes of Health has undertaken the following activities within FY 2000.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), through its recent strategic planning process, has identified male parenting, male fertility related behavior, and non-marital childbearing among its priority areas. The Institute is currently supporting a variety of research projects on these topics.

• NICHD-supported researchers are conducting several studies on how non-residential fathers affect their children's socioeconomic well-being. The goal is to understand the unique circumstances of nonresidential fathers and the conditions that influence their economic and social ties to their children. One of the variables that researchers are examining is the amount of parenting responsibility for children in a new relationship that is required of the non-residential father. In addition, researchers are examining how the dissolution of the family changes the household economic conditions and the sources of the disparity in the economic well-being in the mothers' and fathers' households. Researchers are also trying to assess differences in the fathers' economic support of children depending on whether they were born inside or outside of a formal marriage.
• The NICHD also supports research that examines the antecedents and consequences of divorce from the perspective of both mothers and fathers. This study focuses on how couples' motivations for and expectation about divorces are related to divorce outcomes. Researchers will examine the relationship between pre-divorce expectations and subsequent divorces, the consequences of divorce, the accuracy of pre-divorce expectations about the consequences of divorce, and the extent to which the consequences of divorce are shared between mothers and fathers.
• The NICHD is supporting a study on "Fragile Families" which explores how families formed through non-marital childbearing ("fragile families") function and how their children are affected developmentally. The results from this study will provide previously unavailable information concerning the economic and social conditions of unwed fathers and mothers, child and parental well-being, the role of labor markets, and government policies in promoting father involvement, good parenting, and healthy child development. This study addresses and uniquely brings together the issues of non-marital childbearing, fathering, and welfare reform. The results will provide useful data to a broad range of researchers and provide policy makers with important information on implementing welfare and child support reforms.
• NICHD-supported researchers are expanding studies that examine child support policies and payments. Researchers are 1) analyzing the causes and trends in child support policies, practices and payments; 2) using new data collection methods to obtain better income measures of the parent who does not live in the household (often this includes fathers); and 3) estimating how child support policies will affect child well-being. The researchers will use data from several national surveys such as the Current Population Survey and its Child Support Supplement, National Survey of Family Growth, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997.
• The NICHD is supporting research on how the 1996 Welfare reform bill affects children. This study provides researchers with the scientific opportunity to better understand how parental time and monetary resources affect child well-being. Researchers will interview families that are welfare recipients, low-to-moderate income, or non-welfare-dependent. Researchers will collect information from primary caregivers, child care provider, and fathers or father figures.
• The NICHD also supports a project that investigates the effects of family leave policies (e.g. maternity leave, paternity leave, or parental leave) on parents' care for children. One component of this project will examine whether changes in family leave coverage are associated with increased usage and duration of paternity leaves.
• The NICHD is supporting research on how parenting methods are transmitted across generations. Researchers will examine how parenting and family influences during developmental stages (preschool age, middle childhood and early adolescence) affect and predict parenting behavior in adulthood. In addition, researchers will look at whether a good marriage helps to prevent the transmission of problematic parenting between generations, and whether such processes are similar for mothers and for fathers. Further insight into these issues will be useful to those who seek to prevent problematic parenting from developing or to promote competent parenting.
• Another NICHD-supported project is studying the children of the young men of the Oregon Youth Study. Researchers are examining the parenting style of the young men and the mothers of their children. This will include collecting information on the fathers' attitudes toward children and parenting, and on the children's temperament and various sociocognitive measures. Using this design, the researchers will gain a better understanding of how parenting styles are transmitted from one generation to the next.
• NICHD-supported researchers are examining the demographic and sociocultural factors that influence how young adult men in the United States form families and their involvement in parenting. Little is known about the role of men in paternity and parenting outside of marriage; thus, the results will provide basic information on how a man's background, experiences, and attitudes influence the timing and sequencing of marriage and paternity. Researchers are examining 1) the emotional and financial contributions of men to their children, 2) factors that inhibit or facilitate their involvement in parenting, 3) the male role in parenting children outside of marriage, and 4) racial differences in family formation behavior and parenting.
• How marital conflict is handled is crucial to the well-being of children, marriages, and families. Marital conflict is linked with children's adjustment problem; but it is inevitable and many forms of conflict expression are normal and likely not harmful. NICHD-supported researchers are investigating the processes and factors that moderate the positive and negative effects of marital conflict on children. Among the issues that the researchers will address are: 1) identifying the mother's and the father's marital conflict styles that are most constructive and most destructive from the children's perspective; 2) identifying the processes that mediate the effects associated with a child's stress level and ability to cope with marital conflict, and 3) specifying how gender, in both children and parents, affect how the children adjust to marital conflict.
• NICHD-supported researchers are studying the language, reasoning and social skills that children use when they and their parents try to understand, conduct, and resolve disputes in everyday family interactions. Researchers will examine whether children and their parents benefit from a conflict resolution training procedure. This study will document the language and learning of children and their fathers and mothers in specific situations such as conflict negotiations.
• In another study, researchers are investigating whether and how children from a previous relationship influence the childbearing intentions in subsequent relationships. An aspect of the analyses will address the effects of men's versus women's children from previous relationships on childbearing, and how these children affect marital relationships versus relationships where the parents live together in a non-marital situation.
• The NICHD is supporting a research project that targets understanding the dynamics of co-parenting in family situations. The goal is to 1) systematically study the interactions between the mother and the father, and as a family unit during the early years of family life, and 2) determine how these interactions influence the toddler's behavior.
• NICHD-supported researchers are examining the health status and the health behavior of children in immigrant families and examining the mediating role of family (including fathers), peer, school, and neighborhood on immigrant health and well-being.
• The consequences of unintended pregnancy on children, women and families have been widely documented. However, there is little information on the consequences of unintended pregnancy for men. NICHD-supported researchers are documenting the extent and patterns of unintended births as thy affect men, examining the influence of these births on marriage and relationship dissolution, and the consequences on the psychosocial well-being of the father.
• The NICHD provides support to the Agency for Children and Families for a Head Start research and evaluation project. This initiative has been developed to examine the contribution of low-income fathers to early childhood development as well as how program interventions can strengthen the father's involvement.
• The NICHD, in collaboration with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is furthering research and development in the areas of fatherhood, marriage, divorce, and non-marital families and their relationships to child well-being.

Conference

The NICHD held the "2000 Add Health Users Workshop" on August 1-2, 2000. The purpose was to provide learning and networking opportunities for investigators (especially new investigators) who are using the Add Health data or are interested in using it. The Add Health data include measures of an adolescent's relationship with their fathers and measures of transitions to parenthood during the late teens and early twenties.

Presentations

Lamb, M. E. Cross-cultural perspectives on the role and importance of fathers in child development. Keynote address to national conference on "The Role and Importance of Fathers in the Child's Life," Istanbul, Turkey, December 20, 2000.

Lamb, M. E. Male familial involvement: An update. Symposium on the diverse experiences of males in families. National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference, Minneapolis, November 9, 2000.

Lamb, M. E. and Holliday, K. Parental relocation: Trying the "out of state move" case. National Association of Counsel for Children, Children's Law Conference, Washington DC, November 5, 2000.

Publications

Cabrera, N. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Lamb, M. E., and Boller, K. Measuring father involvement in the Early Head Start evaluation: A multidimensional conceptualization. Proceedings of the 1999 National Conference on Health Statistics, Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, in press.

Hewlett, B. S., Lamb, M. E., Leyendecker, B., and Scholmerich, A. Parental investment strategies among Aka foragers, Ngandu farmers, and Euro-American urban- industrialists. In L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, & W. Irons (Eds.), Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior Twenty Years Later. New York: Aldine, 2000: 155-178.

Lamb, M. E. Fathers, father-child relationships, and paternal influences. In A. Kazdin (General Editor), Encyclopedia of psychology. Washington, American Psychological Association and New York, Oxford University Press.

Lamb, M. E. The history of research on father involvement: An overview. Marriage and Family Review, 2000, 29: 23-42. Reprinted in: H. E. Peters, G. W. Peterson, S. K. Steinmetz, and R. D. Day (Eds.), Fatherhood: Research, interventions, and policies. New York, Haworth, 2000: 23-42.

Marsiglio, W., Amato, P., Day, R. D., and Lamb, M. E. Scholarship on fatherhood in the 1990s and beyond: Past impressions, future prospects. Journal of Marriage and the Family, in press.

Marsiglio, W., Day, R. D., and Lamb, M. E. Exploring fatherhood diversity: Implications for conceptualizing father involvement. Marriage and Family Review, 2000, 29: 269-293. Reprinted in: H. E. Peters, G. W. Peterson, S. K. Steinmetz, and R. D. Day (Eds.), Fatherhood: Research, interventions, and policies. New York, Haworth, 2000: 269-293.

Fathers who abuse drugs not only affect their own behaviors and perceptions but also those of his family. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) supports research investigating drug abuse and its effects on fatherhood.

• NIDA-supported researchers have developed a therapy based on coping skills for parents of adolescent drug abusers. A controlled clinical trial to test the efficacy of this approach is currently underway. There is evidence that both of the parents' behaviors play a significant role in influencing adolescent substance abuse. In turn, there is also evidence suggesting that adolescent's abusing substances also greatly affects the ability of both fathers and mothers to cope and function.
• The NIDA supports the Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse. This Center is developing and evaluating family-based treatments for adolescents who abuse drugs. One of the studies is evaluating the cost-effectiveness of residential treatment compared to an intensive, family-based outpatient treatment method. Researchers are evaluating parenting behaviors, family functioning, cultural factors, and therapists' behaviors that may affect the outcomes of the treatments.
• In another NIDA-supported study, researchers are developing and pilot testing a treatment program for adolescents with comorbid drug abuse and borderline personality disorders. The treatment integrates family therapy and an individuals skills training approach.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) supports a broad range of research to better understand the role that families, including biological and nonbiological mothers, fathers, and care providers play in children's risk for emotional and behavioral problems.

• The NIMH is supporting research to improve our understanding of how young-adults adjust from early adolescent conduct problems. Further, this study has helped to clarify how risk factors that are precursors to adolescent fatherhood may contribute to developing antisocial behavior in the next generation of children. In a 10-year follow-up study of 206 at-risk boys, who were first seen at 9 or 10 years of age, those who became adolescent fathers had more arrests and illicit substance use than did other participants. By age two, 40 percent of the children of adolescent fathers did not have any contact with their fathers; and these children, compared with a normative control sample, had greater overall health risks. In addition, the at-risk parents, compared with a control sample, had higher levels of negative interactions with their children.
• In another set of studies, researchers are studying the role of work in the lives of families. One of the studies examines the impacts of when a parent loses a job on the children and the parents. The goal is to better understand what kind of coping strategies are most effective in decreasing the risk that children will develop behavioral and emotional problems. Another study investigates the long-term effect of work on women, and their marriage and families. Interviews with mothers and fathers will focus on: a) depression and anxiety in family members; b) and stress and resilience in both the marital and parent-child relationships; and c) parents' and childrens' adjustment in school and at work. This study builds on earlier findings which show that during the first four months post-partum, anger, depression, and anxiety in the parents of the infant could be predicted by whether or not the caretaker of the child (father or nonparental care) was the provider whom the mother preferred. During later infancy (4 - 12 months) the amount of hours that the child spent in child care seemed less stressful to both parents, and there was less concern regarding the actual versus the preferred provider.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funds numerous studies on the role of family in the development and prevention of alcohol disorders among children and adolescents. While genetics is responsible for about half of an individual's risk for becoming alcoholic, the remaining risk is attributable to environmental factors, parenting being prominent among them. Highlights of recent NIAAA research specific to fatherhood appear below.

• A NIAAA-supported longitudinal investigation at the University of Michigan has been studying a group of children of alcoholics (COAs) from the time the children were between 3 and 5 years old to the present time, when the oldest of these children are 17 years old. Researchers are examining the contributions of parenting to the risk of alcohol-use disorders in these children, with the following results, among others:
  • I.Q. and problem-behavior indicators in 3-to 10-year-old female COAs, who lived in homes in which alcoholic fathers were in recovery, were indistinguishable from those of girls in nonalcoholic homes. However, girls in homes in which fathers were still actively alcoholic did not perform as well on these I.Q. and problem-behavior indicators.
  • In a study of children at high risk for developing problems with alcohol because of their fathers' alcoholism, male children's ideas about how much alcohol male adults should drink was predicted by their fathers' self-reported alcohol consumption level. Sons' ideas about how much alcohol female adults should drink was related more strongly to their mothers' consumption, but also was related to their fathers', but at a lower level.
  • Researchers found that 6- to 9-year-old sons of antisocial male alcoholics were more susceptible to intellectual, cognitive, and academic deficits than were non-COA boys and COA boys in families in which the father was alcoholic, but not antisocial. Sons of antisocial alcoholics displayed the worst IQs and academic achievement scores, relative to children of non-antisocial alcoholics and controls. They also displayed relatively poorer abstract planning and attention abilities than did the non-COA group of boys. This research supports the proposition that paternal alcoholism and antisociality may serve as indicators of family risk for poor intellectual outcome among offspring as early as the elementary school years.
  • Alcoholic parents made more demands of their children than did parents in control families, and children in alcoholic families stayed physically more distant from their parents. In addition, alcoholic fathers showed more displeasure during a child-directed play interaction with their sons. Viewers of videotapes, who had no prior knowledge as to which of the parents were alcoholic and which were not, rated both alcoholic parents as less likeable than others. Irrespective of family alcoholism status, children took longer cleaning up their toys when with their fathers than with their mothers.
  • Acting-out behaviors are proxy indicators of later risk for alcohol abuse. A child's risk for later alcohol abuse based on his or her own temperament is related to aggressive, delinquent behavior during the period from preschool to the early school years (6-to-8 years old). Both the mother's and the father's behavior, such as negative mood, sadness, and spanking can exacerbate this risk.
  • Higher levels of alcohol problems, stress (defined as "daily hassles"), and lack of social support all predicted the degree to which fathers abused and had conflicts with their children. Child maltreatment, in turn, predicted child aggressiveness.
  • Fathers in antisocial alcoholic families perceived their families as being less cohesive, more in conflict, less involved in recreational activity, lower in moral/religious emphasis, and less organized. Non-antisocial alcoholic fathers differed from control families only in seeing their families as having less of a moral/religious emphasis. In other ways, they were not different from control families.
  • Children's expectancies about alcohol are developed earlier than previously suspected. Among a sample of children in the community, between 2.5 and 6 years old, parental level of alcohol consumption was significantly related to a child's ability to identify alcoholic beverages by smell. Fathers' reports of consuming alcohol for "escape reasons" were marginally related to the children's ability to recognize these beverages. When children were shown photos of other children and adults drinking unlabeled beverages and then were asked to name these beverages, the children's likelihood of deciding that the adult males in the photos were drinking alcohol was related to their own fathers' self-reports of alcohol consumption.
  • Fathers who spent less time with their preschool children perceived them to be less troubled than did their mothers. The parents' perceptions of their children's behavior became more similar as fathers increased the amount of time they spent with their children.
• Another NIAAA-funded study of COAs in high-density alcoholism families (that is, the alcoholic father has an alcoholic brother) found that these high-risk children were more likely than the control group to develop diagnosable psychiatric disorders. The highest risk was for depression, affective disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder. Alcoholism in the father was significantly associated with risk of any psychopathology in both male and female children. Some of these disorders also appeared to have cross-gender parental effects; alcoholism in the mother significantly influenced the rate of affective disorder in males, whereas alcoholism in the father was associated with increased rates of affective disorder in females.
• Other studies have examined the relationship between alcohol and fatherhood at even earlier stages of life. For example, an ongoing study of infant development has identified differences between the parenting behavior of alcoholic and nonalcoholic fathers that may contribute to transmission of alcoholism across generations. Alcoholic fathers display lower sensitivity, less positive mood, and lower amount and quality of verbalization toward their 12-month-old infants and report being more irritated by their infants. This study is being continued, so that researchers can study children's social and emotional development through early childhood and school age.
• Much of the Institute's family-based research is conducted under the auspices of the Division of Biometry and Epidemiology and the Division of Clinical and Prevention Research. Based on results of epidemiology and other data, investigators develop and test family interventions designed to prevent drinking among youth.
  • Family dynamics are an important factor in the initiation and course of adolescent drinking. Recent epidemiology research revealed that people who began drinking at age 15 were four times more likely to become alcoholic than were people who began at age 21. Earlier initiation of drinking also is associated with greater risk of alcohol-related injuries before and after age 21. These findings illustrate the importance of preventing drinking during the adolescent years. Fathers and mothers play a crucial role in preventing their children from developing alcohol problems during this vulnerable period of life. More recent data also suggest that one in four U.S. children witnesses alcoholism in his or her family.
  • Another study addresses gender issues. Researchers are examining the association between the severity of alcohol dependence and the psychopathology in female children of alcoholic fathers. An estimated 22 million U.S. adults are children of alcoholics, and previous epidemiologic research has focused on the male children in this group.
  • Researchers are examining, among other issues, the role of alcohol and other family risk factors in homeless youth. The investigators are finding high rates of alcohol and/or substance abuse (60 to 80 percent) among these adolescents' caretakers.
  • Family environment and the psychopathology of mothers and fathers are among the variables researchers are considering in a study of alcohol use in adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
  • Although a genetic/behavioral investigation focuses on the role of siblings in adolescent alcohol use, the study also is collecting information about the father's and mother's attitudes and expectancies and on parent-child and other family relationships.
  • Minority children at high risk for alcohol-related problems is the topic of another study, which is examining African-American families and focusing on their 8- to 18-year-old children. Alcoholism in mothers and fathers and other familial risk factors are among the variables under study.
  • A long-standing prospective study focuses on understanding family interactions that characterize families with an alcoholic member. Researchers are conducting follow-up data collection from children and both the mother and father.
  • A new project is examining family and peer risk factors for preadolescent drinking; topics include personal parental variables and parenting practices. Researchers will interview biological fathers, even if the fathers do not reside in their children's households, as well as mothers' partners (biological fathers, step-fathers, or boyfriends). The study also will examine relevant differences between Caucasian and African-American families.
• ¨The findings from the projects described above and from other studies have been used to develop preventive interventions for children that involve parents, including fathers. Currently, family-based interventions are being tested for rural African-American children in the Southeast, multi-ethnic youth in New York City, and entering college freshmen at two university campuses. The success of a previous NIAAA-supported, comprehensive intervention for early adolescents in rural Midwestern communities, Project Northland, prompted the recent release of a Request for Applications to encourage similar intervention research in multi-ethnic urban settings. Although school-based, the Northland intervention featured a parent-involvement component that was well received and engaged both fathers and mothers.
  • The Institute's Division of Clinical and Prevention Research conducts many studies involving alcohol's effects on children, from the fetal stage through adolescence. Since late September 1999, the NIAAA has funded eight new grants that focus on the prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Two of these grants include "significant others" of pregnant women as targets of brief interventions that are aimed at reducing or eliminating drinking among these women and are based on therapies that enhance their motivation. The significant others are not restricted to biological or substitute fathers of fetuses or newborn children, but it is assumed that such fathers will comprise a substantial proportion of the studies' subjects. An additional, ongoing study of FAS prevention among four American Indian tribes also stresses the importance of involving fathers and significant others in preventing drinking by pregnant women.
  • Fathers and mothers play a crucial role in maintaining the benefits that their adolescents gain from treatment for alcohol disorders. In a new collaborative initiative on adolescent treatment for alcohol abuse and alcoholism sponsored by the NIAAA and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, five clinical trials include interventions that target parents. These interventions either teach parenting skills or modify the family environment such that parents' attitudes and behaviors become more supportive of their adolescents' sobriety.
• Also included in the NIAAA research portfolio are several studies that examine the role of alcohol in risky sexual behavior among adolescents. These studies not only promote prevention of HIV transmission in this age group, but also promote prevention of unplanned pregnancy and fatherhood.
• At the end of FY 2000, the NIAAA funded a major intergenerational and life-course study of problem alcohol use and related problem behaviors. The research involves collection of social, psychological, behavioral, and biologic (DNA) data on three generations of respondents, and will analyze, among other topics, intergenerational similarities and differences in problem alcohol use and transmission of problem alcohol use from parents, including fathers, to children.

Among the ways that NIAAA-supported researchers disseminate their findings to the scientific, prevention, and treatment communities is through publication of articles in peer-reviewed journals. For example, the entire March 1999 supplement to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol was devoted to publications generated by a December 1996 NIAAA workshop entitled "Alcohol and the Family: Opportunities for Prevention."

The NIAAA also disseminates research findings to the general public. A recent publication, Make a Difference — Talk to Your Child About Alcohol, provides to parents research-based information about underage drinking and practical guidance on how they can reduce the risk that their children will begin drinking early in life. To date, the Institute has printed more than 1 million copies of this booklet, and it also is available on NIAAA's worldwide web site.