National Institutes of Health
Activities in Support of the Fatherhood Initiative
FY 2000

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.

Grants, Inter-Agency Agreements, and Programmatic Activities:

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has identified male parenting, male fertility related behavior and non-marital childbearing as priority areas for the Institute in recent years and is currently supporting a variety of research projects on these topics.

• The NICHD is studying the effect on parents of raising a child with developmental disabilities (DD) and on how living with a DD adult child affects the psychological well-being of fathers, compared to mothers. The NICHD is also tracking the adjustment of families who knowingly adopted children with DD, compared to families with similar children by birth, to study the influence of psychological parental, family and child variables in predicting long-term adjustment, and transition of the child into adulthood.
• The NICHD is supporting several studies of children with mental retardation (MR) and their families. One study is looking at the transition from late adolescence into young adulthood, and the effect of this transition on family well-being. The NICHD-supported researchers are also studying the mutual influences between families and their children with mental retardation (MR) during adolescence and early adulthood. They will evaluate how social and adaptive functioning influences early family experiences, how raising a child with MR influences the personal well-being of parents over time, and how families with a mentally retarded child adapt, overall, over the life course.
• The NICHD is examining how fathers affect the early development of their children in contemporary American society. Researchers will examine how father involvement differs by family structure, factors affecting a father's involvement behavior, and how children's psychological and cognitive well-being relates to the father's attitudes and involvement behavior.
• The NICHD is also supporting research on how the process by which children become independent affects their relationships with their mother and father. Researchers will interview participants from the National Survey of Families and Households. The results will provide a more comprehensive perspective on young adult development.
• The NICHD, in collaboration with the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are determining national estimates for key indicators related to fertility, family planning, union formation, HIV prevention, and reproductive health for women. Researchers are collecting data on contraceptive practices, fertility, and other background factors among women 15-44 years of age. A male sample has now been added to include information related to male fertility, sexual behavior and contraceptive use, HIV and STD prevention, and family formation, as well as socio-demographic information.
• NICHD, along with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), is working on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Year 2000 Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). The ECLS-B is the first U.S. study to track the health, development, care and education of a nationally representative sample of children from infancy to the time they enter school. Researchers are now collecting information on fathers, which is a newly added component, to examine the role of resident fathers. This will enable researchers to have a more comprehensive view of how the children's home environment, early care and education affect their growth.
• The NICHD is supporting an initiative headed by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research entitled "Research on the Development of Interventions for Youth Violence." The initiative encourages innovative research for youth violence prevention, treatment, intervention methods and maintenance of behavior change. Research topics may include intervention methods that include family support systems, levels of parental supervision, and the dynamics of the parent-child relationship.

National Institute on Drug Abuse

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.

• The NIDA supports research to increase our understanding of behavior, aggression and violence within inner-city African-American families when one or more family members use and/or sell crack or other drugs, and how household organization supports the transmission of violence, drug abuse, and HIV risk behavior across generations

National Institute of Mental Health

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) supports research to better understand and assess mental health in families. A cluster of new grants have expanded the NIMH portfolio related to fatherhood. These studies examine how family relationships are affected by the mental health of fathers, mothers and in turn their children.

• Research has established that developmental delays occur in infants of depressed mothers. NIMH-supported investigators now are exploring depression and the role of fathers and the marital relationship on the development and well-being of children and adolescents. Studies also are examining the relation between decreases in parental depression and changes in children's functioning and whether the style of family interaction has an impact on adolescent depression. The information will be used to design preventive interventions to reduce the deleterious effects of parental depression on children.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

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. Highlights of recent NIAAA studies specific to fatherhood appear below.

• 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. Recent findings are highlighted below.
• Recent data show that people who began drinking at age 15 were four times more likely to become alcoholic than were people who began at age 21, underscoring 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.
• Another study addresses gender issues. Researchers are examining the association between severity of alcohol dependence and psychopathology in female offspring of alcoholic fathers.
• The Institute's Division of Clinical and Prevention Research conducts studies involving alcohol's effects on children, from the fetal stage through adolescence. One of the studies, for example, focuses on server training and on bars as settings for interventions to prevent drinking by pregnant women. Men (i.e., potential fathers) as well as women will be the recipients of pamphlets, warnings, and other messages that are prepared for distribution in these bar settings.
• A comprehensive community-based trial of interventions to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other alcohol-related birth defects among Native Americans is being conducted among four Plains Indian tribes, with two other Indian communities serving as controls. The prevention strategies include universal interventions aimed at everyone in these communities, including fathers and potential fathers, as well as selected and indicated strategies aimed at higher-risk groups. Husbands and male partners of women who drink to excess are also targeted with special interventions to gain their assistance in reducing the prevalence of drinking by pregnant women.
• Fathers figure predominantly in other family-oriented research sponsored by the NIAAA's Division of Biometry and Epidemiology.
• One study is examining linkages between family factors and risk factors for drinking among youth, and will interview biological fathers regardless of whether or not they reside in the child's household, as well as the mother's male partner.
• Another study is a behavioral-genetic investigation of the role of siblings in adolescent alcohol use and abuse. Although the focus of the study is on siblings, information about parent attitudes and expectancies and parent-child and other family relationships will be collected and evaluated.
• In another study, researchers are examining risk factors among children 8 to 18 years old in African American families, to identify familial, environmental, and individual risk factors, as well as protective indices, and how these factors interact in the development of alcoholism in this population.
• A longitudinal study, in place since 1978, focuses on understanding interactions that characterize families with an alcoholic member.
• Family-oriented studies that include fathers also are well represented in the Division of Clinical and Prevention Research portfolio.
• Preliminary results from an intervention delivered in the homes of parents of fifth- grade students indicate that these children were less likely than others to use or misuse alcohol over time, if they had not already started using it.
• An intensive family-intervention program of parents and their sixth-grade children, supported by the NIMH, was found to significantly delay drinking onset 2 years later. The NIAAA is currently supporting an adaptation and evaluation of this program for rural African American families. This intervention was based on an intervention called the Strengthening Families Program.
• A new study will test a version of the Strengthening Families Program for families in two ethnically diverse urban populations, where one or both parents are in treatment for alcohol abuse.
• An ongoing media-based intervention to prevent underage drinking will include radio and TV messages designed specifically for parents of preteens and early adolescents. The effectiveness of these messages will be evaluated through surveys of parents and youth.
• The Institute is sponsoring testing of a manual for parents, to help them prevent drunk driving by their high school-age children.
• A new study is developing and testing two interventions for high-risk youth that will be delivered through community centers. Half of the community agencies will also provide parents with eight sessions on effective parenting practices and prevention of risky behaviors by children.
• NIAAA also funds 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.

NICHD Conferences:

Last year the NICHD co-sponsored a conference entitled "Parenting and the Child's World: Multiple Influences on Intellectual and Social-Emotional Development." This conference assessed the state of funding and research into parenting, and thus, gave rise to recommendations for future research directions. Also as a result of this conference, the NICHD is producing a book on Parenting and the Child's World that is currently under final revision. In addition, a pamphlet is being prepared on Parenting for parents, which focuses on how parents matter.

In October 1999, researchers met at the "Workshop on Youth Violence Interventions" to assess the state of the research and research needs in the area of youth violence interventions. The ultimate goal will be to develop research priorities for the area of youth violence intervention and prevention efforts, which includes among other issues family dynamics.

Recently in March 2000, researchers at the "Conflict and Cooperation in Families" conference discussed the problem of understanding how families cooperate and manage conflict regarding the allocation of household resources, parenting and a variety of other roles in family matters.

Researchers at the "Developing a Daddy Survey (DADS) Meeting," held in March 2000, worked to coordinate measures that examine father involvement across three national studies: Early Head Start, Fragile Families, and the Early childhood Longitudinal Survey - Birth Cohort. The focus of the meeting was father involvement with young children (aged 3-5 years). In addition, researchers began developing methodologies work to clarify the validity and reliability of these measures.

The NICHD will hold the "2000 Add Health Users Workshop" from August 1-2, 2000. The purpose is 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. Post-divorce parent-child relationships and recommendations for policy. Presentation to the Ohio Task Force on Family Law and Children, Columbus, January 2000.

Lamb, M. E. Post-divorce parent-child relationships. Keynote address to the 24th Annual Colorado Conference on Children and Divorce, Denver, April 2000.

Lamb, M. E. Why are fathers important? Keynote address to the Delaware Governor's Conference on Fatherhood, Dover, Delaware, June 2000.

Publications:

Cabrera, N. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bradley, R. H., Hofferth, S., & Lamb, M. E. Fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Child Development, 2000, 71: 127-136.

Hewlett, B. S., Lamb, M. E., Leyendecker, B., & 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, in press.

Kelly, J. B., & Lamb, M. E. Using child development research to make appropriate custody and access decisions for young children. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 2000, 38: 297-311.

Lamb, M. E., Hwang, C. P., Ketterlinus, R. D., & Fracasso, M. P. Parent-child relationships: Development in the context of the family. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental Psychology: An Advanced Textbook (Fourth Edition). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999: 411-450.

Lamb, M. E. Exploring and defining early social ecologies and their impact: Mothers, fathers, families and cultures. Marriage and Family Review, in press.

Lamb, M. E. (Ed.) Parenting and Child Development in "Nontraditional" Families. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.

Lamb, M. E. Parental behavior, family processes, and child development in nontraditional and traditionally understudied families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and Child Development in "Nontraditional" Families. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999: 1-14.

Leyendecker, B., & Lamb, M. E. Latino families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and Child Development in "Nontraditional" Families. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999: 47-262.

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

Sternberg, K. J., & Lamb, M. E. Violent families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and Child Development in "Nontraditional" Families. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999: 305-325.