Father–child and mother–child engagements were examined longitudinally in relation to children’s language and cognitive development at 24 and 36 months. The study involved a racially/ethnically diverse sample of low-income, resident fathers (and their partners) from the National Early Head Start evaluation study (n 5290). Father–child and mother–child engagements were videotaped for 10 min at home during semistructured free play, and children’s language and cognitive status were assessed at both ages. Fathers’ and mothers’ supportive parenting independently predicted children’s outcomes after covarying significant demographic factors. Moreover, fathers’ education and income were uniquely associated with child measures, and fathers’ education consistently predicted the quality of mother–child engagements. Findings suggest direct and indirect effects of fathering on child development.

Fathers and mothers at play with their 2- and 3-year-olds: contributions to language and cognitive development.

The authors review the research on gender by focusing on 3 domains of family life - marriage work (both wage and family work) and parenthood. Regarding marriage they consider intimacy communication and conflict and wife-battering. Regarding wage work they consider women and men as providers and resistance to wives as co-providers. Regarding family work they consider the nature of family work and resistance to sharing housework and child care. Regarding parenthood they consider the images of motherhood and fatherhood activities and experiences of mothering and fathering and the gender differentiation that accompanies parenting. The authors conclude that gender specialization in families persists across the domains of marriage work and parenthood. Everyday and ultimate responsibility for marriage housework and parenthood usually remains with women. Responsibility for breadwinning usually remains with men. Most women help men with provision and many men help women with family work and parenting although partners collude to sustain the belief that men are primary providers but parenting is shared. Partners tend to view mens minimal help with raising children as substantial and womens substantial help with provision as minimal. Though a growing number of women are bothered by this lopsided arrangement most men and women do not consider family life unfair. (authors modified)

Women and Men in Marriage, Work, and Parenthood.

Gender in families: Women and men in marriage, work, and parenthood.

Machismo is an important concept describing men’s behavior in Mexican culture, yet it is not welldefined. Most conceptions of machismo focus on a restricted, negative view of hypermasculinity. The authors posit that a fuller conception consists of 2 parts: traditional machismo and caballerismo, which is a focus on emotional connectedness. The authors developed a scale to measure these dimensions and found support for these 2 independent factors in 2 separate studies of Mexican American men. Traditional Machismo was related to aggression and antisocial behavior, greater levels of alexithymia, and more wishful thinking as a coping mechanism. Caballerismo was positively associated with affiliation, ethnic identity, and problem-solving coping. Traditional Machismo was also associated with less education, whereas there were no differences across education level on Caballerismo scores. These results support the more complete, two-dimensional representation of machismo.

Toward a fuller conception of Machismo: Development of a traditional Machismo and Caballerismo Scale.

This review summarizes research concerning the relation between paternal factors and child and adolescent psychopathology. When compared with mothers, fathers continue to be dramatically underrepresented in developmental research on psychopathology. However, findings from studies of children of clinically referred fathers and nonreferred samples of children and their fathers indicate that there is substantial association between paternal characteristics and child and adolescent psychopathology. Findings from studies of fathers of clinically referred children are stronger for fathers' effects on children's externalizing than internalizing problems. In most cases the degree of risk associated with paternal psychopathology is comparable to that associated with maternal psychopathology. Evidence indicates that the presence of paternal psychopathology is a sufficient but not necessary condition for child or adolescent psychopathology.

The role of fathers in child and adolescent psychopathology: make room for daddy.

The father in the developing two-parent family becoming a father a time of change, an opportunity for development fathers, infants and toddlers a developing relationship correlates of fathers' participation in family work fathers and family relationships - variations and change fathers as primary care-giving fathers of long duration parent-child relationships in step-father families divorced fathers with custody prevention and intervention programmes for men and boys education for fatherhood working with men becoming fathers - the impact of a couples' group intervention men's changing role in the family - directions for research and social change fathers' roles in the family implications for research, intervention and change.

Carolyn Pape Cowan

Papers

Fatherhood today : men's changing role in the family