Forward progress of scientific inquiry into the early father-child relationship: introduction to the special issue on very young children and their fathers.

Research on fathering and the father-child relationship has made substantial progress in the most recent 15 years since the last special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal on fathers and young children. This special issue on fathers and young children contains a series of papers exemplifying this progress, including advances in methodology-more direct assessment and more observational measures-in addition to the increasing dynamic complexity of the conceptual models used to study fathers, the diversity of fathers studied, and the growth of programs to support early father involvement. In assessing the current state of the field, special attention is given to contributions made by the papers contained in this special issue, and two critical areas for continued progress are addressed: (1) methodological and measurement development that specifically address fathers and fathering relationships and (2) cross-cultural and ecologically valid research examining the diversity of models of fathering.

Bocknek EL ，Hossain Z ，Roggman L 《-》

Father's parenting and father-child relationship among children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Western literature documents impaired father-child interactions in addition to strong evidence of impaired mother-child interactions in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the parenting process of fathers and their engagement in the Asian family with children with ADHD remain unexplored. The authors compared fathering and father-child relationships between children with ADHD and those without ADHD and identified the correlates of these paternal measures. Fathering and father-child relationships were compared between 296 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 229 children without ADHD in Taiwan. All child participants and their parents received psychiatric interviews for the diagnosis of ADHD and other psychiatric disorders of the children, and their fathers were assessed for ADHD, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Both the fathers and children reported on the father's parenting style, father-child interactions, behavioral problems at home, and perceived family support. The results showed that children with ADHD received less affection/care and more overprotection and authoritarian control from their fathers. They had less active interactions with their fathers, more severe behavioral problems at home; and perceived less family support than children without ADHD. Correlates for impaired father-child interactions included childhood ADHD symptoms, any comorbidity, age at assessment, and the father's neurotic personality and depressive symptoms. In addition, the children reported more negatively on fathering and father-child interactions than the fathers. Our findings suggest the negative impacts of ADHD on the father's parenting style and father-child interactions. Clinical interventions aimed at improving father-child interactions warrant more attention.

Chang LR ，Chiu YN ，Wu YY ，Gau SS ... -  《-》

Intrusive fathering, children's self-regulation and social skills: a mediation analysis.

Fathers have unique influences on children's development, and particularly in the development of social skills. Although father-child relationship influences on children's social competence have received increased attention in general, research on fathering in families of children with developmental delays (DD) is scant. This study examined the pathway of influence among paternal intrusive behaviour, child social skills and child self-regulatory ability, testing a model whereby child regulatory behaviour mediates relations between fathering and child social skills. Participants were 97 families of children with early identified DD enrolled in an extensive longitudinal study. Father and mother child-directed intrusiveness was coded live in naturalistic home observations at child age 4.5, child behaviour dysregulation was coded from a video-taped laboratory problem-solving task at child age 5, and child social skills were measured using independent teacher reports at child age 6. Analyses tested for mediation of the relationship between fathers' intrusiveness and child social skills by child behaviour dysregulation. Fathers' intrusiveness, controlling for mothers' intrusiveness and child behaviour problems, was related to later child decreased social skills and this relationship was mediated by child behaviour dysregulation. Intrusive fathering appears to carry unique risk for the development of social skills in children with DD. Findings are discussed as they related to theories of fatherhood and parenting in children with DD, as well as implications for intervention and future research.

Stevenson M ，Crnic K 《-》

FATHER PLAY: IS IT SPECIAL?

Both mothers and fathers play with their children, but research on parent-child play interactions is conducted with mothers three times more often than it is with fathers. The articles in this special issue address this gap by focusing on the nature and quality of father-child play, across cultural contexts, and considering whether father play offers something unique and special for early human development, in infancy or early childhood. The studies show that fathers can be just as developmentally supportive as are mothers in terms of being playful and engaged with their children in ways that are related to greater child socioemotional competence, emotion regulation, and vocabulary, and to less aggression, anxiety, and negativity. We encourage future research to examine the cultural influences, family system dynamics, and specificity of timing and types of father-child play in relation to children's developmental competence.

Cabrera NJ ，Roggman L 《-》

Father-involvement in a refugee sample: relations between posttraumatic stress and caregiving.

Despite increased attention to the role of fathers within families, there is still a dearth of studies on the impact of trauma on father-involvement. This study investigates the quantity of father-involvement and the influence of posttraumatic stress on the quality of involvement in a refugee and asylum seeker population. Eighty refugees and asylum seekers and their young children (aged 18-42 months) were recruited. Measures included assessment of parental trauma (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire), quantity and quality of involvement (quantity of caregiving and Emotional Availability Scales), and perception of the father-child relationship (interview). The results show that fathers were less involved in caregiving tasks and play activities than mothers. No parental gender differences were found on each of the Emotional Availability Scales. Traumatic stress symptoms negatively affected the perception and the actual quality of parent-child interaction (sensitivity, structuring, nonhostility). Nevertheless, almost all fathers described their relationship with their child as good and their child as very important to them. As the quality of father-involvement is of importance to the development of the child, traumatized fathers are as much in need of clinical intervention as mothers. Despite the impact of posttraumatic stress, refugee fathers clearly are involved in the lives of their children. Mechanisms such as a deliberate withdrawal when stressed and compensation might enable affected fathers to step into the interaction when needed, raise the quality of involvement with their child, and diminish the negative impact of stress resulting from trauma and migration.

van Ee E ，Sleijpen M ，Kleber RJ ，Jongmans MJ ... -  《-》