Search Results

Author: Jacobs, Steven N.
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Jacobs, Steven N.
Effects of Family Structure and Fathering Time on Child Behavior Problems and Reading Deficits
Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Dallas, 1998
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Behavioral Development; Divorce; Ethnic Differences; Ethnic Studies; Family Income; Family Structure; Family Studies; Fathers and Children; Fathers, Influence; Fathers, Presence; Parents, Non-Custodial; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Studies; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

This is a study of the effects of family structure in general, and of fathering time in particular, on child behavior problems and reading deficits. The source of the data is the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The sample is comprised of 1,016 children, ages 6-10 as of the 1990 outcome year. The overall behavioral problems measured were derived from a Behavioral Problems Index tapping various factors of child adjustment. The primary cognitive deficit measured was derived from the child scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Reading Recognition Assessment. The basic research design was to compare the Behavioral Problems Index and Reading Recognition Scores of children in the traditional family structure to the Index and Scores of children in each of six alternative family structures, and to compare the Index and Scores of children who spend time with their fathers daily to the Index and Scores of children in each of six time periods less than daily. Race, child gender, family income and some other potentially important factors were accounted for. Ordinary Least Squares estimates of effects on behavior and reading were made in a system of regression models. The total effects of the variables were decomposed into direct and indirect effects. It was found, using this method and these models, that (1) children who spend progressively less than daily time with their fathers have significantly greater behavior problems and lower reading scores than children who spend time with their fathers daily, (2) although children of divorce, the non-intact unwed, and cohabitation have greater behavior problems than children in the traditional family structure, the differences are explained in significant part by fathering time, (3) the greater behavior problems for children who spend less than daily time with their fathers is not explained by family structure, (4) although there are behavioral and reading differences in children for differences in family income, income does not easily compensate for less time spent between father and child, and (5) these findings are significant, to varying degrees, and with few exceptions, for children of all races and both genders. For children of the traditional family, we must create father-friendly workplaces. For children of divorce we must significantly increase time between child and "non-custodial" father. For children of the unwed, we must encourage support programs that keep two-parent families together or require and facilitate frequent and continuing time spent between father and child. Copyright: Dissertation Abstracts
Bibliography Citation
Jacobs, Steven N. Effects of Family Structure and Fathering Time on Child Behavior Problems and Reading Deficits. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Dallas, 1998.