Presenters

1
Presenters

• A Dad by Any Other Name is Not a Dad
  Antecedents and Consequences of What Adolescents
  Call Their Stepfathers
• Karina R. Sokol, Priscila Diaz, William V.
  Fabricius, and Brandon Moak
• Do I Matter to my Dad? The role of adolescent
  attributions
• Melinda E. Baham, Delia S. Saenz, and Sanford L.
  Braver
• Reframing Fathers Others Messages About
  Fathers Behavior and their Effects on Adolescent
  Outcomes
• Sandi Dial Sanford L. Braver
• A Good Dad Does It All
• Amy Weimer, Melinda Baham, and William V.
  Fabricius

2
Naming, framing, and blaming How
adolescents construct their fathers
Chair Delia Saenz, Ph.D. Presenters
Priscila Diaz Melinda Baham Sandi
Dial Amy Weimer Arizona State University
3
Parents Youth Study PAYS
Arizona State University Sanford Braver, Ph.D.,
Bill Fabricius, Ph.D., Toni Genalo, Karina Sokol
UC-Riverside Scott Coltrane, Ph.D., Ross Parke,
Ph.D., students San Francisco State
University Jeff Cookston, Ph.D.
4
Parents Youth Study PAYS
Funded by NIMH, NICHD
Research foci Role of fathers in adolescent
development Mediators that predict the effect of
fathers behavior on adolescent mental health and
academic outcomes Variations in family
characteristics (culture, intact vs.
step-families)
5
Parents Youth Study PAYS
5-year longitudinal study Target participants
are adolescents in transition from middle school
to high school 2 sites Phoenix, AZ San
Bernardino, CA 200 families per site (final n
393)
6
PAYS Demographics
49 of the sample Mexican American 45
step-families (child, bio mom, stepdad) 52
girls 12.5 years mean age (range 11-14) 40K
modal income (4.2K to 430K)
7
PAYS Methodological Approach
Interviews with target child, biological
mom, father/stepfather 3 Waves of data
collection Wave 1 (2004) 2-hour in-home
interviews Wave 2 (2005) 90-minute phone
interviews Wave 3 (2006-) 2-hour in-home
interviews
8
Social constructions of fathers
Role of labeling Role of attributions Use of
reframing Impact of normative fathering patterns
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A Dad by Any Other Name is Not a Dad
Antecedents and Consequences of What Adolescents
Call Their Stepfathers

• Karina R. Sokol, Priscila Diaz, Brandon Moak,
  William V. Fabricius, Ph.D.
• Parents and Youth Study (PAYS)
• Arizona State University

April 29, 2006
11
Overview

• Introduction
• Why study stepfathers?
• Social Construction of Stepfathers
• Research questions
• Method
• Measures
• Hypotheses
• Results
• Antecedents
• Consequences
• Discussion

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Why Study Stepfathers?

• Almost 1/3 of children will have stepfathers
  sometime in their life
• (e.g. Hetherington Stanley-Hagan, 2000)
• Recent research reveals that adolescents in
  stepfather families are at a higher risk for
  mental health disorders and behavioral problems
• (e.g. Bray, 1999)

13
Social Construction of Stepfathers

• Cognitive, category-based judgments
• (Moshman, 1998)
• Parental identity and status
• (e.g.,Marsiglio, 2004)
• Parental claim or investment
• (e.g., Hofferth, 2003)
• Parental role (e.g. Fine, 1998)

14
What is in a name?

• First of all, what do you call him?
• Familial labels
• Significance of language

15
Research Questions

• What are the relationship and contextual
  variables that predict what adolescents call
  their stepfather?
• What are the differential outcomes between
  adolescents who refer to their stepfather as
  Dad versus those who do not?

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Measures- Antecedents

• Contact with Bio Dad
• Response scale of 1(No contact in the past three
  years or more) to 7 (Contact almost everyday)
• Years lived with Stepfather
• Measured in years, range 1-14
• Overall Relationship with Stepfather
• (a .79)
• e.g. How well do you get along with your
  step-dad?
• Response 1(Not well at all) to 5(Extremely well)

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Measures- Consequences (Adolescent)

• Adolescent report of Externalizing Behavior
• (a .82)
• Modification of Behavior Problems Index (8 items)
• e.g. In the past month you argued alot.
• Response scale 1 (not true), 2 (Somewhat true), 3
  (Very true)

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Measures- Consequences (teacher)

• Teacher Report of Behavior Problems
• Single items
• 1) How often have you talked with this child
  about behavior, psychological, or emotional
  problems?
• Response scale 1(Never) to 4 (More than 5 times)
• 2) Have you ever spoken to your Principal or
  Vice principal about this childs emotional,
  psychological, or behavior problems?
• 3) If all the students who are in the same class
  were asked about this child, would the MAJORITY
  of them say that this child is always getting
  into trouble?
• 1 No, 2 Yes

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Hypotheses- Antecedents
_
Contact w/ Bio Dad

Years Lived w/ Step-dad
DAD

Relationship w/ Step-dad
20
Hypotheses- Consequences
Externalizing
_
_
Spoke w/ Child
DAD
_
Spoke w/ principal
_
Peers
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Method of Analysis

• Results were ONLY on stepfamilies
• N 140-175
• Antecedents
• Logistic Regression
• Three variables
• Consequences
• One way ANOVA
• Adolescent externalizing
• Teacher behavior problem items

22
Results- Antecendents

• Overall model significant
• ?2 (3) 27.52, p lt .001, Nagelkerke R2 .25

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Classification Analysis
Sensitivity
Specificity
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Results- Consequences

• Trend for those who called their stepfather by
  dad had less externalizing behavior (reported
  by adolescent)
• p .079
• Trend for those who called their stepfather by
  dad were on average talked to less about their
  behavior problems by teachers
• p .076

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Teacher spoke with principal
p .019
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Peers believe always in trouble (teacher report)
p .011
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Discussion

• What adolescent calls stepfather is determined by
  context and relationship
• Provides evidence that the label DAD has
  important implications for adolescent behavior
  problems
• Future research will allow us to explore how they
  might predict other adolescent outcomes
• Further exploration of familial labeling is
  meaningful

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Thank you!
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Do I Matter to My Dad The Role of Adolescent
Attributions

• Melinda E. Baham, Delia S. Saenz, Sanford L.
  Braver
• Arizona State University

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Fathers are Important

• Fathers have traditionally been understudied
• Fathering makes a substantial difference in child
  outcomes over and above the influence of
  mothering
• An aspect of the father-child relationship that
  deserves further study is how much the child
  feels he/she matters to his/her father

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What is Mattering?

• Mattering involves the idea that a person is
  important to, and is cared about by, another
  individual
• Mattering to ones parents relates to levels of
  self esteem, depression, anxiety, and overall
  wellness in adolescents
• Mattering to parents and friends explained
  differences in self concept and behavioral
  misconduct in adolescents

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What matters to mattering?

• Since mattering to others is highly predictive of
  important child outcomes, this leads to the
  question How does this sense of mattering arise?
• The majority of mattering research to date
  examines the impact of mattering as a predictor
  for various outcomes
• We wondered When mattering is viewed as an
  outcome, what psychological phenomena influence
  mattering?

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Reasons Given for Behaviors

• One potential explanation of how a child
  determines that he matters to his father might be
  the reasons a child gives for his fathers
  behaviors
• For example, imagine a childs father works long
  hours
• One child might say his father works all the time
  because his father doesnt care about him
• Another child might say her father works all the
  time because her father cares for her so much
  that her father works long hours
• These reasons, or attributions, may influence the
  childs perceived mattering to his father

35
Attributions

• Attributions are the reasons that people give for
  various events and behaviors
• Attributions answer the why questions
• Attributions are made about a wide variety of
  behavioral events, but the attributions
  themselves vary along only a few causal
  dimensions
• Our focus is Stability - is the attributed cause
  of the behavior stable or unstable?

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Childrens Attributions of Parents

• Few studies have examined childrens attributions
  of parent behaviors
• One study found childrens stable (among other)
  attributions of negative parent behaviors were
  negatively correlated with positivity in the
  parent-child relationships
• Also, the more a child endorsed stable
  attributions of the fathers negative behavior,
  the less positive the observed interaction
  between father and child
• Other studies report childrens stable
  attributions of negative parental behavior
  related to ineffective communication between the
  child and the parent

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Types of Attribution-Eliciting Events

• When considering the behavioral events that
  participants are asked to make attributions
  about, two questions emerge
• Are the events real or hypothetical?
• Are the events positive or negative?
• Very few studies have included positive events,
  and even fewer studies included events that were
  real

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The Present Study

• This study had several aims
• To investigate aspects of the father-child
  relationship, specifically mattering
• To investigate what factors may lead to mattering
• To elicit attributions made about real events,
  and about both positive and negative behaviors
• To determine if adolescents attributions of
  fathers behaviors significantly predict mattering

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Hypotheses
Stable Positive Attributions
Unstable Positive Attributions
Mattering
Stable Negative Attributions
Unstable Negative Attributions
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Measures - Mattering Questionnaire

• Adolescents responded to how much they agree each
  statement describes their relationship with their
  father on a 5 point scale ranging from strongly
  disagree (1) to strongly agree (5)
• 7 items were added in order to create one
  variable that measures overall feelings of
  mattering, where the higher the value, the more
  one feels he matters (minimum score of 7, max.
  score of 35)
• This scale has high internal consistency
  (Cronbachs alpha .86)

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Mattering Questionnaire Items

• Sample Items
• My dad/step-dad really cares about me.
• I believe I really matter to my dad/step-dad.
• I know my dad/step-dad loves me.
• I am one of the most important things in the
  world to my dad/step-dad.

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Measures - Attribution Questionnaire

• Adolescents were asked to think of a time their
  father did or said something nice, and a time he
  did or said something mean
• After each behavior, adolescents were asked to
  rate how much the behavior was due to several
  reasons on a 1-5 scale, where 1 was not at all
  the reason, and 5 was exactly the reason
• The reasons were designed to tap the causal
  dimension of stability

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Reasons for positive behavior

• Stable
• Hes a positive or nice kind of person?
• He likes to make you happy?
• He cares about you?
• Unstable
• You really deserved it?
• He happened to be in a good mood?
• Someone else told him to or wanted him to?

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Reasons for negative behavior

• Stable
• Hes a mean or difficult person?
• Hes ALWAYS down on you?
• He doesnt care if something he says bothers or
  hurts you?
• Unstable
• You really deserved it?
• He happened to be in a bad mood?
• It was just one of those times that he really got
  upset?

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Data Reduction of Attribution Measure

• Four new variables were created
• The extent to which a child endorsed stable
  causes for any type of positive father behavior
• The extent to which a child endorsed unstable
  reasons for any type of positive father behavior
• The extent to which a child endorsed stable
  causes for any type of negative father behavior
• The extent to which a child endorsed unstable
  causes for any type of negative father behavior

46
Results

• Of the 393 adolescents who participated, 27
  adolescents could not think of examples of their
  fathers behaviors (either verbal statements or
  behavioral actions), thus the final sample
  consisted of 366 adolescents.

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Primary Analysis

• Investigated if the extent to which adolescents
  endorsed stable and unstable attributions for
  positive and negative events could predict
  perceived mattering to fathers
• A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted
  in which the two positive attributions were
  entered as the first block, and the two negative
  attributions were entered in a second block to
  predict mattering
• This allowed for a direct comparison of how
  attributions about positive behaviors and
  attributions about negative behaviors potentially
  differentially impact mattering

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Results of Primary Analysis

• The four attribution variables significantly
  predicted perceived mattering to father, F (4,
  361) 81.60, p lt .001, and accounted for 47.5
  of the variance

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p lt .001
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Results of Primary Analysis con.

• The stable and unstable attributions for negative
  behaviors significantly added to the prediction
  in mattering over and above stable and unstable
  attributions for positive behaviors, F (2, 361)
  29.86, p lt .001.
• A second hierarchical OLS regression analysis
  found that attributions for positive behaviors
  account for variance in mattering over and above
  variance accounted for by attributions for
  negative behaviors, F (2, 361) 50.31, p lt .001.
  

52
Discussion

• The purpose of this study was to investigate the
  relationship between the attributions adolescents
  make about their fathers behaviors and the
  adolescents perceived mattering to their fathers
• Overall, the results of the study support the
  hypotheses. As adolescents increased their
  endorsement for stable attributions for positive
  father behaviors, the more they perceived they
  mattered to their fathers
• As adolescents increased their endorsement for
  stable attributions for negative father
  behaviors, the less they perceived they mattered
  to their fathers
• These findings suggest a partial explanation for
  how feelings of mattering to ones father might
  come about

53
Discussion continued

• This study illustrates that differences in
  mattering can be explained by attributions of
  fathers behaviors,
• Stable attributions about either positive or
  negative behaviors explain much more about
  mattering than do unstable attributions
• Positive attributions had a slightly stronger
  relationship with mattering than did negative
  attributions
• Both positive and negative attributions uniquely
  contributed to predict mattering
• Highlights the need to include both positive and
  negative events when eliciting attributions

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Future Directions

• Continue using positive and negative behaviors to
  elicit attributions, and focus on positive
  outcomes, such as perceived mattering to fathers
• Further exploration of the causal direction of
  attributions, of gender differences, and of
  ethnicity differences are warranted

55

• THANK YOU!

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Reframing Fathers Others Messages About
Fathers Behavior and Their Effects on Adolescent
Outcomes

• Sandi Dial Sanford L. Braver, Ph.D.
• Arizona State University

58
Overview

• Existing definitions of reframing
• Reframing in the Literature
• Reframing as defined by PAYS
• Measures Descriptions
• Research Questions and Results
• Research Question 1 and Results
• Research Question 2 and Results
• Research Questions 3 and Results
• Discussion

59
Reframing

• Reinterpreting or reappraising a situation
• Generally conceptualized as a positive process

60
Reframing and Children in the Literature

• Maternal reframing was found to mediate parenting
  stress and attachment with infants (McKelvey,
  2004)

• Maternal use of reframing viewed more positively
  by sons compared to paternal use of reframing
  (Kliewer, et al., 1996)

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Reframing in the Current Study

• The nature of messages mothers, fathers, and
  non-parents provide to an adolescent and s/he is
  upset or bothered about the relationship to the
  (step-)father or about the things he says or does
• This definition will possibly allow the current
  study to answer questions raised by past
  researchers
• Thought to be generally beneficial

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Outcome Measures

• Mother and father report of internalizing and
  externalizing adapted from Behavior Problems
  Index (Achenbach Edelbrock, 1983 Achenbach
  Rescorla, 2001 Peterson Zill, 1986)
• Child report of externalizing adapted from Youth
  Self Report (Achenbach Rescorla, 2001 Peterson
  Zill, 1986)
• Child report of internalizing a mean of
  standardized scores from questions adapted from
  the Child Depression Inventory (CDI Kovacs,
  1992) and the Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety
  Scale (RCMAS Reynolds Richmond, 1979 Reynolds
  Paget, 1981)
• Moderate reliability (a .65 and .67 respectively)

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Outcome Measures

• Mother, father and child report of father-child
  relationship from the Overall Relationship
  Quality Scale
• 2-item scale assessing how well father and child
  get along

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Research Question 1

• How are the characteristics of reframing
  correlated with the adolescents outcomes?
• Characteristics of reframing
• Frequency of reframing
• Frequency of a reason given
• Type of reframe (e.g., criticize vs. support)
• Childs feelings about the father and
  relationship with him after reframing
• Childs feelings about self after reframing
• Outcome Measures
• Internalizing behaviors
• Externalizing behaviors
• Father-child relationship quality

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Patterns of Results for Correlations

• Many significant correlations
• Nearly all significant correlations were in
  expected directions, i.e., reframing enhanced
  adolescent well-being
• Correlation of mothers frequency of giving a
  reason for fathers behavior with fathers report
  of adolescent externalizing (r -.20, p lt .01)
• Correlation of adolescents feelings about father
  after mothers reframe and adolescents report of
  father-child relationship (r .31, p lt .01)
• Largest correlation (r .43, p lt .01) was
  between non-parents support of father and
  adolescents report of father-child relationship

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Research Question 2

• How do the types of reframes given by mothers
  about the (step-)fathers behavior compare to the
  reframes given by fathers?

• If there is a difference, what effect does this
  difference have on the relationship quality with
  the father as well as the adolescents outcomes?

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Parental Differences in Reframing Fathers
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Moderation Plot for Research Question 2
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Research Question 3

• Is there a difference in the reframes afforded to
  children in stepfamilies versus intact families?

70
Fishers r-to-Z Comparisons of Correlations by
Family Type
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Discussion

• Reframing is generally beneficial
• Adolescents in stepfamilies should be encouraged
  to seek out reframing
• Future research should aim to identify the
  specific content of reframes and how that content
  affects outcomes

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A Good Dad Does It All

• Amy A. Weimer, Melinda E. Baham,
• and William V. Fabricius
• Arizona State University

74
Overview

• Introduction
• Research questions
• Method
• Measures
• 1. Behavioral Evidence
• 2. Relationship Scripts
• Results
• Relationship between Behavioral Evidence
  Relationship Scripts
• Discussion Conclusions

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Purpose

• To assess the childs view of father-child
  relationships through two unique measures
• 1) Behavioral Evidence
• 2) Relationship Scripts

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Introduction

• Fathers are important to adolescents behavioral
  and mental health outcomes
• Research is needed to assess the quality of
  father-child relationships among Mexican- and
  Anglo-American step and intact families

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Research Questions

• 1) Are there different dimensions of father
  behaviors, or do dads do it all?
• 2) Do scores on objective measures correlate with
  open-ended qualitative measures of parent-child
  relationships?

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Method

• 1) Behavioral Evidence survey measure asking
  adolescents how often their (step)father provides
  behavioral evidence that he considers them
  important in his life
• 2) Relationship Scripts open-ended questions
  prompting children to tell us the story of
  their relationship with their father, using their
  own words

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1. Behavioral Evidence

• Developed for PAYS project to assess the actions
  of father/stepfathers toward their adolescent
  child
• Responses ranged from 1 to 5, on a 5-point scale,
  from Never to Very often
• Summed scores had good reliability Alpha .94
• Higher scores indicate fathers more often
  displayed positive parenting behaviors

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• Sample Items on Behavioral Evidence measure
• How often does dad . . .
• spend time with you?
• listen and talk with you?
• do fun things?
• listen to your side of the argument?
• hug you, pat you on the back, or show other signs
  of physical affection?
• encourage you to feel better when you're feeling
  upset?
• give you money and/or other things?
• act interested in you or what you have to say?
• help you when you need help?

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Results Behavioral Evidence
Mean Differences by Family Type Ethnic Group
Frequency of Positive Parent Behavior
Family type
Main effects of family type and ethnic group, but
no interaction effect (controlling for SES)
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Collapsed across family type ethnic groups

• Childrens average response was 3 indicating
  that on average all dads often engaged in
  positive behaviors

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How related are items on Behavioral Evidence
Measure?

• A single underlying factor explained most (52)
  of the variance observed among the 22 Behavioral
  Evidence items
• Suggests that dads do it all

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2. Relationship Scripts

• Children produced rich, script-like descriptions
  about their relationship with father or
  stepfather
• Three themes appeared in almost every childs
  script
• (1) Investment (IN), the childs evaluation of
  the time and energy the parent invests in the
  relationship
• (2) Emotional quality (EQ), the positive versus
  negative emotions the child feels toward the
  parent relationship
• (3) Responsiveness (RE), the childs evaluation
  of the parents responsiveness to needs or
  requests
• (4) Provisioning (PR), the childs evaluation of
  how good a provider or source of financial
  support the parent is

85
Coding Scripts

• Qualitative data was quantified on these 4
  dimensions
• Parsed into smallest meaningful statements
• Identified dimensions the statement was about, if
  any
• Rated dimensions of statements as low, medium, or
  high
• Interrater reliability was calculated by
  correlating 6 coders average scores on 60
  scripts, coded by PAYS researchers. Reliability
  was acceptable
• IN .91, EQ .94, RE .84

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Sample Relationship Script

• My father is one of those people who likes to
  do things for others, who is very nice (EQ3) //
  and respectful (EQ3) // and he is just a good
  person (EQ3). // If I have a problem, like he
  will be the one who will sit down and talk to me
  about it (RE3), // and he talks to me in a nice
  way (EQ3, RE3). He helps me sometimes with things
  (RE2) // and even when he is busy, he will take
  time for me (IN3).

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Intercorrelations Among Dimensions
Results Relationship Scripts
p lt .01
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Dimension Ratings by Family Type and Ethnic
Groups

Average Dimension Rating
IN Investment EQ Emotional Quality RE
Responsiveness
Marginally significant main effects of family
type (controlling for SES) Intact families
(blue) gt Stepfamilies (red) RE, p.06, IN, p .07
89
Results Relating Behavior Evidence to
Relationship Script Dimensions

• Mean scores on Behavioral Evidence positively
  correlated with dimensions of childrens
  relationship scripts
• 1) Investment r .44
• 2) Emotional quality r .50
• 3) Responsiveness r .40

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Discussion

• 1) Are there different dimensions of father
  behaviors, or do dads do it all?
• Single Factor on Behavioral Evidence
• Suggests that dads are involved in many aspects
  of child rearing.
• 2) Do objective measures correlate with
  open-ended qualitative measures of parent-child
  relationships?
• Suggests validity of measures
• Good dads (dads who children perceive as spending
  more time and energy, providing for emotional
  comfort, and who respond to their needs)
  participate in many parenting behaviors

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Limitations Future Research

• First wave of data only
• Used self-identified ethnic groups (could examine
  based on continuum of cultural values)
• Could compare to mom

92
Conclusions

• Have developed two promising new measures of
  adolescent relationships with their fathers
• Demonstrated that fathers participate broadly in
  child rearing behavior
• Shown that these behaviors relate to how child
  feels about him

93
Thank You