The purpose of this study was to examine longitudinally how father involvement mediates the relationship between a variety of factors thought to influence the father-child relationship and later child cognitive development. The Responsible Fathering Framework was used as a conceptual model to test items collected in a large national data set (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort Study [ECLS-B]). Latent variables were constructed from the ECLS-B when the child was 9-months, 2-years, and 4-years among a sub sample of married resident biological fathers using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses at multiple time points. Specifically, this study tested a model of hypothesized relationships between early father factors (role identification, commitment, education), child factors (difficult temperament, disability status, cognitive ability), mother factors (education, employment), contextual factors (religious service attendance, social engagement, urbanicity, crime rate, child poverty), marital relationship factors (relationship happiness, couple conflict) when the child was 9-months and later children's language, literacy, and math development at 4-years of age, mediated by father involvement (cognitive and caregiving engagement, accessibility, and responsibility) when the child was 2-years old. A full measurement model was tested including both latent and observed variables, was assessed first, followed by testing of the structural model to arrive at the most parsimonious model before applying the sample weights. Results of the weighted structural equation model suggest that father involvement served as a poor mediating variable. Although a positive relationship was found between several of the factors at 9-months and later father involvement, the only relationship that was fully mediated by father involvement was the effects of mother employment on later cognitive development. Examination of the path coefficients suggest that fathers' responsibility was negatively related to children's later language development and that fathers' caregiving engagement was also negatively related to children's later literacy development. As expected, cognitive involvement was positively related to literacy development. Implications for future research and practitioners, particularly marriage and family therapists who work with families, are discussed. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / April 29, 2010. / Father Involvement, Responsible Fathering, Fathering / Includes bibliographical references. / B. Kay Pasley, Professor Directing Dissertation; Karin L. Brewster, University Representative; Robert E. Lee, Committee Member; Thomas A. Cornille, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180501 |
| Contributors | Olmstead, Spencer Broderick (authoraut), Pasley, B. Kay (professor directing dissertation), Brewster, Karin L. (university representative), Lee, Robert E. (committee member), Cornille, Thomas A. (committee member), Department of Family and Child Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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