Explore the vast range of titles available.

On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The social isolation and economic stress resulting from pandemic have the potential to exacerbate child abuse and neglect. This study examines the association of parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss to risk for child maltreatment (neglect, verbal aggression, and physical punishment) in the early weeks of the pandemic. Participants (N = 283) were adults living in the U.S. who were parents of at least one child 0–12 years of age. Participants completed an online survey approximately 2 weeks after the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. The survey asked about recent changes (i.e., in the past 2 weeks) to employment status, parenting behaviors, use of discipline, use of spanking, and depressive symptoms. Nearly 20% of parents had hit or spanked their child in the past two weeks alone. Parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss were associated with self-report of physical and emotional neglect and verbal aggression against the child, even after controlling for parental depressive symptoms, income, and sociodemographic factors. Parents’ perceived social isolation was associated with parental report of changes in discipline, specifically, using discipline and spanking more often in the past 2 weeks. Associations were robust to analyses that included two variables that assessed days spent social distancing and days spent in “lockdown.” Study results point to the need for mental health supports to parents and children to ameliorate the strain created by COVID-19.

PurposeThis “From the Field” article reports on the Text4Dad text messaging intervention designed to engage fathers in home visiting. We introduce implementation process components from our pilot study across three Healthy Start home visitation sites.DescriptionThree Fatherhood Community Health Workers (F-CHWs) and three fathers from one Text4Dad site were interviewed. Using content analysis, we examined the experiences of F-CHWs who implemented Text4Dad and program participants who used Text4Dad.AssessmentResults highlighted five implementation process components related to: (1) F-CHWs’ use of Text4Dad and enrolling fathers; (2) F-CHWs’ interactions with fathers, perceptions of Text4Dad content, and integration of Text4Dad into home visits with fathers; (3) training and technical assistance for F-CHWs; (4) father program participants’ acceptability and usability of Text4Dad; and (5) fathers’ barriers to interactive use of Text4Dad.ConclusionThe F-CHWs were able to successfully enroll fathers into Text4Dad. F-CHWs and fathers found Text4Dad content acceptable to their circumstances. Text4Dad technology was viewed as usable, with some limitations. F-CHWs experienced challenges accessing the Text4Dad platform while on home visits. Results suggested that F-CHWs did not use Text4Dad to facilitate interaction, and accordingly, fathers had a lower than anticipated response rate to texts sent by their F-CHWs. We conclude with future directions for improving the implementation of text messaging programs in community-based fatherhood programs.SignificanceWhat is Already Known on this Subject? Healthy Start home visitation programs use a community-based participatory approach to support maternal and child health among pregnant women and new mothers with low income. Given the benefits of father involvement to maternal child health, Healthy Start has begun to promote father involvement in their services and programming. Mobile technology has been identified as a way to encourage father involvement.What this Study adds? Leveraging mobile technology, we developed and pilot tested Text4Dad, an interactive and mentor-based text message program, as an add on to existing Healthy Start home visitation programs to support father involvement. Interviews with male mentors and enrolled fathers yielded key implementation process components (i.e., ease of use and enrollment of fathers, relevant parent education content, need for additional technical assistance and training to support mentor-father interactions) for using Text4Dad that have implications for incorporating mobile technology into community-based home visitation programs to promote father involvement.

Objectives. We examined the associations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and maternal risk factors with maternal child maltreatment risk within a diverse sample of mothers. Methods. We derived the study sample (N = 2508) from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. We conducted regression analyses to examine associations between IPV, parenting stress, major depression, key covariates, and 4 proxy variables for maternal child maltreatment. Results. Mothers reported an average of 25 acts of psychological aggression and 17 acts of physical aggression against their 3-year-old children in the year before the study, 11% reported some act of neglect toward their children during the same period, and 55% had spanked their children during the previous month. About 40% of mothers had experienced IPV by their current partner. IPV and maternal parenting stress were both consistent risk factors for all 4 maltreatment proxy variables. Although foreign-born mothers reported fewer incidents of child maltreatment, the IPV relative risk for child maltreatment was greater for foreign-born than for US-born mothers. Conclusions. Further integration of IPV and child maltreatment prevention and intervention efforts is warranted; such efforts must carefully balance the needs of adult and child victims.

PurposeThe Family Stress Model was applied to examine the associations between material hardship, parental depressive symptoms, destructive interparental conflict, and parental emotional availability. This study contributes novel information to the literature by including data from both mothers and fathers from racially diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts, using multimethod data (observational and survey), and examining fathers’ residential status as a moderator.MethodParticipants (n = 858) were racially and ethnically diverse families with preschoolers and low income from the Building Strong Families project. Mothers primarily reported on material hardship, and both mothers and fathers reported on their depressive symptoms, destructive interparental conflict, and warmth. The two-bags task was employed to assess both parents’ detachment. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the links between material hardship and parental warmth and detachment, with depressive symptoms and destructive conflict as mediators.ResultsMaterial hardship was linked with higher maternal and paternal depressive symptoms, which were each, respectively, associated with mothers’ and fathers’ destructive conflict. Subsequently, maternal destructive interparental conflict was linked with higher, but paternal destructive interparental conflict linked with lower, maternal detachment. For both parents, depressive symptoms were linked with lower warmth. Fathers’ resident status did not moderate examined family processes.ConclusionsFathers and mothers with low income share similar and different pathways by which material hardship impacts their emotional availability toward their preschoolers. Importantly, the findings point to targeting parental depressive symptoms and maternal destructive interparental conflict to facilitate positive parenting in diverse families.

A father's involvement in prenatal care engenders health benefits for both mothers and children. While this information can help practitioners improve family health, low paternal involvement in prenatal care remains a challenge. The present study tested a simple, easily scalable intervention to promote father involvement by increasing men's feelings of comfort and expectations of involvement in prenatal settings through three randomized control trials. Borrowing from social psychological theory on identity safety, the three studies tested whether the inclusion of environmental cues that represent men and fatherhood in prenatal care offices influenced men's beliefs and behavioral intentions during the perinatal period. Men in studies 1 and 3 viewed online videos of purported prenatal care offices, while men in study 2 visited the office in person. Those who viewed or were immersed in a father-friendly prenatal care office believed that doctors had higher expectations of father involvement compared to treatment-as-usual. This perception predicted greater parenting confidence, comfort, and behavioral intentions to learn about the pregnancy and engage in healthy habits, such as avoiding smoking and alcohol during their partner's pregnancy. Study 3 replicated these studies with an online sample of expectant fathers. The results suggest that shifting environment office cues can signal fathering norms to men in prenatal settings, with healthier downstream behavior intentions.

Objective: Informed by the family systems theory, the current study aimed to examine whether shared parental responsiveness between fathers and mothers with low income was associated with preschoolers' developmental outcomes. Background: Both fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness are key contributors to their young children's development. However, the ways in which fathers and mothers work as a system, as well as the role of shared parental responsiveness in child development, are not well understood, especially among families from low-income contexts. Method: Participants were from the Building Strong Families project, a racially diverse group of families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (TV = 1,173). Fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness were observed during father-child and mother-child interactions using the two-bags task. Preschoolers' child behavior problems, prosocial behaviors, and receptive language served as developmental outcomes of interest. A common fate approach to dyadic analysis was employed to create shared responsiveness and individual residual variance latent variables, which the child outcomes were regressed onto. Moderation analysis by fathers' resident status was conducted. Results: Shared responsiveness positively predicted preschoolers' prosocial behaviors (B = 0.33, p < .001) and receptive language (B = 14.85, p < .001), above and beyond individual residual variance. Fathers' resident status did not moderate any of the examined relationships. Conclusion: There may be benefits to young children's development when mothers and fathers demonstrate shared responsiveness. Implications. Interventions serving families with low income could help strengthen mother-father shared responsiveness to promote child development.

Many parents believe that spanking is an effective way to promote children's positive behavior, yet few studies have examined spanking and the development of social competence. Using information from 3,279 families with young children who participated in a longitudinal study of urban families, this study tested competing hypotheses regarding whether maternal spanking or maternal warmth predicted increased social competence and decreased child aggression over time and which parent behavior was a stronger predictor of these changes. The frequency of maternal spanking was unrelated to maternal warmth. Findings from cross-lagged path models indicated that spanking was not associated with children's social competence, but spanking predicted increases in child aggression. Conversely, maternal warmth predicted children's greater social competence but was not associated with aggression. Warmth was a significantly stronger predictor of children's social competence than spanking, suggesting that warmth may be a more effective way to promote children's social competence than spanking.

PurposePreliminary research early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children appeared to be at increased risk for child maltreatment, particularly as parents struggled with mental health and economic strains. Such strains were likely to influence parental emotions about their children, affecting their parent-child interactions to contribute to elevated maltreatment risk. To identify the potential affective elements that may contribute to such increased maltreatment risk, the current study focused on whether maternal worry about children’s behavior specifically as well as maternal anger were related to increased risk for neglect or physical or psychological aggression six months into the pandemic.MethodThe racially diverse sample included 193 mothers who completed an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic in late September-early October 2020.ResultsMothers’ reported increases in neglect and physical and psychological aggression during the pandemic were significantly related with established measures of maltreatment risk. Furthermore, path models indicated that maternal anger and worry about children’s behavior, as well as their interaction, were significantly related to indicators of physical aggression risk and neglect during the pandemic, but only maternal anger related to increased psychological aggression during the pandemic.ConclusionsMaternal worry and anger about children’s behavior may have exacerbated risk for maltreatment under the stressful conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest affective reactions of both parental worry and anger focused on child behavior warrants greater empirical attention and consideration in intervention efforts both during the pandemic and potentially post-pandemic.

The 2010 repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) is one example of how U.S. public policy has shifted toward greater inclusion os lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The repeal of DADT reversed the practice of discharging LGB service members on the basis of sexual identity. LGB service members may now serve their country without fear of direct repercussions stemming from sexual identity. Though it is a statutory step toward parity, DADT repeal does not address a number of cultural and institutional inequities that continue to hinder full inclusion of sexual minority service members. Notably, as discussed in this article, DADT largely ignores issues facing the transgender population. This study examines remaining inequities and their ramifications for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender service members and their families. The article concludes with practice and policy recommendations for culturally competent social work practice with military service members across the sexual identity spectrum.