Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Influence of Latinx Fathers' Behaviors, Cognitions, Affect, and Family Congruence on Youth Energy Balance-Related Health Outcomes(2022) Rodriguez, Matthew Rene; Roy, Kevin; Hurtado Choque, Ghaffar Ali; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For decades, researchers have studied and theorized about the ways fathers interact with children and other members of the family. While this research provides important evidence, few father involvement studies have included Latinx fathers. Numerous father involvement conceptual frameworks have helped us understand the ways fathers interact with their families. Much of this research has focused on fathers' behaviors, but research suggests other domains need more investigation, such as fathers' cognitions and affect. Understanding these additional domains of father involvement can provide important evidence for understanding the ways fathers influence the health of children. Fathers influence the health of their children within different cultural and socio-political contexts. When considering Latinx father involvement within a social determinants of health approach, research has encouraged focusing on upstream factors that can contribute to the health of Latinx families. Addressing these upstream factors can shape the health and wellbeing of children. Currently, Latinx youth suffer disproportionately from obesity compared to all other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Through investigating Latinx father involvement, I fill an important gap by researching the extent to which Latinx fathers' affect, behaviors, and cognitions shape youth health outcomes. I also investigate theorized moderators that may influence the relationship between fathers' involvement and youth health outcomes. Using a cross sectional study design with a community-based sample of Latinx fathers and youth (ages 10-14) (n=193), I use latent moderation structural analyses to test the theorized causal mechanisms.Item Fathering After Incarceration: Navigating the Return of Young, Black Men to Families, Jobs & Communities(2017) Hart, John Rennie; Roy, Kevin M.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Incarceration, and reentry after incarceration, is the most common experience for young, low-income Black men across their life course (Tierny, 2014). While most Black men work, go to school, get married and start families, others, especially those who are low-income are at a higher risk to experience incarceration. As a result, incarceration challenges these men’s ability to reconnect with social institutions such as work, school, and marriage post release. More importantly, incarceration separates these men from their families for extended periods of time. This dissertation utilized social ecological theory and life course theory to examine the lives and families of these Black fathers. I recruited 40 incarcerated fathers for life history interviews in a local department of corrections, and I analyzed how incarceration re-arranged the lives of these men as well as the development of their children, and how men reentered their families and communities after incarceration.Item Navigating New Norms of Involved Fatherhood: Employment, Gender Attitudes, and Father Involvement in American Families(2011) McGill, Brittany; Kahn, Joan; Goldscheider, Frances; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In recent decades, gender roles have shifted toward greater overlap of men's and women's roles: women have entered the labor force in record numbers, while new norms of fatherhood emphasize men's involvement with their children in addition to their traditional role of financial provider. These "new fathers" are expected to be more equal partners in parenting, spending time nurturing children and performing both interactive and physical caregiving. However, men may face tension and conflict in attempting to fulfill their roles as both provider and involved father. The primary tension lies in the conflict of time and place: while the "new father" role requires spending time with children, the "provider" and "good worker" roles require a commitment to spending time on the job. How do men navigate these contradictory roles? To what extent does employment impact men's involvement with their children? Are men with more egalitarian attitudes trading off longer work hours for more time with their children? This dissertation examines these questions using two waves of the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID-CDS), which offer rich measures of father involvement, employment, and gender attitudes. Specifically, it examines the relationship between employment and father involvement, and whether and how gender attitudes moderate that relationship. Statistical methods include cross-sectional and fixed effects OLS regressions. Results indicate that nontraditional attitudes toward the father's role, "new father" attitudes, are associated with both engagement with children and responsibility for their care, particularly engagement in physical care. Attitudes toward public and private roles of women, on the other hand, are not related to father involvement. Results further suggest that the "provider"/"good worker" role prevails for men, much the way the nurturer role tends to prevail for women. Despite inelastic work hours, however, there may in fact be a cohort of "new fathers" whose behavior matches their attitudes, in that they are 1) more involved with their children than more traditional fathers, and 2) they are able to preserve time with children, likely by cutting back on leisure time or incorporating their children into their leisure time.Item The Reworking of Setbacks and Missteps as a Pathway to Generativity for Low-Income Fathers(2006-12-11) Agboli, Sarah Bong; Roy, Kevin; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For fathers who have experienced significant setbacks and missteps over their life course, attainment of normative fathering roles can be difficult. The aim of the current study was to provide insight into how men, who had not fulfilled father expectations, reworked father roles in order to be an active and generative presence in their children's lives. A secondary analysis of 28 life history interviews was conducted. The researcher examined how a father's setbacks and missteps influenced his relationship with his children and how he incorporated these events into his narrative identity and translated them into parental generativity. The strategies used to overcome the barriers created by setbacks and missteps were examined. Of particular interest were how the fathers communicated the negative aspects of their identities to their children, the narrative sequencing used, and how they reworked fatherhood roles and mainstream social norms as a means to parental generativity.