Family Science
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2239
Formerly known as the Department of Family Studies.
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Item African American Couples' Provider Role Attitudes as a Function of Income, Relative Income, Education, and Age(2018) Walton, Tariiq Omari; Epstein, Norman B.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated characteristics that are associated with the provider role attitudes of African Americans being seen for couple therapy at a university-based family therapy clinic in a major metropolitan region, the Center for Healthy Families at the University of Maryland, College Park. It was predicted that income, relative income, education, age, and gender would be associated with the degree of traditional provider role attitudes of members of African American couples being treated at the CHF between 2000 and 2015. Contrary to the predictions, no relationship between education, age, and relative income and the provider role attitudes of the study’s participants was found. However, the results did show a significant relationship between gender and income and provider role attitudes. The implications for future research and clinical applications are discussed.Item Post-birth marriage and children's behavior in fragile families(2014) Lloyd, Tiffani Debra Stevenson; Hofferth, Sandra L.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The objective of this study was to learn how post-birth marriage among fragile families was related to child behavior problems by examining the (1) characteristics that predict post-birth marriage, (2) the relationship of various dimensions of post-birth marriage (i.e., occurrence, timing, identity of mother's partner, relationship trajectory, and family instability) to child behavior problems, and (3) parental stress and parenting behaviors as mediators. Data from the first four waves of the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS) were examined using multivariate analyses of a sample of mothers who were unmarried at the time of the focal child's birth (N = 2,283). This longitudinal study revealed that the occurrence and the timing of a post-birth marriage in the first five years following the child's birth were not related to aggressive or internalizing behaviors. However, marriage to the child's biological father predicted lower aggressive behavior as well as lower parental stress. Furthermore, there were two relationship trajectories that predicted higher aggressive behaviors, namely one including the dissolution of the parent's romantic relationship followed by the mother's re-partnering, and the other including multiple transitions ending with the biological parents back together in a romantic relationship. Family instability (i.e., 3-6 transitions) was associated with higher aggressive behaviors. None of the post-birth marriage components predicted internalizing behavior. Analyses of parenting variables showed that parental stress and spanking predicted higher aggressive behaviors, but maternal involvement did not. Mediation tests revealed that parental stress mediated the relationship between marriage to the child's father and aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, a reduction in parental stress was linked to a decreased likelihood that the mother utilized spanking as a parenting technique. Results support previous research linking family instability, parental stress, and spanking to aggressive behaviors. These findings were unable to find support for the assumption that any marriage is universally beneficial for all families, but found evidence that a marriage to the child's father may produce positive outcomes. This study contributes to a growing body of literature regarding fragile families and supports further study of the multiple dimensions of parents' romantic relationships and their impact on child well-being.