Date Approved

2015

Date Posted

4-7-2015

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Alissa Huth-Bocks

Comments

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between father involvement and maternal parenting behaviors. Father involvement was measured using variables from a Demographics questionnaire, the Marital Relationship Scale (Braiker & Kelley, 1979), and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment-Infant/ Toddler Edition (HOME; Caldwell & Bradley, 1984); these measures assessed father accessibility, emotional support, and engagement. Maternal parenting behaviors were measured using codes from 10-minute videotaped play interactions between participants and their 2-year old children. It was found that father accessibility was associated with more positive and less negative maternal parenting behaviors. It was also found that engagement was a predictor of better maternal parenting behaviors. Emotional support was not found to be a significant predictor of positive or negative maternal parenting behaviors. Overall, this study supports the notion that fathers who are more involved with their children and with their partners may aid mothers in improving their parenting skills resulting in a better mother-child relationship.

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