This article was downloaded by: [Washington University in St Louis] On: 24 January 2015, At: 01:30 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vgnt20

Marital Satisfaction and Quality of Father–Child Interactions: The Moderating Role of Child Gender a

b

b

Annie Bernier , Véronique Jarry-Boileau & Carl Lacharité a

University of Montreal, Canada

b

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada Published online: 31 Jan 2014.

Click for updates To cite this article: Annie Bernier, Véronique Jarry-Boileau & Carl Lacharité (2014) Marital Satisfaction and Quality of Father–Child Interactions: The Moderating Role of Child Gender, The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 175:2, 105-117, DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2013.799059 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2013.799059

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions

THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY, 175(2), 105–117, 2014 C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Copyright  ISSN: 0022-1325 print / 1940-0896 online DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2013.799059

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

Marital Satisfaction and Quality of Father–Child Interactions: The Moderating Role of Child Gender Annie Bernier University of Montreal, Canada

V´eronique Jarry-Boileau and Carl Lacharit´e Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Trois-Rivi`eres, Canada

ABSTRACT. The authors aimed to investigate the prospective links between normative variation in fathers’ marital satisfaction and the observed quality of father–toddler interactions, as well as the moderating role of child gender in these associations. Sixty-three fathers reported on their marital satisfaction when their children were 15 months of age, and were observed interacting with their child at 18 months. The results suggested that marital satisfaction was positively associated with the quality of father–son interactions, while no relations emerged among fathers of girls. These findings reiterate the importance of marital relationships for the quality of fathers’ parenting, while reaffirming previous suggestions that the role of child gender in the marriage-parenting connections requires further investigation. Keywords father–child interactions, child gender, marital satisfaction, toddlerhood

There is now compelling empirical evidence that fathers and father–child relationships bear critical importance for child development (for reviews, see Lamb, 2010; Parke, 2002; Tamis-LeMonda & Cabrera, 2002). Pioneering longitudinal studies have documented long-term relations between paternal characteristics (Yeung, Duncan, & Hill, 2000) or paternal interactive behavior (Grossmann et al., 2002) during early childhood and important aspects of child adjustment throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. Recent reports corroborate these findings by showing that the quality of paternal behavior during father–child interactions relates, concurrently and longitudinally, to several domains of child functioning, including attachment security (Brown, McBride, Shin, & Bost, 2007), behavioral regulation (Kochanska, Aksan, Prisco, & Adams, 2008), social competence (Lindsey, Cremeens, & Caldera, 2010), language development (Pancsofar & Vernon-Feagans, 2010), executive functioning (Bernier, Carlson, Deschˆenes, & Matte-Gagn´e, 2012), sleep quality (Tikotzky, Sadeh, & Glickman-Gavrieli, 2011), cortisol response (MillsKoonce et al., 2011), and pubertal timing (Belsky et al., 2007). Furthermore, the links between Received December 18, 2012; accepted March 14, 2013. Address correspondence to Annie Bernier, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, P.O. Box 6128 Downtown Station, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada; [email protected] (e-mail).

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

106

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

the quality of father–child interactions and child functioning can be observed in different cultural (Feldman & Masalha, 2010), ethnic (Mitchell & Cabrera, 2009; Roopnarine, Krishnakumar, Metindogan, & Evans, 2006), and socioeconomic groups (Black, Dubowitz, & Starr, 1999; Coley, Lewin-Bizan, & Carrano, 2011), are not confounded by shared genetic factors (Tither & Ellis, 2008), and are often found over and above mothers’ contributions (e.g., Cabrera, Fagan, Wight, & Schadler, 2011; Cabrera, Shannon, & Tamis-LeMonda, 2007; Coley et al., 2011; Roopnarine et al., 2006). Given such compelling evidence for the importance of father–child interactions in child concurrent and subsequent adaptation, parenting researchers have long been striving to acquire a fuller understanding of the factors that may influence the quality of these interactions. A cornerstone of family theory is that the family is composed of subsystems that influence each other (Cox & Paley, 1997). Accordingly, it is suggested that parents who enjoy supportive and fulfilling marital relationships are better equipped emotionally to interact in responsive, harmonious, and cooperative ways with their child, while conflicted marital relations may cause parents to be irritable, impatient or distant during parent–child interactions. This notion is referred to as the spillover hypothesis (for detail, see Erel & Burman, 1995). In line with the general notion that fathering may be more sensitive to contextual factors than mothering (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000), some authors have proposed that the link between the quality of marital relationships and parent–child interactions could be especially prominent in fathers (Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Raymond, 2004; Doherty, Kouneski, & Erickson, 1998). Although more recent literature reviews suggest that this fathering vulnerability hypothesis (compared with mothering) requires some qualification (Cummings, Merrilees, & George, 2010), empirical research largely supports the notion that the observed quality of paternal behavior during father–child interactions is positively related to the observed or self-reported quality of fathers’ marital relationships (e.g., Atzaba-Poria & Pike, 2008; Belsky, 1979; 1996; Belsky, Youngblade, Rovine, & Volling, 1991; Feldman, 2000; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000; Schacht, Cummings, & Davies, 2009; Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, & Cabrera, 2006; Stocker & Youngblade, 1999). The marital relationship is therefore a critical sphere to consider when trying to understand individual differences in paternal behavior. Closer examination of the previous studies, however, reveals that paternal caregiving behavior during toddlerhood has received little if any attention in this literature yet. The links between marital relationships and father–child interactions have been studied among infants 0–17 months old (Belsky, 1979; 1996; Feldman, 2000; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000; Shannon et al., 2006), among 3–5-year-old preschoolers (Belsky et al., 1991; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000), and among school-age children (Atzaba-Poria & Pike, 2008; Schacht et al., 2009; Stocker & Youngblade, 1999), but rarely among toddlers (18–35 months). One study with disabled children found that fathers’ caregiving behavior at 18 months was related to their marital stress (Pelchat, Bisson, Bois, & Saucier, 2003). The only other study that we could find with this age group found that observed marital harmony, but not fathers’ marital satisfaction, was related to the observed quality of their interactions with their 20-monthold toddlers (Goldberg & Easterbrooks, 1984). This paucity of research is quite unfortunate, given that the infancy-to-toddlerhood transition period sees important increases in paternal presence with children (see Tamis-Lemonda & Cabrera, 2002), with for instance one large-scale study reporting that fathers’ involvement in child care undergoes a marked increase between 6 and 15 months of age, followed by stabilization thereafter

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

107

(NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000). Hence, while the experience of fathering starts in meaningful ways even prenatally (e.g., Cabrera, Fagan, & Farrie, 2008), important facets of paternal caregiving behavior may emerge during early toddlerhood, and set the stage for the continued unfolding of the father–child relationship. In support of the importance of father–child interactions during toddlerhood are striking longitudinal findings showing that paternal behavior during father–child play at 2 years predicts child attachment representations 8 years as well as 14 years later, even after controlling for mother-child attachment security (Grossmann et al., 2002). Other evidence suggests that the quality of father–toddler interactions relates to child cognitive functioning (Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, London, & Cabrera, 2002), over and above maternal contributions (Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera, & Lamb, 2004). In addition, it is proposed that the task of parenting becomes more complicated as the child moves out of infancy (Shannon et al., 2006; Teti & Huang, 2005). Parents must adapt to the increasingly sophisticated skills and broader behavioral repertoire of their child. These changes allow for more complex parent–child interactions (Lamb & Lewis, 2010), which may challenge parents’ skills and predispositions, making early toddlerhood a fruitful time to study the factors forecasting individual differences in the quality of paternal caregiving behavior. Accordingly, the first aim of this study was to examine the extent to which fathers’ marital satisfaction predicts the quality of father–child interactions at 18 months. Subjective feelings of satisfaction with the relationship are a central indicator of marital functioning and among the best predictors of couple stability (Sabourin, Valois, & Lussier, 2005). Cummings and colleagues (2004; 2010) as well as Davies and Lindsay (2001) further argued that the link between fathering and marital relations could differ according to child gender. A large body of literature has demonstrated that child gender influences parenting in a variety of ways (for a review, see Leaper, 2002), and it is often proposed that this may be especially so among father–child dyads (Horn, 2000; Paquette, 2004; Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2006; Yeung et al., 2000). These claims appear to be coherent with the broader literature on gender differences in early childhood, especially with regards to aspects of children’s emotions and behavior that are likely to affect the caregiving that they receive. One of the largest and most robust gender differences documented is that throughout childhood, girls have a superior capacity to control their behavior deliberately (Else-Quest, Hyde, Goldsmith, & Van Hulle, 2006). In line with this, it has been observed recently that boys are more likely to exhibit oppositional-defiant behaviors, especially during infancy and preschool age (Baillargeon, Sward, Keenan, & Cao, 2011). Furthermore, boys tend to be higher than girls in negative emotionality during infancy and have more difficulty regulating their emotions in early childhood (Leaper, 2002), which may explain the observation that parenting behavior is more stable over time toward girls than boys (Carrasco, Rodriguez, del Barrio, & Holgado, 2011; Forehand & Jones, 2002). Overall, these results raise the possibility that during infancy and toddlerhood especially, boys may be more challenging to parent. Father–son interactions may thus be hypothesized to be more sensitive to negative influences, such as those stemming from marital difficulties, compared to father–daughter interactions. Although empirical data on normative variation in marital satisfaction is scarce, indirect evidence appears to be consistent with the notion that father–son relationships are more affected by fathers’ marital relationships than father–daughter relationships, at least when considering the more extreme cases of marital conflict and violence (Jouriles & Norwood, 1995; Kaczynski, Lindahl, Malik, & Laurenceau, 2006; for a review, see Davies & Lindsay, 2001). More broadly, but coherent with this, Sturge-Apple, Davies, Boker, and Cummings (2004) reported that marital

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

108

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

discord was more closely related to mothers’ and fathers’ self-reported parenting toward boys than girls. Finally, McHale (1995) reported that infant boys were more likely than girls to be the object of parental hostility in the context of marital distress. Overall, it appears that the links between fathers’ marital and caregiving relationships during the critical toddlerhood period have been investigated twice only: once with disabled children (Pelchat et al., 2003) and once almost 30 years ago (Goldberg & Easterbrooks, 1984). In addition, the often proposed hypothesis that father–son relationships may be more vulnerable to marital difficulties (besides family violence) has seldom been investigated at any age. Accordingly, the goals of this study were to investigate (a) the links between normative variation in fathers’ marital satisfaction and the observed quality of father–toddler interactions and (b) the moderating role of child gender in these associations. In light of recent recommendations that studies examining fathering and marital relationships should be based on longitudinal designs (Cummings et al., 2010), marital satisfaction was assessed three months prior to the assessment of father–child interactions (i.e., at 15 months), in order to draw predictive relations not inflated by shared method variance. At 18 months, the quality of father–child interactions was assessed during free play, given that play is considered to be a central aspect of fathers’ relationships with their young children (Horn, 2000; Lamb & Lewis, 2004; Parke et al., 2004). In fact, play has often been observed to be a favorable context in which to observe meaningful individual differences in paternal behavior (Grossmann et al., 2002; Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda, 2004). Based on findings at other developmental periods, it was expected that fathers reporting greater marital satisfaction at 15 months would be rated as having higher quality interactions with their toddlers at 18 months. It was further expected that child gender would be a significant moderator of these relations, such that associations would more pronounced among boys.

METHOD Participants and Procedure Sixty-three father–child dyads (37 girls and 26 boys) living in a large Canadian metropolitan area participated in this study. Families were recruited from birth lists randomly generated and provided to the team by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Families received a letter describing the project and were then contacted by phone; 39% of contacted fathers agreed to participate. Criteria for participation were full-term pregnancy, the absence of any known disability or severe developmental delay in the infant, and that fathers be married to or living with the child’s mother. The majority (n = 33) of children had older siblings, while 47.6% (n = 30) were first-born. Fathers were between 26 and 52 years old (M = 33.9 years, SD = 5.9 years), and 92.1% were Caucasian. Yearly income was at least 40,000$ (Canadian dollars) for 68.3% of the families, and 61.9% of fathers had a college degree. In the Canadian province of Quebec (where this study took place), 74.3% of families earn more than 40,000$ yearly, and 63.3% of parents have a college degree (Gouvernement du Qu´ebec, Institut de la statistique, 2012). When children were 15 months of age, fathers completed the brief Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; see subsequent explanation) at home and returned it by regular mail. At 18 months, father–child dyads were videotaped during a 10-min free-play sequence that took place in our laboratory. Fathers were asked to play as they normally would with their child, using a standard

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

109

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

set of toys provided by the research assistant. This interaction was later coded using the Mutually Responsive Orientation scale (MRO; see subsequent explanation). These 63 dyads with complete data were part of an original sample of 69 dyads for which fathers’ marital satisfaction data was available at 15 months. Thus, the retention rate was 91.3%, with six dyads failing to complete follow-up. Attrition analyses revealed that dyads that left the study were not different from others on demographic or marital variables. The only difference that approached significance was that fathers who dropped out had marginally fewer years of education (M = 14.6 years, SD = 1.9 years) than fathers who stayed in the study (M = 15.6 years, SD = 2.2 years), t(67) = 1.72, p = .09.

Measures Fathers’ marital satisfaction was assessed with the brief 4-item version of the DAS (DAS-4; Spanier, 1976), validated by Sabourin et al. (2005). Using a 6-point Likert-type scale, the DAS-4 assesses individuals’ degree of satisfaction with regard to their current romantic relationship (1 = very dissatisfied; 6 = very satisfied). Its psychometric properties are well documented for both men and women, in community and clinical samples. As described in detail by Sabourin et al., the DAS-4 shows excellent psychometric properties with men, including very good internal consistency (α consistently above .80), excellent temporal stability over a one-year period (r = .87), excellent discriminant validity with respect to couple distress, and high predictive validity with regard to couple dissolution, and is less subject to socially desirable responding than longer versions of the DAS. In the present study, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) was .88. The quality of father–child interactions was assessed with the MRO scale (Aksan, Kochanska, & Ortmann, 2006), which focuses on communication, cooperation, and emotional ambiance as observed in parent–child interactions. The MRO has excellent psychometric qualities and has been used successfully with young children, including toddlers, and their fathers (Aksan et al., 2006; Kochanska et al., 2008). It was used in the present study to assess the quality of father–child interactions because it is one of few coding systems that was not developed primarily for mothers and subsequently adapted for fathers, a frequent assessment issue when studying father–child relationships. In line with Aksan et al. (2006), we first rated harmonious communication, mutual cooperation, and emotional ambiance as three distinct subscales (the original coordinated routine subscale was dropped because it refers to routine activities that become scripted over time, and therefore did not apply to the free-play situation). The harmonious communication subscale measures the extent to which both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication flow smoothly between father and child. The mutual cooperation subscale measures the extent to which the dyad effectively resolves potential sources of conflict and to which partners are open to each other’s influence. The emotional ambiance subscale measures the extent to which the dyad enjoys an emotionally positive atmosphere indicating clear pleasure in each other’s company. Given their high intercorrelations (varying from .92 to .96), and as recommended by Aksan et al., who considered these three subscales to “reflect a unidimensional latent factor” (p. 838), the three scores were averaged into a global score for quality of father–child interactions. Scores could vary from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating a disconnected, unresponsive, hostile, or affectively negative interaction, and 5 reflecting a mutually responsive, harmonious, cooperative, and affectively

110

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

positive interaction between father and child. Twenty-five randomly selected videotapes were coded independently by two raters. Interrater reliability was satisfactory (intraclass correlation coefficient = .78).

RESULTS

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

Preliminary Analyses Table 1 presents the range, mean, and standard deviation values for fathers’ marital satisfaction and overall quality of father–child interactions, for the whole sample and by child gender. Both variables showed adequate variability among fathers of boys and girls, and no floor or ceiling effect is apparent. Child gender was not associated with the quality of father–child interactions; however, fathers of boys reported slightly higher marital satisfaction than those of girls. We next examined whether sociodemographic variables (paternal age and education, family income, number of siblings or birth order) were related to our dependent variable, that is, the quality of father–child interactions. None of the correlations reached statistical significance (all r < .17, p = ns). Therefore, no covariates were included in the main analyses.

Main Analyses The overall relation between fathers’ marital satisfaction and the quality of their interactions with their children was nonsignificant and, in fact, almost null (r = .04, p = ns). To test whether this relation was moderated by child gender as postulated, the data were submitted to a regression analysis with quality of father–child interactions as the dependent variable. Fathers’ marital satisfaction (centered) and child gender were entered together in a first block, followed by their interactive term in a second block of the equation. Note that centering continuous variables allows one to avoid multicollinearity among predictors (Aiken & West, 1991). Tolerance statistics (varying between .78 and .88; see Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013) and condition indices (all below 2; see Belsley, Kuh, & Welsch, 2005) confirmed that there was no multicollinearity between TABLE 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Ranges for Marital Satisfaction and Quality of Father–Child Interactions

Variable Marital satisfaction Total sample Girls Boys Father–child interactions Total sample Girls Boys

M

SD

Observed range

Theoretical range

4.03 3.86 4.28

0.72 0.73 0.66

2.25–5.25 2.25–5.25 2.67–5.25

1–6 1–6 1–6

3.18 3.30 3.02

0.86 0.86 0.85

1.08–4.96 1.28–4.63 1.08–4.96

1–5 1–5 1–5

Gender difference (t-test) t (61) = 2.19, p < .05

t (61) = −1.38, p = ns

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

111

the three variables entered in the regression equation. This equation explained 11.0% of the variance in the quality of father–child interactions. The analysis revealed that child gender and fathers’ marital satisfaction interacted significantly in the prediction of the quality of father–child interactions, t(60) = –1.99, p < .05, β = –.25, explaining an incremental 6.3% of variance after accounting for the respective main effects of gender and marital satisfaction. The interaction was broken down by fitting regression lines for the relation between marital satisfaction and the quality of father–child interactions for boys and girls separately (rather than computing two separate correlations, which is susceptible to bias relative to unequal variances and measurement errors across levels of the moderator; Baron & Kenny, 1986). As displayed in Figure 1, these post hoc analyses revealed that fathers’ marital satisfaction was significantly and positively related to the quality of their interactions with their sons (B = .67, SE B = .32), t(25 = 2.10, p < .05, β = .48. However, marital satisfaction was unrelated to the quality of fathers’ interactions with their daughters (B = –.06, SE = .25), t(36) = –0.22, p = ns, β = –.04. Child gender thus moderated the relation between fathers’ marital satisfaction and the quality of their interactions with their children, such that this relation was significant only among fathers of boys.

DISCUSSION This article sought to investigate the link between fathers’ marital satisfaction and the observed quality of their interactions with their child at a critical time for the unfolding of paternal caregiving behavior, toddlerhood. Building on indirect evidence suggesting that father–son interactions might be especially sensitive to variations in fathers’ marital satisfaction, we further aimed at investigating the moderating role of child gender in these associations. The results suggested that, contrary to expectations, fathers’ marital satisfaction did not relate to the quality of their interactions with their toddler as rated by external observers. Moderation analyses revealed, however, that this link did exist, but only among fathers of boys, for whom marital satisfaction was reliably and positively associated with the quality of their interactive behavior with their son. In contrast, the same relation was near zero among fathers of girls.

FIGURE 1 Links between the quality of father–child interactions and fathers’ marital satisfaction for boys and girls separately (color figure available online).

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

112

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

These findings build on scant evidence that father–son relationships may be more vulnerable to marital difficulties than father–daughter relationships, which had been observed before in extreme cases such as overt marital conflict and violence (Jouriles & Norwood, 1995; Kaczynski et al., 2006), or when considering fathers’ own perceptions of their parenting (Sturge-Apple et al., 2004). The present results add to these and suggest that the putative detrimental effects of unhappy marital relationships on father–son relationships (a) are not confounded by a general negative bias in fathers’ perceptions of their current relationships, but can be corroborated by external observations of father–son interactions; (b) are not restricted to extreme cases entailing conflict or violence, but can be generalized to relatively well-functioning couples; and (c) can be observed at the time where fathers’ involvement with children is increasing, that is, early toddlerhood. Importantly, the longitudinal design entailing a three-month delay between the assessment of marital satisfaction and the observation of father–toddler interactions, while not allowing for causal inference, does increase confidence in the direction of associations. It lessens the possibility that the results be due to fathers entertaining higher-quality interactions with their sons consequently developing, and reporting, more satisfying marital relationships with the child’s mother. Although of course, such bidirectional effects are likely to take place over time, and we would argue that the phenomenon observed here may set or reflect the beginning of a process of reciprocal effects, which only cross-lagged designs with repeated assessments of parenting and marital satisfaction will be able to examine formally. The near-zero association between quality of father–daughter interactions and fathers’ marital satisfaction, leading to an overall nonsignificant association on the whole sample, was not predicted a priori. It may, however, not be as unexpected as it seems. As mentioned in the introduction, the links between fathers’ marital relations and their interactions with their children have very seldom been studied in toddlerhood, and the only other study that did examine this question with a nonclinical sample actually found no significant relation between fathers’ marital satisfaction, specifically, and the observed quality of their interactions with their 20-month-olds (Goldberg & Easterbrooks, 1984). Hence, the study bearing the most developmental and conceptual similarities to this one yielded similar results, suggesting that the lack of relation observed here for girls, and on the sample as a whole, might reflect a true state of affairs. In fact, Davies and Lindsay (2001) highlighted that the role of child gender in the links between marital and caregiving relationships is likely to vary across children’s developmental stages. Indeed, the developmental period under study here and in Goldberg and Easterbrooks’s (1984) report may be an important factor in our common findings, in light of the documented gender differences in the evolution of paternal involvement with children. Hence, while it has been observed that paternal involvement increases between 6 and 15 months (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000), it has also been documented that fathers are more involved with their sons than daughters, and this gender differential in parental involvement grows with time (Pleck, 1997). Thus, the increase in paternal involvement that takes place during the infancy-toddlerhood transition may be more pronounced among fathers of boys. In fact, when considering both fathers and mothers, Laflamme, Pomerleau, and Malcuit (2002) observed a decrease in parents’ time spent with their daughters between 9 and 15 months, and a simultaneous increase for parents of boys. Taken together, these results suggest that at the time where we assessed marital satisfaction and then father–child interactions, fathers of boys likely were experiencing an increase in their involvement, which may not have been the case among fathers of girls, who in fact were perhaps spending increasingly less time with their daughters. Thus, we would tentatively suggest that the

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

113

nonsignificant findings obtained with girls could reflect the fact that the transition from infancy to toddlerhood may represent a time of marked gender differences in the processes linking paternal predispositions to father–child relationships, due to the different and perhaps opposite patterns of change in fathers’ involvement with boys and girls. If fathers are spending increasingly more time interacting with their sons but not with their daughters, it stands to reason that the quality of their caregiving behavior with boys is more open to contextual influences, such as their relationship with the boy’s mother. It could also be that toddler girls are better equipped than their male counterparts to compensate when their father’s life circumstances do not provide him with the resources that would support his caregiving behavior. In fact, our findings of a lack of main gender effect on father–child interactions, combined with a significant gender by marital satisfaction interaction, do suggest that although fathers did not have lower-quality interactions with boys overall, low marital satisfaction was related to lower-quality paternal behavior with boys only, and therefore that fathers of girls were somehow protected against the putative detrimental effect of marital dissatisfaction. The notion that boys may be generally more vulnerable to risk factors than girls is a well-known contention (e.g., Cummings et al., 2010; Davies & Lindsay, 2001). When examining parent–child interactions specifically, it is possible to argue that toddler girls may often be easier or more stimulating interactive partners, due to their lower negative emotionality and more developed language skills in toddlerhood (Leaper, 2002). These favorable predispositions for interactions may be important buffers when fathers are less equipped or less motivated to parent, due to marital difficulties for instance. In contrast, while toddler boys’ less developed language skills and increased negative emotionality may be easily manageable for happily married fathers, they could make for a double risk factor when combined with a tense or distant relationship with the boy’s mother. In line with the spillover hypothesis (Erel & Burman, 1995), this dual risk could then lead to less harmonious, cooperative, and positive father–son interactions. It should be noted, however, that fathers in the present study were, overall, fairly satisfied with their relationship (with a mean of 4 on a scale of 1–6), and therefore that probably very few couples were clearly dysfunctional or conflicted. Given that most studies investigating marital relationships and parenting have examined situations of marital conflict rather than marital satisfaction (see Cummings et al., 2010; Erel & Burman, 1995; Krishnakumar & Buehler, 2000), the present findings may reflect our failure to examine high-conflict homes, which have often been shown to have a detrimental impact on parent–child interactions (see Cummings et al., 2010). The fact that our sample was primarily White middle-class also limits generalizability of the findings, while suggesting a direction for further research. More diverse samples, by yielding more variation in the lower end of marital and father–child relational quality, may allow for the identification of smaller-size associations among father–daughter dyads. Relatedly, our sample size was small, reducing statistical power. However, this probably did not impact the results to a sizeable degree, given that the relations that were found to be nonsignificant were, in fact, almost null, making statistical power a lesser issue. This study, based on a longitudinal design and independent assessments, reiterated the importance of marital relationships for the quality of father–child interactions, at a critical developmental period that had received next to no attention in this literature in almost 30 years. However, the results also suggest that there may be reliable links only for father–son relationships, while the quality of father–daughter interactions appeared independent of fathers’ subjective feelings of marital satisfaction. Further research is needed to investigate whether this can be generalized to

114

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

other dimensions of marital relationships, including serious conflict and violence. Nonetheless, the present results re-affirm Erel and Burman’s (1995) suggestion that the role of child gender and age in the marriage-parenting connections requires further investigation.

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research described in this article was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Fonds Qu´eb´ecois de Recherche sur la Soci´et´e et la Culture to Annie Bernier. The authors grate´ fully acknowledge Natasha Whipple, Emilie Rochette, Natasha Ballen, Isabelle Demers, Jessica ` B´elanger, Andr´ee-Anne BouvetteLaranjo, St´ephanie Bordeleau, C´elia Matte-Gagn´e, Marie-Eve Turcot, Christine Gagn´e, Gabrielle Lalonde, Marie Deschˆenes, Chantal Mongeau, Marie-Pier Nadeau-No¨el, and Nadine Marzougui for help with data collection. Special thanks go to the participating families of the Grandir Ensemble project who generously opened their homes.

AUTHOR NOTES Annie Bernier is a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal (Canada). She studies relations among parent–child interactions, children’s sleep, and children’s executive functioning. V´eronique Jarry-Boileau is a clinical psychologist specializing in children’s mental health. Carl Lacharit´e is a professor of psychology at Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Trois-Rivi`eres (Canada). He studies fathering and families at psychosocial risk.

REFERENCES Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Aksan, N., Kochanska, G., & Ortmann, M. R. (2006). Mutually responsive orientation between parents and their young children: Toward methodological advances in the science of relationships. Developmental Psychology, 42, 833–848. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.5.833 Atzaba-Poria, N., & Pike, A. (2008). Correlates of parenting for mothers and fathers from English and Indian backgrounds. Parenting: Science and Practice, 8, 17–40. doi:10.1080/15295190701665698 Baillargeon, R. H., Sward, G. D., Keenan, K., & Cao, G. (2011). Opposition-defiance in the second year of life: A population-based cohort study. Infancy, 16, 418–434. Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. doi:0022-3514/86 Belsky, J. (1979). The interrelation of parental and spousal behavior during infancy in traditional nuclear families: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 41, 749–755. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 351475 Belsky, J. (1996). Parent, infant, and social-contextual antecedents of father-son attachment security. Developmental Psychology, 32, 905–913. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.32.5.905 Belsky, J., Steinberg, L. D., Houts, R. M., Friedman, S. L., DeHart, G., Cauffman, E.,. .. The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2007). Family rearing antecedents of pubertal timing. Child Development, 78, 1302–1321. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01067.x

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

115

Belsky, J., Youngblade, L., Rovine, M., & Volling, B. (1991). Patterns of marital change and parent-child interaction. Journal of Marriage and Family, 53, 487–498. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/352914 Belsley, D. A., Kuh, E., & Welsch, R. E. (2005). Regression diagnostics: Identifying influential observations and sources of collinearity. New York, NY: Wiley. Bernier, A., Carlson, S., Deschˆenes, M., & Matte-Gagn´e, C. (2012). Social precursors of preschoolers’ executive functioning: A closer look at the early caregiving environment. Developmental Science, 15, 12–24. doi:10.1111/j.14677687.2011.01093.x Black, M. M., Dubowitz, H., & Starr, R. H., Jr. (1999). African American fathers in low income, urban families: Development, behavior, and home environment of their three-year-old children. Child Development, 70, 967–978. doi:0009-3920/99/7004-0013 Brown, G. L., McBride, B. A., Shin, N., & Bost, K. K. (2007). Parenting predictors of father–child attachment security: Interactive effects of father involvement and fathering quality. Fathering, 5, 197–219. doi:10.3149/fth.0503.197 Cabrera, N. J., Fagan, J., & Farrie, D. (2008). Explaining the long reach of fathers’ prenatal involvement on later paternal engagement. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 1094–1107. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00551.x Cabrera, N. J., Fagan, J., Wight, V., & Schadler, C. (2011). Influence of mother, father, and child risk on parenting and children’s cognitive and social behaviors. Child Development, 82, 1985–2005. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01667.x Cabrera, N. J., Shannon, J. D., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. (2007). Fathers’ influence on their children’s cognitive and emotional development: From toddlers to pre-K. Applied Developmental Science, 11, 208–213. doi:10.1080/ 10888690701762100 Carrasco, M. A., Rodriguez, M. A., del Barrio, M. V., & Holgado, F. P. (2011). Relative and absolute stability in perceived parenting behaviour: A longitudinal study with children and adolescents. Psychological Reports, 108, 149– 166. Coley, R. L., Lewin-Bizan, S., & Carrano, J. (2011). Does early paternal parenting promote low-income children’s long-term cognitive skills? Journal of Family Issues, 32, 1522–1542. doi:10.1177/0192513×11402175 Cox, M. J., & Paley, B. (1997). Families as systems. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 243–267. doi:10.1146/ annurev.psych.48.1.243 Cummings, E. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Raymond, J. (2004). Fathers in family context: Effects of marital quality and marital conflict. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 196–221). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Cummings, E. M., Merrilees, C. E., & George, M. W. (2010). Fathers, marriages, and families: Revisiting and updating the framework for fathering in family context. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 154–176). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Davies, P. T., & Lindsay, L. L. (2001). Does gender moderate the effects of marital conflict on children? In J. H. Grych & F. D. Fincham (Eds.), Interparental conflict and child development: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 64–97). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Doherty, W. J., Kouneski, E. F., & Erickson, M. F. (1998). Responsible fathering: An overview and conceptual framework. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 277–292. Retrieved http://www.jstor.org/stable/353848 Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., Goldsmith, H. H., & Van Hulle, C. A. (2006). Gender differences in temperament: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 33–72. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.33 Erel, O., & Burman, B. (1995) Interrelatedness of marital relations and parent-child relations: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 108–132. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.118.1.108 Feldman, R. (2000). Parents’ convergence on sharing and marital satisfaction, father involvement, and parent–child relationship at the transition to parenthood. Infant Mental Health Journal, 21, 176–191. Feldman, R., & Masalha, S. (2010). Parent–child and triadic antecedents of children’s social competence: Cultural specificity, shared process. Developmental Psychology, 46, 455–467. doi:10.1037/a0017415 Forehand, R., & Jones, D. J. (2002). The stability of parenting: A longitudinal analysis of inner-city African-American mothers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 11, 455–467. Goldberg, W. A., & Easterbrooks, M. A. (1984). Role of marital quality in toddler development. Developmental Psychology, 20, 504–514. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.20.3.504 Grossmann, K., Grossmann, K. E., Fremmer-Bombik, E., Kindler, H., Scheuerer-Englisch, H., & Zimmermann, P. (2002). The uniqueness of the child-father attachment relationship: Father’s sensitive and challenging play as a pivotal variable in a 16-year longitudinal study. Social Development, 11, 307–331. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00202 Gouvernement du Qu´ebec, Institut de la statistique. (2012). Le Qu´ebec statistique. Retrieved from http://stat.gouv.qc.ca

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

116

BERNIER, JARRY-BOILEAU, & LACHARITE´

Horn, W. F. (2000). Fathering infants. In J. D. Osofsky & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH Handbook of infant mental health: Vol. 3. Parenting and child care (pp. 270–297). New York, NY: Wiley. Jouriles, E. N., & Norwood, W. D. (1995). Physical aggression toward boys and girls in families characterized by the battering of women. Journal of Family Psychology, 9, 69–78. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.9.1.69 Kaczynski, K. J., Lindahl, K. M., Malik, N. M., & Laurenceau, J.-P. (2006). Marital conflict, maternal and paternal parenting, and child adjustment: A test of mediation and moderation. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 199–208. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.20.2.199 Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., Prisco, T. R., & Adams, E. E. (2008). Mother-child and father–child mutually responsive orientation in the first two years and children’s outcomes at preschool age: Mechanisms of influence. Child Development, 79, 30–44. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01109.x Krishnakumar, A., & Buehler, C. (2000). Interparental conflict and parenting behaviors: A meta-analytic review. Family Relations, 49, 25–44. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2000.00025.x Laflamme, D., Pomerleau, A., & Malcuit, G. (2002). A comparison of fathers’ and mothers’ involvement in childcare and stimulation behaviors during free-play with their infants at 9 and 15 months. Sex Roles, 47, 507–518. doi:10.1023/a:1022069720776 Lamb, M. E. (2010). How do fathers influence children’s development? Let me count the ways. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 1–26). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Lamb, M. E., & Lewis, C. (2004). The development and significance of father–child relationships in two-parent families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 272–306). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Lamb, M. E., & Lewis, C. (2010). The development and significance of father–child relationships in two-parent families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 94–153). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Lamb, M. E., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2004). The role of the father: An introduction. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 4–31). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Leaper, C. (2002). Parenting girls and boys. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Children and parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 189–225). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lindsey, E. W., Cremeens, P. R., & Caldera, Y. M. (2010). Mother–child and father–child mutuality in two contexts: Consequences for young children’s peer relationships. Infant and Child Development, 19, 142–160. doi:10.1002/ icd.645 McHale, J. P. (1995). Coparenting and triadic interactions during infancy: The roles of marital distress and child gender. Developmental Psychology, 31, 985–996. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.31.6.985 Mills-Koonce, W. R., Garrett-Peters, P., Barnett, M., Granger, D. A., Blair, C., & Cox, M. J. (2011). Father contributions to cortisol responses in infancy and toddlerhood. Developmental Psychology, 47, 388–395. doi:10.1037/a0021066 Mitchell, S. J., & Cabrera, N. J. (2009). An exploratory study of fathers’ parenting stress and toddlers’ social development in low-income African American families. Fathering, 7, 201–225. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.128.4.580. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2000). Factors associated with fathers’ caregiving activities and sensitivity with young children. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 200–219. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.14.2.200 Pancsofar, N., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2010). Fathers’ early contributions to children’s language development in families from low-income rural communities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 450–463. doi:10.1016/ j.ecresq.2010.02.001 Paquette, D. (2004). Theorizing the father–child relationship: Mechanisms and developmental outcomes. Human Development, 47, 193–219. doi:10.1159/000078723 Parke, R. D. (2002). Fathers and families. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3. Being and becoming a parent (2nd ed., pp.27–73). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Parke, R. D., Dennis, J., Flyr, M. L., Morris, K. L., Killian, C., McDowell, D. J., & Wild, M. (2004). Fathering and children’s peer relationships. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 307–340). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pelchat, D., Bisson, J., Bois, C., & Saucier, J.-F. (2003). The effects of early relational antecedents and other factors on the parental sensitivity of mothers and fathers. Infant and Child Development, 12, 27–51. doi:10.1002/icd.335 Pleck, J. H. (1997). Paternal involvement: Levels, sources, and consequences. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (3rd ed., pp. 66–103). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Roopnarine, J. L., Krishnakumar, A., Metindogan, A., & Evans, M. (2006). Links between parenting styles, parent–child academic interaction, parent–school interaction, and early academic skills and social behaviors in young children of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21, 238–252. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2006.04.007

Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 01:30 24 January 2015

MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD GENDER

117

Sabourin, S., Valois, P., & Lussier, Y. (2005). Development and validation of a brief version of the dyadic adjustment scale with a nonparametric item analysis model. Psychological Assessment, 17, 15–27. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.17.1.15 Schacht, P. M., Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2009). Fathering in family context and child adjustment: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 790–797. doi:10.1037/a0016741 Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J., Diener, M. L., Mangelsdorf, S. C., Brown, G. L., McHale, J. L., & Frosch, C. A. (2006). Attachment and sensitivity in family context: The roles of parent and infant gender. Infant and Child Development, 15, 367–385. doi:10.1002/icd.449 Shannon, J. D., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Cabrera, N. J. (2006). Fathering in infancy: Mutuality and stability between 8 and 16 months. Parenting: Science & Practice, 6, 167–188. doi:10.1080/15295192.2006.9681304 Shannon, J. D., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., London, K., & Cabrera, N. (2002). Beyond rough and tumble: Low-income fathers’ interactions and children’s cognitive development at 24 months. Parenting, 2, 77–104. doi:10.1207/ s15327922par0202 01 Spanier, G. B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment scale: New scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 15–28. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/350547 Stocker, C. M., & Youngblade, L. (1999). Marital conflict and parental hostility: Links with children’s sibling and peer relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 13, 598–609. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.13.4.598 Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Boker, S. M., & Cummings, E. M. (2004). Interparental discord and parenting: Testing the moderating roles of child and parent gender. Parenting: Science & Practice, 4, 361–380. doi:10.1207/s15327922par0404 7 Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using Multivariate Statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Cabrera, N. (2002). Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shannon, J. D., Cabrera, N. J., & Lamb, M. E. (2004). Fathers and mothers at play with their 2- and 3-year-olds: Contributions to language and cognitive development. Child Development, 75, 1806–1820. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00818.x Teti, D. M., & Huang, K. Y. (2005). Developmental perspectives on parenting competence. In D. M. Teti (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in developmental science (pp. 161–182). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Tikotzky, L., Sadeh, A., & Glickman-Gavrieli, T. (2011). Infant sleep and paternal involvement in infant caregiving during the first 6 months of life. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 36, 36–46. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsq036 Tither, J. M., & Ellis, B. J. (2008). Impact of fathers on daughters’ age at menarche: A genetically and environmentally controlled sibling study. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1409–1420. doi:10.1037/a0013065 Yeung, W. J., Duncan, G. J., & Hill, M. S. (2000). Putting back fathers back in the picture: Parental activities and children’s adult outcomes. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 97–113. doi:10.1300/J002v29n02 07

Marital satisfaction and quality of father-child interactions: the moderating role of child gender.

The authors aimed to investigate the prospective links between normative variation in fathers' marital satisfaction and the observed quality of father...
171KB Sizes 0 Downloads 3 Views