Abstract Stay‐at‐home fathers has become a critically important topic because of reversals in the traditional male dominance in education, occupation, and income. Given the increasing prevalence of women in higher education and in higher status occupations, and their increased earnings, especially in the younger generation, the traditional assignment of males to the breadwinner role and females to the caretaking and homemaking role has come into question. Although existing research indicates that such a reversal – where women work and men stay home and take care of the children – would be good for children, it remains unclear how men and women in these nontraditional roles would fare over the long term and what effects a nontraditional fathering role would have on the couple relationship over time.

This study evaluated the extent to which divorce creates the "divided world of the child," as well as consequences of this "divided world" for long-term adjustment. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,375 young-adult university students completed retrospective measures of parental nurturance and involvement, and current measures of psychosocial adjustment and troubled ruminations about parents. Results indicated that reports of maternal and paternal nurturance and involvement were closely related in intact families but uncorrelated in divorced families. Across family forms, the total amount of nurturance or involvement received was positively associated with self-esteem, purpose in life, life satisfaction, friendship quality and satisfaction, and academic performance; and negatively related to distress, romantic relationship problems, and troubled ruminations about parents. Mother-father differences in nurturance and involvement showed a largely opposite set of relationships. Implications for family court practices are discussed.

This study was designed to introduce the construct of troubled ruminations about parents and to develop a brief screening instrument. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,376 university students completed the instrument and other measures of psychosocial functioning. Troubled ruminations about mothers and fathers were related to self‐esteem, life satisfaction, psychological distress, and romantic relationship problems, and less strongly to purpose in life, friendship quality, and friendships satisfaction. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.

Using Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory (PARTheory), the re- lationship between perceived paternal nurturing and involvement and psychosocial de- velopmental outcomes in 202 college-aged African American and Caribbean American young adults were assessed. All dimensions of paternal nurturing and involvement were positively related to all positive psychosocial outcomes. However the relationship between the reported and desired parental behaviors was strongly negative for the African American population. This suggests that the assumption that father absence is undamaging and does not negatively impact psychosocial outcomes, may be false. Mean values of fathering variables and developmental outcomes also varied by ethnicity. Dif- ferences in correlations were also moderated by ethnicity.

The present study investigated the association of perceived parenting with health-risk behaviors in an ethnically diverse sample of 1,728 college-attending emerging adults. Participants completed retrospective measures of perceived maternal and paternal nurturance, connection, psychological control, and disrespect and reported their frequency of binge drinking, illicit drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, and impaired driving. Multivariate Poisson regression analyses indicated that perceived paternal acceptance was associated inversely with 6 of the 12 health-risk behaviors measured, whereas perceived mothering was related only to 2 of these health-risk behaviors. These patterns were consistent across gender, ethnicity, and family structure.

The present study investigated the extent to which young adults' reports of—and desires for—maternal and paternal involvement differed between intact and divorced families. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,376 young adults completed measures of reported and desired mothering and fathering across 20 parenting domains. Results indicated that both reports of and desires for father involvement differed sharply by family form (intact versus divorced), whereas few family form differences emerged for reported or desired mother involvement. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for custody and access decisions within the family court system.

This study was designed to compare the factor structures and means for mothering and fathering, as retrospectively perceived by young adult children. Three dimensions of perceived parenting were examined: nurturance, reported involvement, and desired involvement. We used the existing Nurturant Fathering and Father Involvement Scales, and the newly developed parallel Nurturant Mothering and Mother Involvement Scales. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the originally validated factor structure of the fathering measures fit the data well and that the factor structures of paternal and maternal nurturance and involvement were isomorphic. These scales appear to index parenting functions that generalize across mothers and fathers. Meandifference analyses indicated that fathers were significantly less involved than mothers in all of the domains surveyed except providing income, and that the patterns of means for fathers (but not for mothers) were highly consistent with the seminal work of Parsons and Bales. Implications for the study of parenting are discussed.

(2001). Issues in Transracial Adoption and Foster Care. Adoption Quarterly: Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 1-4.

The present study investigated the relationship between retrospectively reported father involvement and current reports of psychosocial outcomes in an ethnically diverse sample of 1,989 young adults. Outcomes included subjective well-being, which has been traditionally used as an outcome of divorce, and desires for more or less father involvement, which have only recently been conceptualized as an outcome of divorce. The present results indicate that reported father involvement was related to subjective well-being primarily in children from intact families, whereas it was related to desired father involvement primarily in children from divorced families. Among participants from divorced families, young women were more likely than young men to desire more expressive father involvement than they received. Implications for family court practices are discussed.

Abstract The present analysis examined die relationships of the child's age at the time of divorce, the number of years elapsed since the divorce, and postdivorce coresidence with the father on retrospective reports of paternal nurturance and involvement in an ethnically diverse sample of 497 young adults from divorced families. Results indicated that participants who resided with their fathers at some point after the divorce rated their fathers significantly more favorably than did those who did not reside with their fathers following divorce. Moreover, the child's age at the time of divorce was significantly and positively related to paternal involvement and nurturance, suggesting that divorces occurring earlier in the child's life were more detrimental to the father-child relationship. The effects of timing of the divorce on father involvement were especially strong for instrumental fathering functions (e.g., involvement in school, discipline, protection). Implications for family court practices are discussed.

The present study was conducted to investigate differences in nurturant fathering, father involvement, and young adult psychosocial functioning among small samples of three nontraditional family forms. A total of 168 young-adult university students from three family forms (27 adoptive, 22 adoptive stepfather, 119 nonadoptive stepfather) completed retrospective measures of nurturant fathering and father involvement and measures of current psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that adoptive fathers were rated as the most nurturant and involved and that nonadoptive stepfathers were rated as the least nurturant and involved. In adoptive families, young adults' ratings of paternal nurturance and involvement were strongly and positively correlated with their reports of current psychosocial functioning. The relationships of family form to reports of fathering appeared to be moderated by the child's age at father entry and the number of years of involvement in the child's life.

The present study was conducted to investigate differences in nurturant fathering, father involvement, and young adult psychosocial functioning among small samples of three nontraditional family forms. A total of 168 young-adult university students from three family forms (27 adoptive, 22 adoptive stepfather, 119 nonadoptive stepfather) completed retrospective measures of nurturant fathering and father involvement and measures of current psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that adoptive fathers were rated as the most nurturant and involved and that nonadoptive stepfathers were rated as the least nurturant and involved. In adoptive families, young adults’ ratings of paternal nurturance and involvement were strongly and positively correlated with their reports of current psychosocial functioning. The relationships of family form to reports of fathering appeared to be moderated by the child's age at father entry and the number of years of involvement in the child's life.