Father-Son Relationships in Ethnically Diverse Families: Links To Boys’ Cognitive and Social Emotional Development in Preschool

Abstract

This study conceptualized father involvement as a multidimensional construct—including warmth, control/discipline and home learning stimulation—and examined associations among father involvement across toddlerhood and their sons’ cognitive and social emotional development in preschool. Analyses also tested whether these associations were moderated by ethnicity and poverty status. A total of 4240 young boys were included in the study (20% African American, 26% Hispanic and 54% Caucasian). Results showed that paternal warmth and home learning stimulation (at 24-months) positively predicted cognitive and social emotional skills across all three racial groups (at 48-months/preschool). Furthermore, tests of moderation by ethnicity revealed that paternal control/discipline was related to fewer problem behaviors, higher engagement scores, and more advanced math skills only among boys who were African American. Finally, tests of moderation by poverty status showed that paternal warmth had a stronger association with boys’ reading skills when they lived above the poverty line. These findings emphasize the importance of culturally sensitive models of child development that examine the influence of fathers from a dyadic perspective.