Basic Child Care Research Articles

The case of expectant fathers: negotiating the changing role of males in a ‘female’ world

Research was carried out to investigate the needs of expectant fathers and to determine whether television can be implemented to provide parent guidance to South African expectant fathers during the transition into fatherhood. Focus was on understanding the specific type of information required by expectant fathers, in conjunction with their perceptions of the most suitable form of media to provide such guidance. Sixty‐five fathers were involved in a telephone survey, after which in‐depth interviews were conducted with four fathers to establish their perceptions regarding the possible use of television to provide guidance to expectant fathers. It seems that expectant fathers experience a need for information to help prepare them for their role as a father, require more knowledge regarding the topic of fatherhood and pregnancy, wish to receive guidance to develop certain basic childcare skills, and perceive television to be the most suitable medium for providing them with such guidance.

Zenzele: African Women's Self-Help Organizations in South Africa, 1927–1998

Abstract:The Zenzele clubs of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, which date from the late 1920s, were founded by mission-educated African women who sought to improve the lives of rural African women by enhancing their subsistence farming and cooking skills and educating them about household cleanliness, basic child care, and health care. Unlike associations for African women in British colonial Africa, Zenzele clubs did not evolve into political organizations. In the white-run segregated and apartheid states that persisted through 1994, Zenzele women did not engage in direct political action; rather, they sought to unite African women across class and ethnic lines and focused their efforts on community development.

Modafinil in Fibromyalgia Treatment

Modafinil in Fibromyalgia Treatment

What do the parents of tomorrow know about child care? A survey of 14–16 year olds

What do the parents of tomorrow know about child care? This study aimed to obtain a baseline measurement of child care knowledge, to ascertain any differences in knowledge between adolescents with and without mild to moderate learning difficulties (MLD). In addition, we were interested to establish the effect of school nurse health education health input on knowledge in the learning difficulties subgroup. Assessment was by self‐completed questionnaire and interview of a random sample of 14–16 year olds attending mainstream and special schools. Sixty pupils from secondary school and 33 from a MLD school took part in the study. Pupil knowledge in basic parenting and child care was dependent on the type of school attended, reading ability of those attending the MLD school and the provision of health education in the special school by the school nurse. No associations were found between pupils knowledge and their gender, family position or family size. Pupils from both schools scored lower in the areas of health service organisation and personnel, health promotion and management of common childhood conditions. Adolescents have insufficient knowledge of basic child care and services available for new parents. The effect of school based health education in these areas is promising. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fathering and Acculturation: Immigrant Indian Families with Young Children

This study investigated the patterns of father involvement and the influence of acculturation in a sample of Indian immigrant families in Pennsylvania. The participants were 40 two-parent Indian families who were rearing their IS- to 44month-old children. Two 1-hour, naturalistic home observations per family were conducted near dinner time to record father-child interactions. Cluster analysis revealed three types of fathers: engaged, caretaker, and disengaged. Information on acculturation was gathered via parental self-reports and observational measures. Examination of the relation between fathering and acculturation revealed that men belonging to the least acculturated families were the least involved (were disengaged), and the most acculturated fathers were more involved in almost all dimensions of fathering (were engaged). Key Words: acculturation, fathering, immigrants, Indians, parenting, Southeast Asian families. Compared with previous generations, fathers today have an expanded role in the family in the United States. In addition to protecting and providing for the child, they also share the responsibility of basic child care. Investigations of White, middle-class families have documented the nature of father-child interactions in naturalistic and laboratory settings. (For a review, see Lamb, in press.) Such research indicates that men engage their children in diverse ways and that they not only are competent and skillful, but also are sensitive in their interactions with the infant and young child (Belsky, 1979; Parke, 1981; Parke & O'Leary, 1976; Parke & Sawin, 1980). Nevertheless, many men are still involved with their children on a limited basis only (Daly, 1993; Hochschild, 1989; LaRossa, 1988). Contemporary research focuses on the determinants of individual differences in fathering. Parent and child attributes have figured prominently in studies, as has the marital relationship (Belsky, 1990; Jain, Belsky, & Crnic, 1996; Levy-Shiff & Israelashvili, 1988; Volling & Belsky, 1991). Diversity in parenting and in fathering roles also has been associated with culture-related variables, such as social structure (Seymour, 1980), women's status (Coltrane, 1988), power and privileges (Hondagneu-Sotelo & Messner, 1994), and parental beliefs and ethnotheories (Harkness & Super,1992). At the same time that interest and research on the father's role has changed, so has the composition of U.S. society. For political, social, and economic reasons, large numbers of immigrants are moving to the U.S., continuing a tradition that dates back to the nation's founding. Data from Immigration and Naturalization Services show that the number of legal immigrants to the U.S. in 1991 was 1.8 million (Martin, 1996). One of the obvious issues that immigration raises pertains to the lifestyles that immigrants adopt. Do they retain their native culture? Do they adopt the host culture? Or do they demonstrate characteristics of both cultures? Taft (1985) conceptualizes the process of adaptation or acculturation in terms of a resocialization model that involves changes in the physical environment and the biological (changes in eating habits and nutritional status), cultural, and social contexts. (See also Berry, 1990.) In order to effectively adapt to the host society, immigrants either resist or readily adopt the new language, values, beliefs, roles, and norms of social interactions (Mendoza & Martinez, 1981). Historically, immigration was considered a unidirectional process, based on the premise of the acquisition of values and characteristics of the host culture with a simultaneous loss of native culture (Fong, 1973; Olmedo, Martinez, & Martinez, 1978). Acculturation was seen as the immersion of the immigrant culture in the new culture. Current models, however, stress the selective and multidimensional nature of the immigrant process (Mendoza, 1989; Mendoza & Martinez, 1981; Rueschenberg & Buriel, 1989). …

Review of Research on Parent Training for Parents with Intellectual Disability: methodological issues

A computerised search was conducted in May 1995. PsycLit and Eric databases (1974‐1995 and 1965‐1995, respectively) were consulted. A total of 27 references were listed under the topic of Parent Training Program for Parents with Intellectual Disability. However, the results of the review indicated that only one reference was pertinent which was on basic child care skills training for mothers with mean IQ 74 and the mothers who were regarded as having provided neglectful child care. Through personal communication, 10 studies on parent training programs for parents with intellectual disability were obtained and also reviewed. Eight studies applied single‐subject design; two used quantitative methods; one used both single subject design and statistical analysis. Among the 10 studies, one was basic child‐care skills training, two were decision‐making in child rearing; five of them were safety and related topics, and three were concerned with mother‐child interaction. A total of four studies included mothers with normal IQ as a comparison or to serve as a norm. As a whole, research in parent training programs for parents with intellectual disability is still in its infancy. Much more work needs to be done in the area of basic child care skills, comparative studies, identifying situational and subject characteristics for the best outcome of training, and programming to facilitate generalisation.

Infant Care and Wives' Depressive Symptoms

Although some investigators show that division of child care between spouses is related to the psychological well-being of wives, little attention has been given to the relevance of specific dimensions of child care or to nonemployed as well as employed wives. In this study we differentiate basic child care tasks, i.e., those that are essential for the family's physical well-being from other, more supplemental, or auxiliary tasks. We hypothesize that husbands' failure to perform auxiliary child care will be distressing for wives, regardless of employment status because it contributes to perceptions of marital inequity. On the other hand, husbands' lack of participation in the more time-consuming, basic, tasks will be most distressing for employed wives because it results in an increased overall work load. We also hypothesize that when employed mothers are responsible for arranging child care, and when such care entails financial strains, they are more likely to experience psychological distress. To evaluate these hypotheses we use data drawn from a mail survey of a sample of mothers of infants. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that husbands' involvement in child care and housework, especially in the time-consuming tasks, is relatively low and that the most consistent predictor of husbands' involvement is wives' relative income. In terms of the impact of husbands' involvement on wives' well-being, lower levels of husbands' participation in auxiliary, but not basic, child care are associated with increases in reported symptoms, regardless of wives' employment status. When child care is relatively more costly, employed wives report increased symptoms of depression. We discuss these results in terms of the role played by expectations of husbands and wives about parental responsibility for child care.