The Protective Effects of Maternal and Paternal Factors on Children's Social Development

Abstract

The goal of this study is to examine associations among family and child protective factors, maternal and paternal levels of distress, and children's social competence in a sample of 156 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse first-time mothers, fathers, and their children, followed from 9 months to 30 months of age. Using multiple linear regression modeling, our results indicate that dyadic synchrony and children's positive temperament during infancy are significantly associated with fewer behavior problems and paternal optimism with high levels of social competence at 21 months (main effects). Father optimism and child positive temperament are only significantly related to higher levels of social competence and fewer behavioral problems, respectively, in the context of low levels of paternal distress (interaction effects). These results suggest that in our sample maternal dyadic synchrony operates in the same way across levels of maternal distress as it relates to children's behavior problems, with the exception of paternal optimism and children's positive temperament. Results also suggest that protective factors are different for mothers, fathers, and children.

Keywords: ethnically diverse families; fathers; mothers; protective factors; resilience.

Figure 1.

Interaction between fathers’ optimism and child social competence at levels of fathers’ distress Note: Low distress indicates a score of 0 on the distress measure and high distress indicates a score of 1 on the distress measure.

Figure 2.

Interaction between child easygoing temperament and problem behaviors at levels of fathers’ distress Note: Low distress indicates a score of 0 on the distress measure and high distress indicates a score of 1 on the distress measure.