Fathers Influence on Their Childrens Cognitive and EmotionalDevelopment: From Toddlers to Pre-K

Natasha J. CabreraUniversity of Maryland

Jacqueline D. ShannonBrooklyn College, CUNY

Catherine Tamis-LeMondaNew York University

We present findings based on several of our recent studies that have shown thatfather engagement has significant effects on childrens cognition and languageat 24 and 36 months and their social and emotional development at 24, 36 months,and pre-Kindergarten. These studies are guided by the Dynamics of PaternalInfluences on Children over the Life Course Model that stipulates the importantcontribution of parent characteristics, child and context to parenting and chil-drens outcomes. Specifically, three research questions are addressed: (1) Howdo resident fathers engage with their young children at 24, 36, and 64 months(pre-K)? (2) How do fathers human and financial resources and depressivesymptoms, partner relationship quality and motherchild interactions, and chil-drens characteristics predict the quality of fathers engagements with their youngchildren? And (3) how do fathers engagements affect their young childrens cog-nitive, language, and social and emotional outcomes across the three age groups?Educated fathers and fathers whose partners have supportive relationships withtheir children are more supportive and less intrusive. In contrast to mothers,fathers supportiveness matters for childrens language, cognitive, and languagedevelopment across ages and emotional regulation at 24 months. On the otherhand, maternal intrusiveness is negatively associated with emotional regulationat 24 and pre-K and language development at pre-K. Father intrusiveness had asmall negative effect on language development only at pre-K and no effect atall on social emotional regulation. These findings suggest that programs thataim at increasing fathers education and that promote and encourage fatherspositive parenting will yield large benefits for children.

In recent years, scholarship on resident low-incomefathers has made important contributions to ourunderstanding of how fathers affect childrensdevelopment. It has shown that men are involvedwith their young children in multiple ways throughtheir accessibility, responsibility, and engagement;the quality of father engagement, or fatherchildinteractions, can be positive and supportive; posi-tive fatherchild interactions matter for childrensdevelopment, with different effects emerging atdifferent points in development (Cabrera,Ryan, Shannon, Brooks-Gunn, Vogel, Raikes,

Tamis-LeMonda, & Cohen, 2004; Lamb, 2004;Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, & Cabrera, 2006;Tamis-LeMonda & Cabrera, 2002); and, thatfatherchild interactions are embedded in a largerecology that includes mother-father relationshipand the family human and financial resources(Lamb, 2004). This article presents an integrationof findings across several of our recent studies thathave contributed to each of these areas.

First, we present findings that address thequestion of how resident fathers are engaged withtheir young children at 2 years, 3 years, and pre-kindergarten (pre-K). These findings are impor-tant because they are based on observed ratherthan survey data and show that the quality offatherchild interactions is consistent across time

Correspondence should be addressed to Natasha Cabrera,

University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Bldg., Room 3304 N,

College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: ncabrera@umd.edu

Applied Development Science2007, Vol. 11, No. 4, 208213

Copyright # 2007 byLawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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and that fathers, like mothers, can be sensitive andsupportive to their children.

Second, we highlight central fathers personal andcontextual characteristics that affect fathers engage-ment. In particular, we focus on fathers human andfinancial resources and motherchild interactions.These findings shed light onto particular personaland contextual factors that are central to positiveparenting over time, which programs and policiescan target for effective interventions.

Third, we focus on how fathers engagementsaffect their young childrens cognitive, languageand social, and emotional outcomes over andabove mothers contribution. The extant literatureon low-income fathers has focused on the effects ofabsent fathers and mens lack of resources on chil-drens development. In contrast, our findings showthat fathers who engage with their children in posi-tive ways have significant effects on their cognitionand language at 2 and 3 years (Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, London, & Cabrera, 2002; Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera, & Lamb, 2004) andtheir social and emotional development at 2 and 3years and at pre-kindergarten (Cabrera, Tarkow, &Shannon, 2006). These findings are importantbecause they show that fathers uniquely contributeto childrens cognitive and social and emotionaldevelopment above the effects on mothers engage-ment on children.

These studies are guided by the Dynamics ofPaternal Influences on Children over the Life CourseModel that stipulates the important contribution ofparent characteristics, child and context to parentingand childrens outcomes (Cabrera, Fitzgerald,Bradley, & Roggman, this issue). These findingsadd to the literature in several ways: First, they focuson an ethnically=racially diverse, low-income sampleof fathers who reside with their young children.Second, they show that low-income fathers canmakesignificant contributions to their childrens develop-ment. Third, these findings are based on observa-tions of fathers and their children and hence moveus beyond methodologies that rely on mothers asproxy respondents for fathers.

Methods

Participants

Participants were drawn from research sites thatparticipated in both the National Early Head StartResearch and Evaluation Project (EHS study) andthe EHS Father Studys Project. Ten of 17 EHSsites participated in the father component of themain study at 2 and 3 years and 12 participatedat pre-K time point (Cabrera et al., 2002; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004). Families (N 1,685 at

2=3 years, N 2,115 at pre-K) were enrolled intothe study when they initially applied to have theirchildren receive childcare and parenting services atthe local Early Head Start program that is part-ners in the EHS study. Written consent to partici-pate in the EHS study and family baseline data(e.g., maternal age, race=ethnicity) were obtainedfrom mothers at the start of the research and fromfathers at their initial visit.

Because the majority of fathers who partici-pated in the video portion of the study werebiological and resident (i.e., 85% at 2 and 3 years,75% at pre-K), we only include families with aresident biological father at each age point. Forthe 2 and 3 year time points we report on a sampleof 290 (see Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004) and atpre-K we report on a sample of 313. These samplesinclude families for whom we had father videodata on at least one assessment.

Given the design of the study (mothers identifiedfathers, but not all identified fathers agreed to par-ticipate in the study), the fathers who ultimatelyparticipated in study 1 (2 and 3 year time point)and study 2 (pre-K time point) of the EHS fatherstudy are a select group of men (see Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004). Compared with those whodid not participate in the father study, participatingfathers and their childrens mothers were morelikely to be married and=or cohabiting, White orLatino, completed more years of education, andwere more likely to be employed. Additionally,their children had higher scores on cognitive andsocial and emotional tests than children fromnonparticipating families (see Tamis-LeMondaet al., 2004 for a complete analysis of selection bias).

The majority of fathers in these reported studieswere White (60%, 60%, and 51%, respectively);the remaining fathers were largely African Americanfollowed by Latino. Across the three ages,approximately 1=3 to 1=2 of fathers had less thanhigh school degree; remaining fathers had highschool degrees or more. Almost all fathersreported working full-time or part-time at the vari-ous ages, ranging from 84% to 96%. However, theannual income for families at pre-K was larger($59,459) than it was at 2 and 3 years ($18,820and $25,440, respectively). Children averaged 25months at the time of the 2-year visit, 37 monthsat the 3-year visit, and 64 months at the time ofthe pre-kindergarten visit; about half at all threeages were boys.

Procedures

Once fathers had been identified by the childsmother, they were contacted to participate in thestudy. Participating fathers were administered a

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father questionnaire and motherchild and fatherchild dyads were videotaped in separate home visitswhen children were 2 and 3 years, and about to enterkindergarten. Childrens cognitive, language, andsocial and emotional development were assessed bya trained tester at the mother visit. Fathers weregiven $20 at the 2- and 3-year visits and $30 at thepre-K visit and children were given a gift.

Fatherchild interactions were videotaped duringthree activities, including 10 or 15 min of semi-structured free play, whichwas the focus of the inves-tigation. During free play, toys were presented tofathers in three separate bags. Toys were selectedto be age appropriate and to offer dyads the opport-unity to engage in both concrete and symbolic formsof play (e.g., at 2 years, the father toys included: bag#1a book, bag #2a pizza set and telephone,and bag #3a farm with farm animals; seeTamis-LeMonda et al., 2004 and Cabrera et al.,2006, for description of toys used at the other ages).Fathers were asked to sit on amat with his=her child,try to ignore the camera, and to do whatever feltmost natural. They were instructed to only play withthe toys from the three bags and to start with bag#1, move on to bag #2, and finish with bag #3.They were told that they could divide up the 10 minor 15 min as they liked.

Measures

Parent Characteristics

The majority of demographic characteristics werecollected from the father interview. Family incomewas gathered from standards measure of employ-ment (Cabrera et al., 2002). Measures to assesschildrens development included: The mental andbehavior ratings scales (i.e., emotional regulationand orientation=engagement factors) of the BayleyScales of Infant Development, 2nd Edition (BSID-II)(at 2 and 3 years; Bayley, 1993), the Peabody-PictureVocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III=TVIP) (at 3 yearsand pre-K; Dunn & Dunn, 1997), the Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems and Letter-Word Identifi-cation (at pre-K; Mather &Woodcock, 2001) and theLeiter-Revised Examiner Rating Scale to assesschildrens sociability and emotional regulation (atpre-K; Roid & Miller, 1997).

ParentChild Interactions

The quality of fatherchild interactions as well asmotherchild interactions were assessed using scalesadapted from the NICHD Study of Early ChildCares Three Box scales (NICHD Early ChildCare Research Network, (1999). This scale assessedsix parenting dimensions at 2 and 3 years and 4 par-enting dimensions at pre-K on 7-point rating scales

(1 very low to 7 very high). We assessed threedimensions of positive parenting (i.e., sensitivity,positive regard, and cognitive stimulation) as indica-tors of fathers and mothers Supportiveness, whichrepresents parenting that is characterized byemotional support and enthusiasm for the childsautonomous work, responsiveness and activeattempts to expand the childs knowledge and abili-ties. We included one negative aspect of parenting:Intrusiveness, which indicates that the parent isover-controlling and over-involved (see Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004 for more detailed descriptionof scales and inter-rater reliability). All coders wereunaware of childrens scores on child assessmentsand father interviews.

Results

Findings from these studies are organizedaround the three research questions: (1) How doresident fathers engage with their young children?(2) How do human and financial resources andmothers engagements predict the quality offathers engagements with their young children?(3) How do resources and father engagementsaffect their young childrens development, overand above mother engagement?

Fathers Engagements With Their Young Children

Building on past research that fathers andmothers engage with their children in distinct butalso similar ways, our work offers further evidenceof the similarities between some parents. Fatherswere as sensitive as mothers and both parentsshowed low levels of intrusiveness, countering com-mon stereotypes of fathers as aloof. At all child agesstudied, fathers and mothers received comparablyhigh scores on their supportiveness (fathersrange 4.08 to 4.23, mothers range 4.18 to 4.48)and equivalently low scores on their intrusiveness(fathers range 1.19 to 1.94, mothers range 1.34to 1.63). As observed in the videotaped fatherchildinteraction episodes, children experienced supportiveand positive parenting from both their parents.

Financial Resources and MotherChild

Interactions to Father Engagement

Although the samples in our studies represented allresident fathers whowere generally higher functioningthan nonparticipating fathers, for example themajority were employed and obtained at least a highschool degree, there was variation in the sample thataccounted for differences in father engagements.

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In terms of human and financial resources,fathers were more supportive at all three ages andless intrusive at 2 years when they had at least a highschool education (rs .15 to .17, ps < .05 andr .21, p < .05, respectively). Income was posi-tively related to fathers supportiveness at 2 yearsand pre-K, but not at 3 years (r .14 and .21,ps < .05), whereas income negatively related tofathers intrusiveness at these same two ages(r .13 to .21, p < .05). At all three ages,mother supportiveness to her child related to fathersupportiveness (rs .25 to 30, ps < .05). Motherintrusiveness with her child related to father intru-siveness at 2 and 3 years (rs .25 and 32,ps < .05), but not at pre-K (r .09, p > .05).

In summary, fathers resources and mother sup-portiveness are significantly related to supportivefather engagement at most ages. Also, the findingof covariation between father and mother engage-ment quality, underscores the need to covarymothers engagement when considering the uniqueinfluence of fathering on childrens outcomes.

Human and Financial Resources and Parent

Engagement in Relation to Childrens Development

Childrens scores on the mental scale of theBayley (93 and 94 at 2 and 3 years, respectively),language scores on the PPVT (87 and 91 at 3 yearsand pre-K) and word-recognition and applied pro-blems on the Woodcock Johnson (88 on bothscales) averaged .5 to 1.0 SD below the nationalnorms. However, children were highly regulatedand interactive during the administration of childassessments as indicated by their high scores onthe orientation=engagement and emotional regu-lation factors on the Bayley at 2 and 3 years(3.74 and 3.75 at 2 years; 3.96 and 4.19, at 3 years)and on the cognitive-social and emotional regu-lation composite scales of the Leiter-R at pre-K(94 and 91, respectively).

To test the unique influence of father engage-ment on child outcomes at the three ages, we ranregressions for each child outcome. All regressionsincluded fathers education and income, motherengagement (supportiveness, intrusiveness), fatherengagement (supportiveness, intrusiveness), andvarious controls where relevant (e.g., maritalstatus, mothers education).

Predictors to Childrens Cognition and Language

Together, the predictors explained between 19and 32% of the variance in childrens cognitionand language. Fathers education (more than highschool) was significantly related to childrensscores on the MDI and PPVT at 3 years and onWJ letter-word recognition, applied problems,

and PPVT at pre-K (bs .21 to .27, ps < .01).Family income was marginally related to chil-drens MDI scores at 3 years (b .14, p < .10)and significantly related to all child outcomes atpre-K (bs .17 to .23, ps < .01).

After accounting for financial and humanresources (and mother engagement), the associ-ation between father engagement and childoutcomes varied slightly over time depending ontype of father engagement. In general, motherssupportiveness related to childrens cognitive out-comes at 2 and 3 years, and at pre-K (bs .14to 25, ps < .06 for 2=3years; b .12, p .05).Fathers supportiveness related to childrensoutcomes at 2 and 3 years, but not at pre-K(bs .14 to 25, ps < .06). Intrusiveness variedin its relation to child outcomes by child age.Neither mother nor father intrusiveness wererelated to child outcomes at 2 and 3 years.However, maternal intrusiveness inversely relatedto childrens WJ applied problems (b .12,p < .05) and paternal intrusiveness was inverselyrelated to their PPVT scores at pre-K (b .11,p < .05).

Predictors to Childrens Social

and Emotional Behaviors

Together, the predictors explained between 11and 19% of the variance in childrens social andemotional outcomes. As with cognitive outcomes,fathers education (more than high school) consis-tently predicted childrens emotional regulation at2 and 3 years (bs .18 to .28, ps < .05). Familyincome, on the other hand, mattered only forchildrens orientation-engagement at 3 years andemotional regulation at pre-K (bs .27 and .15,ps < .05) and approached significance to their cog-nitive-social behaviors at pre-K (b .14, p .06).

In terms of parent engagement, surprisingly,maternal supportiveness was unrelated to chil-drens outcomes at all ages (bs .01 to 08,p > .10), however, father supportiveness, waspositively associated with childrens emotionalregulation at 2 years (b .21, ps < .05) and mar-ginally related to their orientation-engagementat both 2 and 3 years (bs .13 and .15, p < .10,respectively). Expectedly, maternal intrusivenesswas negatively related to childrens emotionalregulation at 2 years and pre-K as well astheir cognitive-social scores at pre-K. At 2 years,father intrusiveness was positively related toorientation-engagement, but inversely related toemotional regulation (bs .20, ps < .05). Fatherintrusiveness was unrelated to childrens socialand emotional outcomes at 3 years and pre-K(bs .06 to .03, ps > .10).

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Discussion

To date, studies of how fathers matter to theirchildren have produced inconsistent findings(Pleck, 1997). Some studies have reported thatfather engagement has no direct effect on chil-drens outcomes (Cabrera, Shannon, West, &Brooks-Gunn, 2006). First, it is less likely to findan association between father report of engage-ment and child outcomes than when the qualityof father engagement is observed (Ryan, Martin,& Brooks-Gunn, 2006). Second, it is possible thatfathers have different effects on childrens develop-ment across time (Cabrera et al., 2006). Findingsfrom this study support both explanations. Wealso find that fathers education and income arekey predictors of positive father engagement.

It is noteworthy that the quality of fathers andmothers parenting is very similar to each other.In so far as the brief videotape of parentchildinteraction provides a window to how childrenare parented, we find that both parents are moresensitive than intrusive. In line with prior research,we also find that the most consistent predictors ofsupportive fathering across childrens ages arefathers education and income (Amato & Rivera,1999; Black, Dubowitz, & Starr, 1999; Huang,Mincy, & Garfinkel, 2005). It might be that fatherswho have more than high school education aremore motivated to parent and are more aware ofthe developmental needs of children than thosewith less education.

The next question we were interested in waswhether parenting has an effect on childrens out-comes. Although children in our study scored .5 to1.0 SD below national norms of cognitive tests, theywere highly regulated across ages. As with predictorsto father engagement, in general, fathers who havemore than high school education have childrenperforming better in all developmental domainscognition, language, and social and emotional devel-opment. Family income, however, matters more atlater ages than earlier; presumably as children getolder they need more stimulating materials andopportunities to promote learning. This is consistentwith resource theories that posit that parentswho have more resources are more likely to investon their children by providing a stimulating environ-ment that promotes growth and learning thanfathers with fewer resources (Coleman, 1990).

Once we accounted for the effect of resources onchildrens development, we examined the uniquecontribution that parenting had on childrensoutcomes. For cognitive development, mothersand fathers supportiveness were positively relatedto childrens language and cognitive outcomesacross ages, although fathers supportiveness did

not matter at pre-K. For social and emotionaldevelopment, fathers supportiveness matteredonly at earlier ages, while mother supportivenesswas not related at any age. It might be thatsupportive mothering alone might not be enoughto teach children to regulate and pay attention.Perhaps supportive parenting coupled with otherdimensions of parenting, not measured here, suchas discipline, might be more effective, especiallywith older children. It is also possible parents inour study were not intrusive enough to have a nega-tive effect on children. Our findings are consistentwith past research that supportive parenting isimportant for childrens cognitive developmentacross time and it adds to the literature by showingthat supportive fathering has similar effects onchildrens cognitive functioning and emotionaldevelopment especially with younger children,whereas supportive mothering only affects cognitivedevelopment across ages.

Our results also shed light on the effects of onedimension of negative parenting. We found parentintrusiveness less consistently related to childrensdevelopment across domains and ages. In contrastto our findings for supportive parenting, intrusiveparenting has an expected negative effect on chil-drens cognition and language, but only for olderchildren. Perhaps over controlling parents tendto inhibit older childrens autonomy to verbalizeand ask questions hence diminishing opportunitiesfor learning. However, parent intrusiveness relatedto childrens emotional regulation differentlydepending on childs age and gender of parent.At 2 years, both parents intrusiveness mattered.Parents who are over controlling and over-involved have young children who are less regu-lated (i.e., less attentive, less able to stay on task)than non-intrusive mothers and fathers. At 3 andpre-K, maternal intrusiveness was almost consis-tently related to less emotional regulation whereaspaternal intrusiveness was not related at all. It ispossible that children, especially older children,interpret paternal intrusiveness in a more positiveway than they do maternal intrusiveness.

In summary, fathers who have at least a highschool education were more supportive and lessintrusive than parents with fewer resources. Overand above mother engagements, fathers suppor-tiveness matters for childrens cognitive andlanguage development across ages as well as chil-drens social and emotional behaviors, but lessconsistently. In contrast, father intrusiveness isnot related to older childrens social and emotionalbehaviors; it matters only at 2 years. These find-ings have important implications for policy andprograms. Programs that aim at increasing fatherseducation and that promote and encourage

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fathers positive parenting will yield large benefitsfor children.

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Received November 2, 2006Accepted March 6, 2007

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