Premium
Pathways to Prevention: Improving Nonresident African American Fathers' Parenting Skills and Behaviors to Reduce Sons' Aggression
Author(s) -
Caldwell Cleopatra Howard,
Antonakos Cathy L.,
Assari Shervin,
Kruger Daniel,
Loney E. Hill,
Njai Rashid
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12127
Subject(s) - psychology , intervention (counseling) , aggression , developmental psychology , african american , structural equation modeling , positive parenting , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , clinical psychology , medicine , ethnology , statistics , mathematics , environmental health , psychiatry , history
This study describes a test of the Fathers and Sons Program for increasing intentions to avoid violence and reducing aggressive behaviors in 8‐ to 12‐year‐old African American boys by enhancing the parenting skills satisfaction and parenting behaviors of their nonresident fathers. The study included 158 intervention and 129 comparison group families. Structural equation model results indicated that the intervention was effective for improving fathers' parenting skills satisfaction, which was positively associated with sons' satisfaction with paternal engagement. Sons' paternal engagement satisfaction was positively associated with their intentions to avoid violence. Although aggressive behaviors were lower for comparison group sons, the intervention effectively reduced sons' aggressive behaviors indirectly by enhancing fathers' parenting behaviors. Support for family‐centered youth violence prevention efforts is discussed.