African American Fathers' Depression and Stress As Predictors of Early Parenting Behaviors

Introduction: Over the past 30 years, national attention has increased concerning the contribution of fathers to children’s healthy development. As a result, there is now good evidence that positive father involvement enhances children’s academic and social emotional development (Lamb, 2004). Early childhood is a time when children are confronted with new developmental challenges that require quality support from both parents (Cabrera, 2004). Specific aspects of positive father-involvement (e.g., home literacy involvement) have been linked to better reading and math achievement in kindergarten (Baker, in press). What is less well understood is whether there are psychological antecedents (i.e., depression and stress) that are related to the quality of father involvement during early childhood. Even less is known about these relations among African American fathers since most of the parenting research has focused on white, middle class fathers.

Few studies have included African American fathers. In one exception, Paulson (2009) found that African American fathers who experienced more depressive symptoms were less likely to engage in positive fathering (e.g., father-child reading). Because fathering is important to child development and there is evidence that psychological functioning influences fathering, it is vital that researchers understand whether specific dimensions of fathering are influenced by depression and stress. It is equally important that research with African American fathers contextualizes the father-child relationship within a cultural-ecological framework in an effort to understand the nuances of fathering for African American fathers who are more likely to experience racism and prejudice that can contribute to depression and stress.

Method: Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) were used to examine the relation between fathers’ depression, stress and father involvement in a large, nationally representative sample of African American fathers (N=784).

Results: Multivariate regression analyses revealed that fathers who experienced fewer depressive symptoms participated in more frequent play, caregiving and home literacy activities with their young children. In contrast, fathers’ who experienced fewer stressors engaged in more frequent play activities but not caregiving or home literacy. Notably, fathers engaged in more frequent play with their young girls than boys and fathers’ with healthier marital relationships were more involved in play and caregiving at 24 months.

Conclusion: Results of this study highlight healthy psychological functioning as a salient predictor of father-involvement. Prevention that addresses the needs of African American fathers in home settings might include providing resources to combat depression and stress. Such strategies may increase involvement and positively influence father-child relations.