Father involvement contributes uniquely to children's developmental outcomes. The antecedents of father involvement among unmarried, African American fathers from rural areas, however, have been largely overlooked. The present study tested a conceptual model linking retrospective reports of childhood trauma and early adulthood social instability to father involvement among unmarried, African American men living in resource-poor, rural communities in the southeastern United States. We hypothesized these factors would influence father involvement indirectly, via DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). A sample of 192 fathers participated in 3 waves of data collection in early adulthood. Fathers reported on social instability at Wave 1; OXTR methylation was assessed via saliva samples at Wave 2; and measures of father involvement, retrospective childhood trauma, and quality of the fathers' relationships with their children's mothers were collected at Wave 3. Structural equation modeling indicated that childhood trauma was related directly to reduced levels of father involvement and to increased social instability. Social instability was associated with elevated levels of OXTR methylation, which in turn predicted decreased father involvement. The indirect effect from social instability to father involvement via OXTR methylation was significant. These associations did not operate through fathers' relationship with the child's mother and remained significant even accounting for associations between interparental relationship quality and father involvement. Findings suggest that OXTR methylation might be a biological mechanism linking social instability to father involvement among unmarried, African American fathers in vulnerable contexts and underscore the detrimental influence of childhood trauma on father involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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通过催产素受体基因甲基化将童年创伤与农村未婚非裔美国父亲的参与联系起来的途径。

父亲的参与对儿童的发展成果有着独特的贡献。然而，来自农村地区的未婚非裔美国父亲在很大程度上被忽视了父亲参与的前因。本研究测试了一个概念模型，该模型将童年创伤和成年早期社会不稳定的回顾性报告与居住在美国东南部资源贫乏的农村社区的未婚非裔美国男性的父亲参与联系起来。我们假设这些因素会通过催产素受体基因 (OXTR) 的 DNA 甲基化间接影响父亲的参与。192 位父亲的样本在成年早期参与了 3 波数据收集。父亲们报告了第一波的社会不稳定；OXTR 甲基化通过第 2 波的唾液样本进行评估；和父亲参与的措施，回顾性童年创伤，以及父亲与孩子母亲关系的质量在第 3 波中收集。结构方程模型表明，童年创伤与父亲参与程度的降低和社会不稳定的增加直接相关。社会不稳定与 OXTR 甲基化水平升高有关，这反过来又预测父亲参与度降低。通过 OXTR 甲基化从社会不稳定到父亲参与的间接影响是显着的。这些关联不是通过父亲与孩子母亲的关系运作的，即使考虑到父母间关系质量和父亲参与之间的关联，这些关联仍然很重要。研究结果表明，OXTR 甲基化可能是一种生物学机制，将社会不稳定与处于弱势环境的未婚非裔美国父亲的父亲参与联系起来，并强调了童年创伤对父亲参与的不利影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。