ABSTRACT

Objective

The Family Affective Attitude Rating Scale (FAARS) uses an audio-recorded speech sample to measure parents’ affective attitudes toward their children. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of this scale for use with fathers, concurrent predictors of paternal affective attitudes (parental depressive symptoms, inter-parental relationship quality, observed paternal parenting), and associations between fathers’ positive and negative affective attitudes toward their two-year-old children and children’s behavior problems one year later.

Methods

Participants were a sample (N = 226) of families from the Early Steps Multisite Study, a longitudinal study of low-income parents and children. Participants were racially and ethnically diverse (65% white; 23% Black or biracial; 12% Latinx).

Results

Initial validation results support the reliability and validity of FAARS coding in fathers of preschoolers, a previously untested group. Both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and interparental relationship quality were significantly associated with fathers’ affective attitudes toward their children. Further, fathers’ positive affective attitudes predicted lower mother-reported child behavior problems one year later, controlling for a host of demographic covariates, fathers’ observed parenting, mothers’ affective attitudes, and child baseline behavior problems.

Conclusions

Results indicate that fathers’ positive attitudes toward their young children are a unique and robust predictor of lower levels of early behavior problems.

中文翻译：

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爸爸的掌上明珠：预测儿童早期行为问题的父亲情感态度

 抽象的

 客观的

家庭情感态度评定量表（FAARS）使用录音语音样本来衡量父母对孩子的情感态度。本研究调查了该量表用于父亲的心理测量特性、父亲情感态度的同时预测因素（父母抑郁症状、亲子关系质量、观察到的父亲养育方式）以及父亲对他们两个人的积极和消极情感态度之间的关联一岁的孩子和一年后孩子的行为问题。

 方法

参与者是早期步骤多地点研究中的家庭样本（ N = 226），这是一项针对低收入父母和儿童的纵向研究。参与者具有多元化的种族和民族（65% 是白人；23% 是黑人或混血儿；12% 是拉丁裔）。

 结果

初步验证结果支持 FAARS 编码在学龄前儿童（之前未经测试的群体）父亲中的可靠性和有效性。母亲和父亲的抑郁症状以及亲子关系质量与父亲对孩子的情感态度显着相关。此外，在控制了一系列人口统计协变量、父亲观察到的养育方式、母亲的情感态度和儿童基线行为问题的情况下，父亲的积极情感态度可以预测一年后母亲报告的儿童行为问题会减少。

 结论

结果表明，父亲对幼儿的积极态度是早期行为问题水平较低的独特而有力的预测因素。