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Maternal and Child Health Journal
Published in: Maternal and Child Health Journal 5/2015

01-05-2015

Father Involvement and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in Families of Children with Disabilities or Delays

Authors: Daniel J. Laxman, Brent A. McBride, Laurie M. Jeans, W. Justin Dyer, Rosa M. Santos, Justin L. Kern, Niwako Sugimura, Sarah L. Curtiss, Jenna M. Weglarz-Ward

Published in: Maternal and Child Health Journal | Issue 5/2015

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Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal association between fathers’ early involvement in routine caregiving, literacy, play, and responsive caregiving activities at 9 months and maternal depressive symptoms at 4 years. Data for 3,550 children and their biological parents were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. Analyses in a structural equation modeling framework examined whether the association between father involvement and maternal depressive symptoms differed for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and for families of children with other disabilities or delays from families of children who were typically developing. Results indicated that father literacy and responsive caregiving involvement were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms for mothers of children with ASD. These findings indicate that greater father involvement may benefit families of children with ASD and highlight the need to support and encourage service providers to work with fathers.
Footnotes
1
Per NCES requirements when using ECLS-B data, all N’s in this article were rounded to the nearest 50.
 
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Metadata
Title
Father Involvement and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in Families of Children with Disabilities or Delays
Authors
Daniel J. Laxman
Brent A. McBride
Laurie M. Jeans
W. Justin Dyer
Rosa M. Santos
Justin L. Kern
Niwako Sugimura
Sarah L. Curtiss
Jenna M. Weglarz-Ward
Publication date
01-05-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Maternal and Child Health Journal / Issue 5/2015
Print ISSN: 1092-7875
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6628
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-014-1608-7

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