Related Experiment Videos
Social support of inner-city fathers and mothers
K E Boehm1, A K Duggan, L M Dinerman
1Division of General Academic Pediatrics, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, USA.
Insights
Inner-city parents provide each other with crucial support, positively influencing shared parenting roles. This mutual reliance is key for pediatricians to foster greater paternal involvement and support in child-rearing.
Area of Science:
- Family Studies
- Pediatrics
- Sociology
Background:
- Inner-city parents often face unique challenges in raising children.
- Understanding parental support systems is vital for child development.
- The father's role in early childhood is increasingly recognized as significant.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mutual support networks among inner-city parents.
- To explore the relationship between this support and the father's expected parental role.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study was conducted with inner-city parents in Baltimore, MD.
- Data were gathered via structured interviews with mothers and fathers.
- Social support was measured using Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire; paternal involvement was defined by expected accessibility, engagement, and decision-making.
Main Results:
- Most parents identified their partner as a source of support and believed they would be helpful, not hindering, in their parental roles.
- Mothers' perceptions of fathers' involvement correlated positively with fathers' general support.
- Fathers' perceptions of mothers' support correlated positively with their expected accessibility.
Conclusions:
- Inner-city parents demonstrate significant mutual reliance.
- Pediatricians can leverage this existing support to encourage shared parenting and enhance paternal engagement.
Objective:
To examine mutual support of inner-city parents and how it relates to the father's expected role as a parent.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
An urban teaching hospital in inner-city Baltimore, Md.
Patients Or Other Participants:
Inner-city-dwelling parents whose neonates were born at an urban teaching hospital between March and May 1992.
Intervention:
Data were collected through structured independent interviews with each parent during the neonate's hospitalization.
Main Outcome Measures:
General social support was assessed by Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire. Paternal involvement was defined as the father's expected accessibility, engagement in child-rearing tasks, and decision-making responsibility during infancy.
Results:
Most mothers and fathers cited the other parent as a source of general support. Most believed that the other parent would help and would not hinder them in their role as parent. For mothers, the father's expected accessibility, engagement, and decision-making responsibility was positively correlated with his general support. For the fathers, expected accessibility was positively related to general support from the mother. As parents' mutual support increased, so did concordance in their expectations of the father's role.
Conclusions:
Many inner-city parents do rely on each other. Pediatricians can promote shared parenting by recognizing and building on this mutual support.