Relations between Yearly and Daily Patterns in Fathering and Mothering: An Application of Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling to the Family System.

Abstract

Objective: A growing number of studies have explored fathers' parenting quality and its effects on children during infancy and early childhood; however, gaps remain toward understanding fathers' and mothers' parenting quality from a family systems' perspective in late childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, prior research has focused on modeling the overall average changes in fathering and mothering across years (e.g., intraindividual change), but it is also important to directly evaluate the shorter-term day-to-day dynamics of fathering and mothering.

Design: The present study utilized dynamic structural equation modeling to explore yearly and daily patterns in fathers' and mothers' parenting quality in a sample of 278 father-mother couples of youth ranging in age from middle-childhood through adolescence from the midwestern United States.

Results: There were no changes in average daily levels of fathering or mothering across years, and there was significant stability in day-to-day fathering and mothering within and across years. Fathering and mothering were interrelated with one another. Yearly-level and daily-level fathering were negatively related to one another, consistent with the idea that better, more positive trait-levels of fathering may be associated with more "fluctuations" in day-to-day fathering.

Conclusions: Our results shed light on patterns in fathering and mothering over time during later child development and across different timescales. Our study highlights the importance of considering fathering and mothering simultaneously to provide a family systems perspective.