We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort 9- and 24-mo surveys (n = 8693) and Structural Equation Modeling to examine direct and indirect associations between food insecurity and toddlers' overweight (weight for length), physical health, and length for age. There were significant effects of food insecurity on parental depression and parental depression in turn influenced physical health. There were also significant effects of food insecurity on parenting practices, which in turn were significantly associated with infant feeding and subsequently toddlers' overweight. There were no significant direct or indirect associations between food insecurity and toddlers' length for age. Our results show that food insecurity influences parenting, including both depression and parenting practices. Findings suggest parental depression is a stressor on parenting behavior that social policy should address to alleviate problematic child health outcomes. Findings underscore the importance of continuing and strengthening policy initiatives to ensure that families with infants and toddlers have sufficient, predictable, and reliable food supply.

The father-child relationship and father’s parenting style are examined as predictors of first delinquency and substance use, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, Rounds 1 to 3 ( N = 5,345), among adolescents in intact families. Discrete time logistic regressions indicate that a more positive father-child relationship predicts a reduced risk of engagement in multiple first risky behaviors. Having a father with an authoritarian parenting style is associated with an increased risk of engaging in delinquent activity and substance use. Two-way interaction models further indicate that the negative effect of authoritarian parenting is reduced when fathers have a positive relationship with their adolescent. Permissive parenting also predicts less risky behavior when the father-child relationship is positive. The positive influence of the father-child relationship on risk behaviors is stronger for male than for female adolescents.

Social policies that address the adequacy and predictability of food supplies in families with infants have the potential to affect parental depression and parenting behavior, and thereby attachment and cognitive development at very early ages.

This study uses a sample of 2,139 resident biological fathers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing surveys (baseline and 12-month follow-up), to examine whether paternal aggravation and stress in parenting is associated with father engagement and coparenting and whether this association differs by father's socioeconomic status. Results of Ordinary Least Squares regression models indicate that paternal aggravation and stress in parenting is significantly associated with lower levels of father engagement and with less supportive coparenting relationships (controlling for mothers' aggravation and stress in parenting). Findings also indicate a more negative association between paternal aggravation/stress in parenting and father engagement and coparenting for fathers with household incomes below the poverty threshold. Findings suggest that policies aimed at decreasing parenting stress may be especially beneficial to fathers living in poor families.

Depression has been extensively studied for mothers but not for fathers. This study examines the sociodemographic correlates of symptoms of depression and how depression is associated with father involvement using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form (CIDI-SF) for major depression. The study uses a sample of 2,139 resident fathers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing 12-Month Father Survey. Results indicate that symptoms of major depression differ by race, marital status, and employment status but not by age and educational status. Major depression also differs significantly based on drug and alcohol use and criminal justice experience. Results of ordinary least squares regression models indicate that major depression is negatively associated with father-child activities (engagement), positively associated with paternal aggravation/stress in parenting, and negatively associated with both the quality of the mother-father relationship and coparental relationship supportiveness. Findings are important for identifying fathers for whom interventions would be valuable.A lthough depression has been studied extensively among mothers, the incidence and implications of depression have received much less attention