The purpose of this study was to investigate how different types of child maltreatment, independently and collectively, impact a wide range of risk behaviors that fall into three domains: sexual risk behaviors, delinquency, and suicidality. Cumulative classification and Expanded Hierarchical Type (EHT) classification approaches were used to categorize various types of maltreatment. Data were derived from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Our sample consisted of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian females ages 18 to 27 (n = 7,576). Experiencing different kinds of maltreatment during childhood led to an extensive range of risk behaviors within the three identified domains. Women experiencing sexual abuse plus other maltreatment types had the poorest outcomes in all three domains. These findings illustrate that it may no longer be appropriate to assume that all types of maltreatment are equivalent in their potential contribution to negative developmental sequelae.

Despite overrepresentation of fathers as perpetrators in cases of severe physical child abuse and neglect, the role they play in shaping risk for physical child abuse and neglect is not yet well understood. This article reviews the possible father pathways that may contribute to physical child abuse and neglect risk and their existing empirical support. The present empirical base implicates a set of sociodemographic factors in physical maltreatment risk, including fathers' absence, age, employment status, and income they provide to the family. As well, paternal psychosocial factors implicated in physical child maltreatment risk include fathers' abuse of substances, their own childhood experiences of maltreatment, the nature of fathers' relationships with mothers, and the direct care they provide to the child. However, the empirical base presently suffers from significant methodological limitations, preventing more definitive identification of risk factors or causal processes. Given this, the present article offers questions and recommendations for future research and prevention.

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This study set out to examine father-related factors predicting maternal physical child abuse risk in a national birth cohort of 1,480 families. In-home and phone interviews were conducted with mothers when index children were 3 years old. Predictor variables included the mother–father relationship status; father demographic, economic, and psychosocial variables; and key background factors. Outcome variables included both observed and self-reported proxies of maternal physical child abuse risk. At the bivariate level, mothers married to fathers were at lower risk for most indicators of maternal physical child abuse. However, after accounting for specific fathering factors and controlling for background variables, multivariate analyses indicated that marriage washed out as a protective factor, and on two of three indicators was linked with greater maternal physical abuse risk. Regarding fathering factors linked with risk, fathers’ higher educational attainment and their positive involvement with their children most discernibly predicted lower maternal physical child abuse risk. Fathers’ economic factors played no observable role in mothers’ risk for physical child maltreatment. Such multivariate findings suggest that marriage per se does not appear to be a protective factor for maternal physical child abuse and rather it may serve as a proxy for other father-related protective factors.

This study examined the associations between adolescent mothers' postpartum depressive symptoms and their perceptions of amount of father care giving and satisfaction with father involvement with the baby. The sample included 100 adolescent mothers (ages 13-19; mainly African-American and Latina) whose partners were recruited for a randomized study for fathers only. Controlling for prenatal depressive symptoms and other prenatal and postpartum variables, we found that higher levels of mothers' satisfaction with father involvement rather than perception of amount of fathers' care giving was significantly associated with fewer postpartum depressive symptoms. The relationship between satisfaction with father involvement and depressive symptoms was partially mediated by mothers' sense of parenting competence and not by mothers' parenting stress. Policy and programs should place greater emphasis on early support for adolescent mothers and their partners, particularly when mothers desire the involvement of the father with his child.

There is a need for interventions within the child welfare system that better promote family wellbeing by including fathers in services. Patterns linking paternal socio-demographic and psychosocial factors to psychological and physical child abuse varied as a function of paternal race/ethnicity, indicating that race/ethnic differences are among the important factors that intervention efforts should take into account.

This study examined whether coparenting support and social support had a stronger effect on father engagement with 3‐year‐olds among adolescent fathers compared with adult fathers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,540), we found that coparenting support and paternal social support had a significantly stronger positive effect on adolescent fathers than adult fathers. The associations among coparenting, social support, and adolescent father engagement did not depend on whether the father and mother were romantically involved with each other. The results support the idea that programs for adolescent parents should focus on coparenting and social support as a way to help fathers to stay involved with their children.

This study examined the longitudinal and concurrent associations among fathers' perceptions of partner relationship quality (happiness, conflict), coparenting (shared decision making, conflict), and paternal stress. The sample consisted of 6,100 children who lived with both biological parents at 24 and 48 months in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. The results showed that there are significant and concurrent associations between fathers' perceptions of the coparenting relationship and paternal stress, and between partner relationship quality and paternal stress. There was also a positive direct longitudinal association between partner relationship conflict and paternal stress. However, we found only one longitudinal cross-system mediation effect: fathers' perception of coparenting conflict at 48 months mediated the association between partner relationship conflict at 24 months and paternal stress at 48 months. The family practice implications of these findings are discussed.