Shared parental responsiveness among fathers and mothers with low income and early child outcomes

Abstract

Objective: Informed by the family systems theory, the current study aimed to examine whether shared parental responsiveness between fathers and mothers with low income was associated with preschoolers' developmental outcomes. Background: Both fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness are key contributors to their young children's development. However, the ways in which fathers and mothers work as a system, as well as the role of shared parental responsiveness in child development, are not well understood, especially among families from low-income contexts. Method: Participants were from the Building Strong Families project, a racially diverse group of families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (N = 1,173). Fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness were observed during father–child and mother–child interactions using the two-bags task. Preschoolers' child behavior problems, prosocial behaviors, and receptive language served as developmental outcomes of interest. A common fate approach to dyadic analysis was employed to create shared responsiveness and individual residual variance latent variables, which the child outcomes were regressed onto. Moderation analysis by fathers' resident status was conducted. Results: Shared responsiveness positively predicted preschoolers' prosocial behaviors (Β = 0.33, p