"Parenting and children’s negative emotionality, self‐regulation, and academic skills: The moderating role of fathers’ residency"

Professor Gustavo Carlo published an article in Social Development on the impact of fathers’ residency on children’s academic skills in pre‐kindergarten.

​The title of the article is “Parenting and children’s negative emotionality, self‐regulation, and academic skills: The moderating role of fathers’ residency.” Co-authors are Segunghee Han (Hollins University), Francisco Palermo (University of Missouri), and Jean M. Ipsa (University of Missouri)
 
Carlo’s primary research interest focuses on understanding positive social development and health in culturally diverse children and adolescents. Many of his projects study U.S. ethnic/racial groups, including Latino/a youth and families. He has published more than 200 books, chapters, and research papers. He currently serves as a member of the Society for Research in Child Development Governing Council, as associate editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Development, and as co-editor of the upcoming APA Handbook of Adolescent Development. Carlo is director of UCI’s Cultural Resilience and Learning Center.

​Abstract
 
We examined whether fathers’ residency modified the associations among mothers’ supportiveness, father involvement, children’s negative emotionality during toddlerhood and children’s academic skills in pre‐kindergarten via children’s self‐regulation. Participants were 2,291 mothers (Mage = 23.24 years) and children (Mage = 14.99 months at Wave 1; 50.7% girls) in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Results revealed distinctive associations by fathers’ residency: self‐regulation mediated the association between mothers’ supportiveness and academic skills only in resident‐father‐families. Self‐regulation mediated the association between negative emotionality and academic skills only in nonresident‐father‐families. The findings highlight the family processes of mothers, fathers, and children in low‐income family contexts that contribute to children’s academic skills, and how those family processes may vary by fathers’ residency status.