Ross D Parke

• PHD
• University of California, Riverside

We propose a transactional model of risk and resilience and ambiguous loss as theoretical guides to understanding transnational fathering. We also examine the risk and buffering conditions associated with each temporal aspect of the migrant journey of transnational fathers beginning with the initial decision to leave their country of origin to thei...

Family socialization is integral to the development of well-adjusted children, and parenting by two parents provides important resources. For many families, children are socialized in contexts where their biological fathers are physically absent. Unfortunately, these children are regarded as fatherless in the literature and social commentary. Drawi...

Objective To examine the psychometric properties of a scale of perceived mattering to (step)parents and its links to adolescent mental health. Background Parenting behaviors are important for adolescent development; less is known about the meanings adolescents attach to parents' behaviors. One fundamental meaning adolescents may intuit is that par...

Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children's development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father–child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD‐sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discu...

The primary goal of the current study was to test whether parent and adolescent preference for a common language moderates the association between parenting and rank-order change over time in offspring substance use. A sample of Mexican-origin 7th-grade adolescents (Mage = 12.5 years, N = 194, 52% female) was measured longitudinally on use of tobac...

We examined the mediational roles of multiple types of adolescents’ emotional security in relations between multiple aspects of the interparental relationship and adolescents’ mental health from ages 13 to 16 (N = 392). General marital quality, nonviolent parent conflict, and physical intimate partner violence independently predicted mental health....

The primary goal of this study was to test how mother and adolescent proficiency in a common language moderates the link from parenting to adolescent development. A sample of Mexican-origin fifth-grade adolescents (N = 674, 50% female) was measured longitudinally on self-control and aggression. Mothers were rated on observed positive discipline, wa...

The purpose of this study was to examine differences and similarities across ratings of parenting by preadolescents, parents, and observers. Two hundred forty-one preadolescents rated their parents on warmth and harshness. Both mothers and fathers self-reported on these same dimensions, and observers rated each parents' warmth and harshness during...

This article discusses the role of family in the process of socialization in infancy and childhood. This takes several forms, including treating the family as a social system in which parent–child, marital, and sibling subsystems are recognized. The family socialization process is also recognized within an ecological perspective to appreciate how f...

Using a sample of 193 Mexican American adolescents (M age at Wave 1 = 14 years) and three waves of data over 2 years, this study longitudinally examined the effects of parent–youth acculturation differences, relative to no differences, on parent–adolescent relationship quality and youth problem behavior. We examined parent–youth differences in over...

We studied young adolescents' seeking out support to understand conflict with their co-resident fathers/stepfathers, and the cognitive and affective implications of such support-seeking, phenomena we call guided cognitive reframing. Our sample included 392 adolescents (Mage = 12.5, 52.3% female) who were either of Mexican or European ancestry and l...

We evaluated maternal gatekeeping attitudes as a mediator of the relation between marital problems and father-child relationships in 3 waves when children were in Grades 7-10. We assessed each parent's contribution to the marital problems experienced by the couple. Findings from mediational and cross-lagged structural equation models revealed that...

The book explores the variety of family forms that characterize our contemporary culture and their implications for child development. Parke traces shifts in parental roles resulting from increases in divorce,single parent families ,cohabitating couples,same gender parental families and new reproductive technology assisted families.. These forms ch...

amilies have long been recognized as a major socialization agent for the development of children’s social behavior. However, the definition of family has changed to view the family as a social system in which fathers, siblings, and the marital relationship all affect social development. It has also become increasingly important to examine the effec...

Several themes which emerged from the preceding chapters are highlighted including the central message: to fully understand the immigration process and to develop social policies, gender of both adults and children needs to be incorporated into future studies in this area. The heterogeneity of immigrants may follow different paths, and gender may p...

Studied physiological and behavioral responses to 2 stressful situations in the context of an experiment on affiliation. 120 male undergraduates were threatened with the prospect of electric shock or of sucking on infantile oral objects. The threat of shock was associated with an increase in both skin conductance and heart rate and in a decrease in...

Little attention has been paid to how early adolescents make attributions for their fathers' behavior. Guided by symbolic interaction theory, we examined how adolescent gender, ethnicity, family structure, and depressive symptoms explained attributions for residential father behavior. 382 adolescents, grouped by ethnicity (European American, Mexica...

In this chapter, we briefly review literature concerning three ways in which families are hypothesized to influence social adaptation in childhood and adolescence. In doing so, we emphasize recent work from a longitudinal study of familial influences on children's social development currently being conducted in our laboratory. Specifically, we exam...

Adolescents may seek to understand family conflict by seeking out confidants. However, little is known about whom adolescents seek, whether and how such support helps youth, and the factors that predict which sources are sought. This chapter offers a conceptual model of guided cognitive reframing that emphasizes the behavioral, cognitive, and affec...

Focusing on the StepfatherFactors Contributing to Stepfather InvolvementMexican American Families as a Case Study in Cultural ContextConclusion

Families, communities and societies influence children's learning and development in many ways. This is the first handbook devoted to the understanding of the nature of environments in child development. Utilizing Urie Bronfenbrenner's idea of embedded environments, this volume looks at environments from the immediate environment of the family (inc...

Our study examined discrepancies in Mexican American adolescent–parent perceptions regarding parental autonomy promoting and their associations with adolescents’ adjustment. A total of 138 Mexican American sixth graders reported their global self-worth and depressive symptoms. Adolescents and parents also reported their perceptions of parental auto...

Mexican-American adolescents are at an elevated risk for adjustment difficulties. In an effort to identify parenting practices that can affect the adjustment of Mexican-American youth, the current study examined parents' promotion of psychological autonomy and parents' psychological control as perceived by Mexican-American early adolescents, and ex...

The current study investigated how fathering behaviors (acceptance, rejection, monitoring, consistent discipline, and involvement) are related to preadolescent adjustment in Mexican American and European American stepfamilies and intact families. Cross-sectional data from 393 7(th) graders, their schoolteachers, and parents were used to examine lin...

Asian American families are often portrayed as affluent, having achieved a high level of education and occupational prestige. Despite this model-minority image, many Asian Americans suffer from economic hardship. Using a sample of 95 Asian Americans, this study examines the effect of perceived economic hardship on coping behavior, family relations,...

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle-class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working-class first ge...

One of the most important and earliest relationships is the parent-child relationship. During infancy, this relationship focuses on the parent responding to the infant's basic needs. Over time, an attachment forms between the parent and child in response to the these day-to-day interactions. During toddlerhood, parents attempt to shape their childr...

In recognition of the multiple pathways through which family and peer systems are linked, this short-term longitudinal study tested a tripartite model of family-peer relationships. One hundred fifty-nine fourth-grade children (82 boys, 77 girls) and their parents participated in a study of the links between parent behaviors and children's peer rela...

Mutual gaze has been shown to be a valuable channel of nonverbal communication. To examine mutual gaze between parents and children, 43 European American (EA) and 57 Mexican American (MA) families were coded on the occurrence of talking and gaze during a brief discussion. MA families showed lower levels of father-to-child gaze, mother-to-son gaze,...

The early developmental antecedents of individual differences in children's social functioning with peers in third grade were examined using longitudinal data from the large-scale NICHD Study of Early Child Care. In a sample of 1364 children, with family and child factors controlled, the frequency of positive and negative peer interactions in child...

Data were analyzed from 641 children and their families in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to test the hypotheses that in the early school years, mothers' and fathers' sensitive support for autonomy in observed parent-child interactions would each make unique predictions t...

The authors examined the degree to which disparities in parent and child acculturation are linked to both family and child adjustment. With a sample of 1st- and 2nd-generation Mexican American children, acculturation and parent-child relationship quality at 5th grade, and parent-child conflict, child internalizing, and child externalizing at 7th gr...

This study investigated similarities and differences in relations between stress and parenting behaviors for 509 Mexican American and Euro-pean American fathers and mothers in Southern California. Our model posited that family cohesion mediates the relation between stressors and parenting behavior, and we found that family cohesion strongly mediate...

This study examined the links among parents' interaction styles, their children's social information processing, and peer acceptance. Fourth-grade children (N = 159) and their parents were observed during family discussions. One year later peer acceptance and children's information processing choices (goals, strategies, and attributions) in respons...

At a time when people are lamenting the death of the American family, Ross D. Parke, Scott Coltrane, and Thomas Schofield discovered that many of its ideals are alive and well—and they’re being imported from Mexico.

This chapter reviews advances in our understanding of socialization of children in the family context. Both historical and contemporary perspectives on socialization are outlined. The chapter is guided by a family systems approach to socialization which recognizes the parent-child subsystem, the co-parental, marital and sibling subsystems as well a...

The reliability and validity of Hoffman and Kloska’s (1995) Gender-based Attitudes toward Marital Roles (GATMR) and Gender-based Attitudes toward Child Rearing (GATCR) were assessed for a sample of Mexican American mothers and fathers (n = 167) of fifth-grade children in a large metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Factor analysis w...

Similarities between adolescents are often the cornerstone of a friendship; yet researchers know little about the similarities in friends’ perceptions of the relationship. In the current study, the authors examine similarities in friends’ perceived friendship qualities during the transition into early adolescence (n = 77 third graders, 110 fourth g...

For decades parenting was typically operationalized as mothering. A variety of factors contributed to this narrow definition of parenting including assumptions about the critical caregiving role of mothers, the presumed inadequacy and disinterest of fathers in caregiving activities, and at least historically, the relatively greater breadwinner role...

In this chapter we briefly review literature concerning ways in which families are hypothesized to influence social adaptation in childhood and adolescence. In doing so, we emphasize recent work from a longitudinal study of familial influences on children's social development currently being conducted in our laboratory. Specifically, we examine the...

Seventy-six fourth-grade children and their parents participated in a study of the linkages among parental control and positive affect, children's display rule use, and children's social competence with peers. Using observational measures of parental behavior and children's display rule use, it was found that parental positive affect and control we...

The current study focuses on the association between children's social adjustment in the transition to school and the early elementary school years and their fathers' and mothers' parenting behaviors and beliefs and quality of marital relationship. The authors found that the most competent and least problematic children from the teachers' perspecti...

To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fa...

This commentary focuses on new directions in the study of fathers and families. Several topics that are ripe for more theoretical and empirical scrutiny are outlined. These include the biological determinants of fathering, cultural constraints on fathers, the impact of becoming a father on men’s development as adults, and an intergenerational persp...

We identify multiple predictors of five types of father involvement in 167 low- to moderate-income two-parent Mexican American families with fifth-grade children. Analyses show that fathers’ egalitarian gender attitudes and mothers’ education are associated with higher levels of father involvement. Fathers are more involved in monitoring and intera...

The major conceptual and empirical advances in the field of child development and in the Society for Research for Child Development (SRCD) as a professional organization over the last 70 years are examined. First, despite reasons for some skepticism, it is argued that both the field and organization have achieved significant progress. Second, sever...

In this chapter we review theoretical conceptual and empirical advances in family research and the implications for children's development. Three interdependent family subsystems are considered: the parent-child subsystem, the marital subsystem, and the sibling subsystem. Recent work on the family as a unit of analysis is reviewed as well. Several...

Despite advances in our understanding of fatherhood, most social and behavioral science research is based on data from white, middle-class, European-American families. In this chapter, the authors argue for including Latino families in fatherhood studies and highlight some special issues in the assessment of Latino men's family involvement that hav...

The retiring editor of the Journal of Family Psychology (1997-2003) offers final thoughts on the passing on of the editorship and extends thanks to journal associates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of poverty and economic pressure upon the adjustment of mothers and children in immigrant Latino families. Participants included 56 first generation Latina mothers who completed questionnaires addressing economic difficulties, depression, social support, and behavior problems exhibited by their c...

The current study examines the relation between mothers' and fathers' advice-giving style and content and children's social competence and psychosocial functioning at a single time point and across a 1-year period. Fifty-eight 3rd -grade children (50% Euro American, 40% Latino, and 10% African American, Asian American, or other) participated at Tim...

This brief introduction to the special section on family routines and rituals highlights several key points that cut across the collected articles. Taken together, the articles point out that families engage in regular and predictable routines that promote close and healthy relationships. Second, these studies exemplify the potential to bridge indi...

Abstract The current study examines the relations among parent and child social information processing components and their links to children's social competence. Ninety-seven kindergarten children and their mothers and fathers responded to open-ended vignettes that involved conflict with a peer. Goals and strategies for both parents and children w...

Maternal monitoring and play rules were examined as correlates of children's friendship quality, social behavior, and depression in 6th grade (N = 88). Maternal reports of rules were categorized into three types: supervision rules, peer rules, and restriction rules. Each type of rule was characterized by the number of rules mothers established. Res...

In this comment on E. T. Gershoff (2002), the author notes the historical phases of punishment research. Punishment as a disciplinary tactic is best viewed as a packaged variable and therefore needs to be investigated in the context of other socialization practices. The role of parental values in this debate about punishment utilization and effecti...

Children behave differently with friends and nonfriends. The goal of the current study was to examine these differences more closely with effect sizes and the Social Relations Model (SRM). One hundred twenty-three triads (target children, friends, and unacquainted peers) participated in a round-robin design during 4th grade with partial replication...

Associations among parental behaviors, children's emotional reactivity, and dimensions of children's social competence were examined. Fourth grade children (N = 103) and their parents participated in a laboratory discussion task. Parent-child relationship qualities, parental emotion socialization behaviors, measures of children's emotional regulato...

Although religion is an important aspect of human experience, the topic is rarely evident in psychology journals. To correct this omission was the goal of this special section on families and religion. In the introduction to the section several reasons for the neglect of this topic are noted as well as the relevance of religion for family research...

The current study examined different types of display rule knowledge and their relation to parental control of children’s emotional expression and children’s social competence. A sample of 61 third-grade children (50% Euro-American, 40% Latino, and 10% African-American, Asian-American or other) participated in the current study. Children’s knowledg...

Although religion is an important aspect of human experience, the topic is rarely evident in psychology journals. To correct this omission was the goal of this special section on families and religion. In the introduction to the section several reasons for the neglect of this topic are noted as well as the relevance of religion for family research...

The relation between social and academic competence was examined in a group of school-age children (N = 163) using structural equation modeling to determine the direction of influence between these two domains across time. A model posing that a reciprocal relation exists between the two domains was tested. The two nested models within the reciproca...

The present study describes the early life histories of a large sample of three-year-old children from different ethnic backgrounds living in three levels of family income—poverty, near-poverty, and above-poverty. The study examined the developmental characteristics of children in the three groups and related them to family characteristics and expe...

There were two main aims: first, to illuminate the difference between abused children's general popularity with classmates and success in close friendships; second, to examine the specific interactional qualities of abused children's friendships and their links to loneliness. Thirty-five severely abused children and 43 matched, nonabused children w...

Interparental Conflict and Child Development is a 2001 text that provides an in-depth analysis of the rapidly expanding body of research on the impact of interparental conflict on children. Emphasizing developmental and family systems perspectives, it investigates a range of important issues, including the processes by which exposure to conflict ma...

The relations between the quality of mothers' and fathers' friendships and that of their children's friendships was examined. One hundred twenty-five fourth-grade children (9 year olds) completed the Friendship Quality Questionnaire. Observational measures of the target children playing with their self-selected friend were also collected. Mothers a...

This study examines the relative contributions of objective neighborhood ratings and mothers' and children's perceptions of neighborhood qualities to parental regulatory and supervisory strategies and social adjustment of third graders. Sixty-three children (32 boys, 31 girls) from a range of neighborhoods in two midsized, Southern California commu...

Objective: There were two main aims: first, to illuminate the difference between abused children’s general popularity with classmates and success in close friendships; second, to examine the specific interactional qualities of abused children’s friendships and their links to loneliness.Method: Thirty-five severely abused children and 43 matched, no...

The goal of this special issue on cultural variations in families--assessments, processes, and policies--is to increase our understanding of families of different ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds. Articles in this issue represent a range of cultural groups, illustrate a pattern of both similarities and differences across groups, and reflect th...

This paper assumes a developmental focus to provide a psychological perspective of father involvement. A key element of this objective is to recognize how difficult it is to define the complexities of father involvement. Components of father involvement include such relationship components as direct interaction, availability, and the managerial fun...

In the past, we have had the decade of the brain. Now, as behavioral scientists and practitioners, it is our turn and the period from 2000-2010 is the Decade of Behavior. The American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs initiated this idea, which is now sponsored by a host of behavioral and social science organizations. With an...

Relations of duration and developmental timing of poverty to children's development from birth to age 9 were examined by comparing children from families who were never poor, poor only during the child's infancy (0-3 years of age), poor only after infancy (4-9 years of age), and chronically poor. Chronically poor families provided lower quality chi...

Associations among display rule use, children's negative emotional reactivity, and dimensions of elementary-school children's social competence were examined. In addition, the correspondence was studied between a self-report measure of negative emotional reactivity and observations of children's use of display rules in a disappointing situation. Fo...

This paper assumes a developmental focus to provide a psychological perspective of father involvement. A key element of this objective is to recognize how difficult it is to define the complexities of father involvement. Components of father involvement include such relationship components as direct interaction, availability, and the managerial fun...

Relations between nonmaternal child care and ratings of maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement during mother–child interaction at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months were examined for 1,274 mothers and their children participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. In longitudinal anal...

This study examined links between parents' and children's expressed affect during parent-child play and children's social functioning with peers. A total of 116 kindergarten-age children and their parents (114 mothers, 102 fathers) were observed during physical play interactions and were coded on global measures of expressed positive and negative a...

This study examined links between parents' and children's expressed affect during parent–child play and children's social functioning with peers. A total of 116 kindergarten-age children and their parents (114 mothers, 102 fathers) were observed during physical play interactions and were coded on global measures of expressed positive and negative a...

Middle childhood is a time when children move beyond the boundaries of family to explore the neighborhood, forge their own relationships with friends and neighbors, and have experiences independent of their parents. Depending on the character of the surrounding community, parents are more or less comfortable allowing unfettered exploration by their...

This invited commentary provides a developmentalist's perspective on marital change. The author places the study of marriage in a life span developmental perspective to broaden the scope of the inquiry and to provide an overarching framework for considering the longitudinal study of marriage. This perspective incorporates individual adult developme...

The relations between economic hardship, coping, and family relationships in African American, Latino, and Euro-American families were investigated using a multimethod design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data-collection procedures. Survey data regarding the effects of economic hardship on individuals' lifestyles were collected fr...

The relation between maternal and paternal attitudes concerning paternal roles and paternal involvement with their 3–5-month-old infants was examined. A questionnaire-based study revealed that maternal attitudes predicted paternal involvement as reported by mothers. A 2nd study revealed that both maternal and paternal attitudes predicted paternal i...

Abused and non-abused children aged 6–10 were compared on emotional understanding and social behaviors. Abused children scored lower on all measures of positive peer-related behaviors (rated by teachers) and higher on all negative peer behaviors. On measures of extremity (positive or negative emotional salience) and uniqueness (strange or bizarre q...

Examines the extent to which academic achievement and work habits of first and second graders are predicted by classroom social status over the kindergarten, first-, and second-grade period. Three hundred and forty five children (163 boys and 182 girls) from a southern California community comprised the sample. The ethnic distribution of the sample...

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of life-span contextual variation on father-child relationships. Sixty families in which both parents were either younger than 26 or older than 29 when they began childbearing, and whose child was between the ages of 3 and 5 at the time of the study participated. Videotaped observations of father-chi...

Victims of child abuse can experience severe developmental consequences in multiple areas of functioning. Providing a structured environment may be part of an effective treatment program for these children. The present study evaluates the social, behavioral and cognitive changes in children residing in the highly structured treatment program at Chi...

The relationship between preschool children's peer competency and the exchange of reciprocal negative affect displays during physical play with parents was examined. Teacher ratings of children's peer competency were obtained from children's preschools. Parents and children (41 families) were observed during a physical play paradigm called "the han...