On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The social isolation and economic stress resulting from pandemic have the potential to exacerbate child abuse and ...neglect. This study examines the association of parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss to risk for child maltreatment (neglect, verbal aggression, and physical punishment) in the early weeks of the pandemic. Participants (
N
= 283) were adults living in the U.S. who were parents of at least one child 0–12 years of age. Participants completed an online survey approximately 2 weeks after the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. The survey asked about recent changes (i.e., in the past 2 weeks) to employment status, parenting behaviors, use of discipline, use of spanking, and depressive symptoms. Nearly 20% of parents had hit or spanked their child in the past two weeks alone. Parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss were associated with self-report of physical and emotional neglect and verbal aggression against the child, even after controlling for parental depressive symptoms, income, and sociodemographic factors. Parents’ perceived social isolation was associated with parental report of changes in discipline, specifically, using discipline and spanking
more often
in the past 2 weeks. Associations were robust to analyses that included two variables that assessed days spent social distancing and days spent in “lockdown.” Study results point to the need for mental health supports to parents and children to ameliorate the strain created by COVID-19.
This qualitative study examined 25 stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) in the United States and their lived experiences through the perspective of the theory of caring masculinities. Results from ...semistructured telephone interviews demonstrated that the majority of SAHFs voluntarily opted to be full-time caregivers, named financial reasons for becoming a SAHF, reported high levels of satisfaction in caring for their children, and experienced little change in their relationship with their spouse or partner as a result of being a SAHF. Major findings included the potential change in attitudes and masculine identities that accompany becoming a SAHF, men's emotional connection with others, and their increased respect for caregiving. Overall, SAHFs reported incorporating aspects of masculine and feminine qualities to develop a new masculine identity that best supports their caregiving role and experiences. In addition, SAHFs identified social isolation and mixed reactions from people as the 2 main challenges against constructing and maintaining their new masculinity; they also reported support from multiple social networks (e.g., partners, female family members, other SAHFs) as a means to successfully overcome such challenges. The results are further discussed in the context of the caring masculinities framework and suggestions are provided for future research.
Purpose
This “From the Field” article reports on the Text4Dad text messaging intervention designed to engage fathers in home visiting. We introduce implementation process components from our pilot ...study across three Healthy Start home visitation sites.
Description
Three Fatherhood Community Health Workers (F-CHWs) and three fathers from one Text4Dad site were interviewed. Using content analysis, we examined the experiences of F-CHWs who implemented Text4Dad and program participants who used Text4Dad.
Assessment
Results highlighted five implementation process components related to: (1) F-CHWs’ use of Text4Dad and enrolling fathers; (2) F-CHWs’ interactions with fathers, perceptions of Text4Dad content, and integration of Text4Dad into home visits with fathers; (3) training and technical assistance for F-CHWs; (4) father program participants’ acceptability and usability of Text4Dad; and (5) fathers’ barriers to interactive use of Text4Dad.
Conclusion
The F-CHWs were able to successfully enroll fathers into Text4Dad. F-CHWs and fathers found Text4Dad content acceptable to their circumstances. Text4Dad technology was viewed as usable, with some limitations. F-CHWs experienced challenges accessing the Text4Dad platform while on home visits. Results suggested that F-CHWs did not use Text4Dad to facilitate interaction, and accordingly, fathers had a lower than anticipated response rate to texts sent by their F-CHWs. We conclude with future directions for improving the implementation of text messaging programs in community-based fatherhood programs.
Significance
What is Already Known on this Subject?
Healthy Start home visitation programs use a community-based participatory approach to support maternal and child health among pregnant women and new mothers with low income. Given the benefits of father involvement to maternal child health, Healthy Start has begun to promote father involvement in their services and programming. Mobile technology has been identified as a way to encourage father involvement.
What this Study adds?
Leveraging mobile technology, we developed and pilot tested Text4Dad, an interactive and mentor-based text message program, as an add on to existing Healthy Start home visitation programs to support father involvement. Interviews with male mentors and enrolled fathers yielded key implementation process components (i.e., ease of use and enrollment of fathers, relevant parent education content, need for additional technical assistance and training to support mentor-father interactions) for using Text4Dad that have implications for incorporating mobile technology into community-based home visitation programs to promote father involvement.
Fathers contribute to their children's health starting at the beginning of life. Few parent education programs include fathers. Among those that do, there is little effort to report program effects ...on father outcomes.
In this systematic review, we examined father-inclusive perinatal parent education programs in the United States as they relate to a range of father outcomes.
The databases searched were PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, Ovid Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PsycINFO.
Studies were included if they included an evaluation of a parent education program and a report of father outcomes measured within 1 year of the child's birth and were conducted within the United States.
Of 1353 total articles, 21 met study criteria.
The overall state of the father-inclusive perinatal parent education program literature was poor, with few interventions available to fathers. Available programs were associated with increased father involvement, coparenting relationship, partner relationship quality, father's mental health, and father's supportive behaviors. Program effects on father-infant interaction, parenting knowledge, and attitudes and parenting self-efficacy were inconclusive. Three programs emerged as best evidence-based interventions.
Risk of bias was high for many studies. Outcome variability, small sample size, and publication bias contributed to the weak evidence base.
There is a need for more evidence-based interventions to support fathers. Clinicians play a key role in engaging fathers in early parent education programs and health care settings. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017050099.
COVID-19 is likely to have negatively impacted foster families but few data sources are available to confirm this.
The current study used Reddit social media data to examine how foster families are ...faring in the pandemic. Discussion topics were identified and examined for changes before and after COVID-19.
Comments were collected from three Reddit online discussion boards dedicated to foster families (N = 11,830).
We used machine learning techniques, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation, for topic modeling and textual analysis for qualitative coding of the Reddit comments.
Results showed that three main topics had both significant quantitative and meaningful qualitative changes before and after COVID-19. There were significant increases in conversation about becoming a foster parent (F = 5.75, p = 0.02) and activities for foster children (F = 10.61, p = 0.001), whereas there was a significant decrease in discussing permanency (F = 9.46, p = 0.003) before and after the onset of COVID-19. Qualitative coding showed that regarding the topic of becoming a parent, excitement over approval of foster care license before COVID-19 shifted to foster families' increased anxieties about delays in their licensing cases after COVID-19. For permanency, content changed from the best interest of the child and reunifications before COVID-19 to concerns over family separations and permanency challenges after COVID-19. Regarding activities for foster children, content related to everyday activities before COVID-19 changed to specific activities foster children and families could do during lockdowns. Results suggest areas child welfare workers may focus on to better support foster families during and after the pandemic.
Families with low income experience high levels of economic insecurity, but less is known about how mothers and fathers in such families successfully navigate coparenting and parenting in the context ...of material hardship. The current study utilized a risk and resilience framework to investigate the underlying family processes linking material hardship and children's prosocial behaviors in a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged mother-father families with preschoolers from the Building Strong Families project (
= 452). Coparenting alliance and mothers' and fathers' responsive parenting were examined as mediators. Results of structural equation modeling showed that coparenting alliance was associated with higher levels of both mothers' and fathers' responsive parenting. Subsequently, both parents' responsive parenting were associated with higher levels of children's prosocial behaviors. Material hardship was not associated with coparenting alliance and either parent's responsive parenting. Tests of indirect effects confirmed that the effects of coparenting alliance on children's prosocial behaviors were mediated through both mothers' and fathers' responsive parenting. Overall, these results suggest that when mothers and fathers have a strong coparenting alliance, they are likely to withstand the negative effects of material hardship and thus engage in positive parenting behaviors that benefit their children's prosocial development. Family strengthening interventions, including responsible fatherhood programs, would do well to integrate a strong focus on enhancing a positive coparenting alliance between mothers and fathers.
Research shows general increases in child maltreatment reports in the U.S. However, less is understood about how reporting varies across states and changes over time, from a perspective of referral ...sources. While recent studies during COVID-19 reported a reduction in maltreatment referrals, predominantly school referrals, little research has examined changes in maltreatment referrals by referral sources before the pandemic and how different referral sources are associated with case outcomes, particularly out-of-home placement.
This study examined 1) variations across states and changes over time in maltreatment reporting by referral source and 2) the relationship between referral sources type and two case outcomes: substantiated maltreatment and out-of-home placement.
We used 2008–2018 data (N = 24,349,293) from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System.
We used descriptive trend analysis and pooled, fixed effects binary logistic regression.
We found gradual increases in reporting during 2008–2018, with substantial variations across states and referral sources. States rely differently on certain reporter types, while we see the largest increase in education referrals and a small decrease in social services referrals. Regression results showed that education referrals were less likely to result in out-of-home placement; law enforcement referrals were most likely to be substantiated, while social service referrals were most likely to result in out-of-home placement.
This study makes unique contributions to literature by expanding our knowledge of referral sources and examining the likelihood of substantiation and out-of-home placement by referral source type. We provide child welfare policy and practice implications.
Anesthesia in infancy impairs performance in recognition memory tasks in mammalian animals, but it is unknown if this occurs in humans. Successful recognition can be based on stimulus familiarity or ...recollection of event details. Several brain structures involved in recollection are affected by anesthesia-induced neurodegeneration in animals. Therefore, we hypothesized that anesthesia in infancy impairs recollection later in life in humans and rats. Twenty eight children ages 6-11 who had undergone a procedure requiring general anesthesia before age 1 were compared with 28 age- and gender-matched children who had not undergone anesthesia. Recollection and familiarity were assessed in an object recognition memory test using receiver operator characteristic analysis. In addition, IQ and Child Behavior Checklist scores were assessed. In parallel, thirty three 7-day-old rats were randomized to receive anesthesia or sham anesthesia. Over 10 months, recollection and familiarity were assessed using an odor recognition test. We found that anesthetized children had significantly lower recollection scores and were impaired at recollecting associative information compared with controls. Familiarity, IQ, and Child Behavior Checklist scores were not different between groups. In rats, anesthetized subjects had significantly lower recollection scores than controls while familiarity was unaffected. Rats that had undergone tissue injury during anesthesia had similar recollection indices as rats that had been anesthetized without tissue injury. These findings suggest that general anesthesia in infancy impairs recollection later in life in humans and rats. In rats, this effect is independent of underlying disease or tissue injury.
The fabrication of functional small diameter blood vessel analogs has implications in vascular disease treatment. Current 3D models of the medial vessel layer lack micron-scale topographical cues ...that have shown promise in vitro by recapitulating native vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) behavior. A major obstacle to fabricating 3D scaffolds is maintaining adequate nutrient diffusion to cells. We have developed and characterized porous micro-patterned poly-caprolactone (PCL) scaffolds using a novel technique that integrates soft lithography, melt molding and particulate leaching of polylactic-
co-glycolic acid (PLGA) micro/nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy showed that PLGA-leached scaffolds have circular pores significantly smaller than the size scale of the grooved surface pattern (48
μm grooves; 5
μm deep; 12
μm spacing). Diffusion of media through PLGA-leached scaffolds was six-fold greater than through non-porous scaffolds, indicating successful introduction of through-pores into PCL by the PLGA leaching technique. VSMC alignment on micro-patterned PLGA-leached scaffolds was similar to that on micro-patterned non-porous scaffolds, indicating no loss in cellular organization on PLGA-leached scaffolds. In contrast, cells seeded on micro-patterned sodium bicarbonate-leached scaffolds remained un-aligned. The ability to micro-pattern cells on porous scaffolds may facilitate the transfer of micro-technology from simple 2D substrates to complex 3D architectures, allowing for tight control over cellular organization in fabricated tissues.
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