Graduation Year

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Vicky Phares, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Judith Bryant, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jack Darkes, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Robert Dedrick, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Eric Storch, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Carla Stover, Ph.D.

Keywords

Fathers, African American, Coparenting, Internalizing, Externalizing

Abstract

This study examined the role of nonresidential, Black fathers in the psychosocial adjustment of Black adolescents from single-mother households. Participants included 107 noncohabiting Black parental dyads with children between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Participants completed measures of positive parenting, parent-child relationship quality, depressive symptoms, coparenting relationship quality, and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral functioning. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions found that father factors contributed unique variance to adolescent outcomes when using father-reported and combined father- and mother-reported adolescent functioning. Coparenting relationship quality mediated the relationship between father-child relationship quality and adolescent behavioral problems when using mother-reported and combined father- and mother-reported adolescent functioning. This study highlights the unique contributions of nonresident Black father factors to adolescent outcomes and supports the need for further research in this area.

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