Mother and Father Connectedness and Involvement During Early Adolescence

The purpose of the current study was to explore how mother's and father's connectedness and involvement individually and collectively influence the lives of their children. Specifically, we asked how fathers' and mothers' parent-child connectedness and behavioral involvement influenced both problem behaviors (externalizing and internalizing behaviors) and positive outcomes (prosocial behaviors and hope) during early adolescence. Data for this study were taken from the Flourishing Families Project, from which 349 mothers and fathers were selected, along with their early adolescent child (mean age = 11.23 years, SD = .96). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed (even after controlling for child age, gender, and self-regulation) that mothers' and fathers' contributions differed, primarily as a function of child outcome. Namely, father (but not mother) connectedness and involvement were negatively related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors, whereas mother (but not father) connectedness and involvement were positively related to adolescents' prosocial behaviors and hope. We also found that when one parent's involvement was low (for whatever reason), the other parent's involvement made a significant and important contribution to the child's well-being, particularly in the area of internalizing behaviors.