Table 4:Correlations of Narratives with other Measures of Parenting

1
First Findings On A New Narrative
Instrument For Assessing the Father-Child
Relationship in Young Adolescents Amy A.
Weimer, William V. Fabricius, Karina Sokol
Jeff Cookston
Delia Saenz
Arizona State University
San Francisco State
University Arizona State
University
Method
Study Overview
Tables
Method
Discussion
Overall Project Overview The Parents and Youth
Study (PAYS) is an ongoing 5-year-longitudinal
investigation of how fathers and stepfathers
contribute to their adolescents development.
This project included 393 families (fathers,
mothers, and adolescents), half of whom are
Anglo-American, and half of whom are
Mexican-American. Half of the families are intact
and half are stepfather families. Findings
presented are from the first wave of data
collection. Present Study Abstract One aspect of
the PAYS project was to develop a new method of
investigating childrens relationships with their
parents. We asked them to describe the story of
their relationship with each parent. Virtually
all children spontaneously evaluated their
parents on three dimensions (parental
investment, emotional quality, parental
responsiveness). These three dimensions are core
constructs in attachment theory. Results suggest
that these dimensions remain important up through
adolescence across family type (intact and
stepfamilies), ethnic groups (Anglo- and
Mexican-American), and parent (mothers, fathers,
stepfathers).
Table 1 Correlations and Means for Adolescents
Narratives about Resident Fathers
Anglo-American Mexican-American
Intact Step Intact Step IN EQ RE (N6
4) (N52) (N65) (N50) Sig.Effects Investment
(IN) - 2.63 2.74 2.36 2.61 Step
gtInt AA gt MA Emotional Quality
(EQ) .37 - 2.76 2.76 2.65 2.76 Responsivene
ss (RE) .24 .41 - 2.80 2.69 2.80 2.63 Matt
ering .37 .43 .40 33.42
31.17 31.46 29.90 Int gt Step AA gt
MA p lt .05, plt.01, plt.001 Note
There were no significant interaction effects
(Family Type X Ethnicity)
Participants Overall, participants included
393 self-identified Mexican- and Anglo-American
adolescents ages 11 to 13 years. All participants
were interviewed individually in their home in
their language of preference (English or Spanish)
on all measures. Measures 1.) Adolescent
Narratives Children were asked to describe their
relationships with (a) their resident fathers,
(b) their mothers, and, (c) their biological
fathers (when appropriate). The following items
include questions about the (step) father 1.
I'd like you to take a few moments to think more
about your (dad/step-dad). Tell me everything you
can think of about your (dad/step-dad). Think of
anything you want to say about who he is, what he
likes to do, his work, anything like that. Say
whatever comes to your mind. 2. Now, think of
your relationship with your (dad/step-dad). How
he treats you, what he does for you, how he talks
to you and about the time he spends with you.
Tell me what kind of person he is and how you two
get along together. Try to think of all of those
things and think of it as the story of your
(dad/step-dad) and your relationship with
him. 3. What else can you tell me about your
(dad/step-dad) and your relationship with
him? 4. Think now of any changes in your
relationship with your (dad/step-dad), or if the
relationship has changed over the past few years.
Tell me about that, and if the changes have been
good ones or bad ones. Was that a good or bad
change for you? These narratives were
audiotape-recorded at the time of the interview.
Three themes appear in almost every childs
narrative, whether about the father, stepfather,
or mother (1) Investment (IN), which refers
to the childs evaluation of the time and energy
the parent invests in the relationship, (2)
Emotional quality (EQ), which reflects the
positive versus negative emotions the child feels
toward the parent relationship, and (3)
Responsiveness (RE), which reflects the childs
evaluation of the parents responsiveness to
their needs or requests. Excerpts from
childrens narratives with some codes added
My father is one of those people who likes
to do things for others, who is very nice (EQ3)
and respectful (EQ3) and he is just a good person
(EQ3) . If you have a problem, like he will be
the one who will sit down and talk to you about
it (RE3), and if you need help with anything, he
will always be there to help you whether he is
busy or not he will take the time (RE3).
Shes a nice mom (EQ3). I really like her a
lot (EQ3). I dont know where she works. Um...I
dont know what she really likes to do. She talks
to me a lot (RE3). She treats me good (EQ3) and
we spend a lot of time together (IN3). She gets
me what I want sometimes (RE2), and thats just
about it. My birth father lives in another
country. He, his, all the family members on his
side are shorter than me. We get along (EQ3) and
we have a good relationship (EQ3). He buys me
shoes (RE3) or he buys me other things I need
(RE3). He, umm, he doesnt spoil me. He, he
likes to be around me (EQ3) and I like to be
around him (EQ3). 2.) Mattering Questions were
scored on a 5-point scale with the following
response categories strongly agree, mildly
agree, unsure, mildly disagree, strongly
disagree. Items included 1. My (dad/step-dad)
really cares about me. 2. I believe I really
matter to my (dad/step-dad) 3. I think my
(dad/step-dad) cares about other people more than
me. 4. I'm not that important to my
(dad/step-dad). 5. There are a lot of things in
my (dad/step-dad)'s life that matter more to him
than I do. 6. I know my (dad/step-dad) loves
me. 7. I am one of the most important things in
the world to my (dad/step-dad)

• Results are preliminary, but promising.
• Correlations
• Dimensions of investment, emotional quality, and
  responsiveness positively correlated with the
  mattering scale for all three types of narratives
  (resident dads, moms, and bio-dads).
• Average narrative scores (across all dimensions)
  positively correlated with the mattering scale,
  and with the acceptance and consistent discipline
  scales of the CRPBI for all three types of
  narratives about resident dads, moms, and
  bio-dads. Average narrative scores (across all
  dimensions) negatively correlated with the
  rejection scale of the CRPBI.
• Validates narratives as a measure of parent-child
  relationships
• Suggests that narratives offer further
  information about parent-child relations than
  survey data alone can offer.
• Mean Differences
• Narratives about resident fathers among
  adolescents from stepfamilies were significantly
  higher in investment than those among intact
  families. Mattering was higher in intact families
  compared to stepfamilies.
• Suggests differences among family types in
  father-child relations
• Anglo-American adolescents narratives about
  resident fathers were rated higher in investment
  and mattering compared to narratives from
  Mexican-American adolescents.
• Suggests differences in father-child relations
  among Anglo- and Mexican-American families
• Narratives about mothers among adolescents from
  intact families were significantly higher in
  emotional quality and responsiveness compared to
  narratives from adolescents in step-families.
• Suggests differences among family types in
  mother-child relations
• Anglo-American adolescents narratives about
  mothers were significantly higher in investment
  and mattering when compared to narratives about
  mothers from Mexican-American adolescents.
• Suggests differences in mother-child relations
  among Anglo- and Mexican-American families
• Narratives about biological fathers among Anglo-
  and Mexican-American adolescents were similar in
  terms of investment, emotional quality,
  responsiveness, and mattering.
• Suggests that these qualities are equally
  important aspects of Anglo- and Mexican-American
  families

Table 2 Correlations and Means for Adolescents
Narratives About Mothers Anglo-American Mex
ican-American Intact Step Intact Step I
N EQ RE (N73) (N59) (N58) (N42) Sig.
Effects Investment (IN) - 2.79 2.70 2.59 2.54
AA gt MA Emotional Quality (EQ) .33 - 2.80 2.
77 2.91 2.74 Int gt Step Responsiveness
(RE) .21 .45 - 2.74 2.68 2.92 2.67 Int gt Step
Mattering .40 .43 .26 34.20 33.63 32.7
9 32.46 AA gt MA p lt .05, plt.01,
plt.001 Note There were no significant
interaction effects (Family Type X Ethnicity)
Purpose
To assess the childs view of the
parent-relationship through the use of a
narrative instrument.
Table 3 Correlations and Means for Adolescents
Narratives About Biological Fathers
Anglo-American Mexican-American
IN EQ RE (N51) (N35) Investment
(IN) - 2.31 2.36 Emotional Quality
(EQ) .77 - 2.63 2.59 Responsiveness
(RE) .55 .68 - 2.62 2.41 Mattering .63
.64 .70 31.64 29.79 p lt .05,
plt.01, plt.001 Note There were no significant
effects
Hypothesis
Contact Information
Adolescents narratives will provide insight
into their relationship with their parents and
will relate to other measures of parent-child
relationships.
Table 4Correlations of Narratives with other
Measures of Parenting Mattering Child Report
of Parent Behavior Index (CRPBI) Narrative
Resident Dad Mother Biological
Dad CRBPI
CRBPI CRBPI Mat Acc Rej Dis
c Mat Acc Rej Disc Mat Acc Rej
Dis Resident dad .53 .55 -.42 .24
Mother .49 .56 -.43 .23
Bio-dad .71 .62 -
.63 .40 p lt .05, plt.01,
plt.001 Mat Mattering Scale Child Report of
Parent Behavior Index (CRPBI) Acc
Acceptance Rej Rejection Disc
Consistent Discipline
Results
For more information please contact Amy A.
Weimer Department of Psychology Arizona State
University Box 871104 Tempe, AZ  85287-1104
[phone] amy.weimer_at_asu.edu PAYS website
devpsych.sfsu.edu/PAYS Source Weimer, A. A.,
Fabricius, W.V., Sokol, K., Cookston, J.,
Saenz, D. (2005). First Findings on a New
Narrative Instrument for Assessing the
Father-Child Relationship in Young Adolescents.
Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting for the
Society for Research in Child Development,
Atlanta, Georgia.
Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine
narratives that have been coded to date 549
narratives (231 about resident fathers, 232 about
mothers, and 86 about biological fathers), a
random subset of the total narratives from the
PAYS project. Intercorrelations among
investment (IN), emotional quality (EQ), and
responsiveness (RE) for each narrative were
examined. The relationship with each of these 3
dimensions and the total mattering scale score
also was assessed. Multivariate analyses of
variance were conducted to examine whether the
3 dimensions of the narratives about each parent
(resident dad, mom, and biodad) and the
matttering scale differed across family type
(Step vs Intact) and by ethnicity (Mexican- vs
Anglo-American). Results are presented in Tables
1-3. We also examined the relationship of
average resident dad, mother, and biological dad
narratives (averaging across the 3 dimensions for
each parent) with other measures of parenting.
These included the mattering scale and 3
subscales of the Child Report of Parent Behavior
Index (CRPBI) acceptance, rejection, and
consistent discipline. Results are presented in
Table 4.