Parenting approaches and their effects on child development

¶ … Child Characteristics, Parenting Stress, and Paternal Involvement: Fathers vs. Mothers" by McBride, Schoppe and Rane considers the role of the father in the parenting model. While the introduction is a thorough and in-depth explication of research so far in parenting roles and how these are influenced by a variety of factors, it appears to lead to a focus to the little-investigated issue of child characteristics, and how these influence the role of fathers. If this premise were to be the focus of the rest of the article, the title could be considered misleading. At the very least, the title indicates a very broad focus for the study; perhaps excessively broad in the light of the length of the report. The first change I would therefore make to the article is its title and initial description of the issues to be addressed. I would provide a more tightly focused description of the issues to be addressed.

Directly after indicating the little-investigated field of child characteristics and its influence on parenting from the father's side, the authors return to a more general focus on parenting, involving both fathers and mothers. The article's organization is therefore somewhat difficult. A change I would make in this regard is that I would first present general information regarding child characteristics, both parents, and areas that have been investigated in the first sections of the article. I would organize these logically in order to lead to the premise I aim to address, which is the parental role of the father and the influence of child characteristics on it. One of my main problems with the article is therefore that the introductory section is organized in a difficult way. The reader finds it difficult to orient him- or herself regarding the premise and existing research of the issues involved. At the end of the section entitled "Predictors of Father Involvement" for example, ends with an indication that there is little research or literature to address the issue. However, the following section considers a large amount of literature and research on the more general issue of parents, stress, and child characteristics. Only after this a further section returns to the fact of the lack of research involving father involvement and how this is influenced by child characteristics.

Once the document turns to the investigation and methods to be used, the presentation of information becomes more logical and academically stronger. The research questions are for example pertinently mentioned in "The Present Study" section. The questions directly pertain to the issue previously indicated, i.e. The parenting involvement of fathers, and how this is influenced by children and various aspects in their character.

In the "Method" section, I noticed that participants were mainly homogeneous in terms of race and age. No specific reason was given for this, but I presume it is for the purpose of consistency, as cultural values and social status would probably influence the parenting paradigm. In this way, I believe the study provides a valuable springboard for futher studies in other sectors of society. Factors such as poverty, race and age could for example be studied for their influence upon paternal behavior towards children. Family problems such as neglect and abuse could then be mitigated as a result of such studies.