Research suggests that well-developed parent engagement programs can boost early learning and reduce socioeconomic disparities in subsequent school adjustment. Yet few follow-up studies exist. To address this gap, we followed participants in the Research-based, Developmentally Informed-Parent [REDI-P] intervention study for 8 years to evaluate adolescent outcomes. Participants included 200 4-year-old children (55% White, 26% Black, 19% Latinx; 56% male, 44% female; Mage at study entry = 4.45 years) attending Head Start. Families were randomly assigned to REDI-P home learning materials and coaching or an attention control group. Multi-method measures tracked child literacy skills, learning behaviors, social competence, and conduct problems through grade 7. GLM analyses revealed significant preschool intervention effects on grade 7 working memory, β = 0.35, 95% CI 0.08, 0.62, p = .01; perceived social competence, β = 0.30, 95% CI 0.02, .58, p = .04; deviant peer affiliation, β = −0.33, 95% CI −0.60, −0.06, p = .02; and teacher-rated conduct problems, β = −0.30, 95% CI −0.58, −0.01, p = .04. Serial path models identified developmental progressions linking initial intervention effects to adolescent outcomes. Results highlight the long-term value of empowering parents to support the early social-emotional and pre-academic learning of their preschool children.

Studies persuasively show that parental power assertion contributes to children’s hostile (defensive) mindsets, but most examined severe forms of control (abuse, harsh punishment) and aggressive children. Less is known about processes linking power assertion with children’s hostile mindsets in typical, low-risk families. Further, specific mechanisms accounting for associations between parenting and hostile mindsets are unclear; children’s theory of mind (ToM) and regulation have been suggested, implying equifinality in developmental cascades. Finally, factors that moderate impact of parenting on children’s hostile mindsets, implying multifinality, are unclear. In a study of 200 mothers, fathers, and children, we proposed that links between parental power assertion and children’s hostile mindsets are (a) accounted for by two parallel mediators – children’s poor ToM and poor regulation, and (b) moderated by their representations of parents. We expected links between power assertion and hostile mindset to be significant for children with negative representations, but defused, or absent, for children with positive representations. Parental power assertion was assessed at toddler and preschool age, ToM and regulation at preschool age, and hostile mindsets and representations of parents at early school age. We supported both mediated paths for mother–child dyads, mediation via child regulation for father–child dyads, and moderation for both.

The paper investigates processes and consequences of ‘philanthropic kinning’, that is the use of kinship and family idioms in constructing and maintaining personal relations between donors and recipients in philanthropy. Usual studies collapse the occurrence of kinship metaphors in philanthropy either as evidence of ‘prosociality’ (e.g. trust, care or love) or more frequently as evidence of ‘paternalism’ (power and domination of donors over recipients, and their objectification). This paper claims that introducing kinship and parenting studies into researching philanthropy would greatly refine our understanding of donor–recipient relations. In the framework of a qualitative case study of a philanthropic ‘godparenthood’ programme organised in Hungary supporting ethnic Hungarian communities in Romania, this paper looks at the roles, responsibilities and obligations various forms of philanthropic kinship offer for the participants; and relations of power unfolding in helping interactions. With such concerns, this paper complements earlier research on hybridisation of philanthropy, through its sectoral entanglements with kinship and family. Also, it contributes to research on inequalities in philanthropy, by showing how philanthropic kinning may recreate, modify or reshape donor–recipient power relations in diverse ways.

Parental reflective functioning – parents’ capacity to envision the mental states underlying their child’s behavior – plays an important role in parenting behavior, parental well-being, and children’s psychosocial outcomes. Most studies have examined parental reflective functioning in terms of relatively stable interindividual differences between parents. This is unfortunate because theoretical accounts suggest that this capacity is susceptible to intraindividual fluctuations. Parenting stress, in particular that associated with difficult child behavior, has been described as a factor that can put parental reflective functioning under pressure. Using a multilevel approach, this 7-day diary study investigated day-to-day fluctuations in parental reflective functioning and its associations with daily parenting stress and perceived internalizing and externalizing adolescent difficulties. Parents of community adolescents (N = 128) and adopted adolescents (N = 28) were sampled because adoptive parents face unique stressors that may challenge their reflective capacities. Results indicated that daily parenting stress was associated with more daily prementalizing (i.e., severely biased mentalizing), less daily certainty about mental states, and less interest and curiosity in the adolescent’s mental states. Whereas externalizing difficulties were similarly related to more daily prementalizing and less certainty about mental states, findings for internalizing difficulties were mixed. Most associations were consistent across biological and adoptive parents.

Family meals are positively associated with healthier diets among children and parents. We aimed to deepen the understanding of these relationships by exploring the associations between shared meals and dietary quality among children, fathers and mothers. A subset of parent-child dyads (296 children aged 3–6 years, 103 fathers, 293 mothers) from the DAGIS Intervention baseline assessment was included in this cross-sectional study. The parents reported how often they shared meals with the child and filled in a food frequency questionnaire assessing their child’s and their own food consumption. A Healthy Food Intake Index (HFII) describing dietary quality was calculated for all family members. We used linear regression to investigate the associations between shared meals and the HFII of the children, fathers and mothers. Models were adjusted for child’s age and gender, parent’s age and educational level and number of children in the household. Children whose fathers reported less frequently sharing a weekend lunch with the child had a lower HFII (B estimate –1·58, 95 % CI –2·66, –0·50). The association remained close to statistical significance with adjustments (B estimate –0·99, 95 % CI –2·17, 0·19). A less frequently shared weekend lunch was also borderline significantly associated with lower HFII among the fathers (adjusted model, B estimate –1·13, 95 % CI –2·30, 0·04). Fathers should be encouraged to share meals with their family, since it might have a role in the dietary quality of both children and fathers. Future studies should recognise fathers as important contributors to a healthy home food environment.

Fathers have a unique and critical role in children’s development, but limited empirical studies have examined prenatal predictors of fathers’ parenting behaviors. Exposure to early life stressors may alter adult brain white matter fibers, especially in fibers supporting optimal cognitive and emotional functioning. As such, men with experiences of early life stressors, such as risky family environments, may enter parenthood with neurobiological differences that impact their ability to provide optimal parenting. Few studies focus on early life stressors on men’s prenatal neurobiology and subsequent parenting outcomes. This study of first-time fathers (n = 41; Mage = 31.81 years; 32% Hispanic; 32% White; 24% Asian American; 7% Black; 5% Multiracial) investigated whether risky family environments would be associated with prenatal white matter organization and postpartum parenting (infants’ Mage = 6.96 months). White matter organization was quantified through fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of the directionality of the fibers within the tissue. Fathers reporting riskier family environments exhibited lower FA in white matter tracts like fornix and cingulum, which support connections between brain areas underlying memory and emotion regulation. Lower FA in these regions predicted less effective parenting postpartum. Findings provide insight into intergenerational transmission of family risk.