African-American fathering of young children in violent neighborhoods: paternal protective strategies and their predictors

Fathering, Oct, 2003 by Bethany L. Letiecq, Sally A. Koblinsky

History of Violence Exposure. Father's history of violence exposure was assessed using a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Langhinrichsen-Rohling & Neidig, 1995). Fathers were asked to report on the frequency of nine conflict behaviors (curse, threaten to hurt, push, slap, kick, hit with fist, hit with object, threaten with a knife or gun, use a knife or gun) experienced anywhere in their environment using a 7-point scale. The nine conflict tactics were presented in three sections addressing witnessing of violence, victimization (i.e., violent acts fathers have personally experienced), and personal use of aggressive/violent behavior. Response options included: 0 = never; 1 = once; 2 = twice; 3 = 3-5 times; 4 = 6-10 times; 5 = 11-20 times; and 6 = more than 20 times. Subscale scores were computed by summing the nine items of each subscale. Cronbach coefficient alphas for each subscale were: witnessing violence, [alpha] = .92; victimization, [alpha] = .82; and personal use, [alpha] = .83.

Gender of Target Child. Fathers were also administered a Demographic Questionnaire specifically designed for this study. This measure ascertained information about the target Head Start child, including the child's gender, age, and date of birth. Other demographic data collected for the study are presented in Table 1.

Social Support. Social support was assessed using a modified version of the Family Support Scale (FSS; Dunst, Jenkins, & Trivette, 1984). The 18-item FSS measures the degree to which different sources of support were helpful to families in raising young children during the previous six months. The FSS was modified by adding four items to the original scale: the helpfulness of the father's current partner, her parents, relatives, and friends (if different from the child's biological mother). Respondents were asked to rate the helpfulness of various support sources using a five-point scale anchored by 4 = extremely helpful and 0 = not at all helpful. Three subscales of support were analyzed: familial supports, including parents, partner, and own children; extra-familial supports, including friends, co-workers, social groups, and church members; and professional supports, including teachers, doctors, and social service workers. Indices of helpfulness were computed by summing the items within each subscale and dividing by the number of subscale items. Cronbach's coefficient alphas for the subscales established acceptable reliability: familial support, [alpha] = .80; extra-familial support, [alpha] = .79; and professional support, [alpha] = .72.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Parenting in Violent Neighborhoods. Last, this study employed a new quantitative measure of protective strategies used to keep children safe from community violence, the Parenting in Violent Neighborhoods Scale (PVNS). (1) The 47-item PVNS was constructed using data from three focus groups of fathers (Letiecq & Koblinsky, to press) and previous community violence studies examining maternal protection strategies (e.g., Hill et al., 1995; Holland et al., 1995; Randolph et al., 1998). Using correlation matrices and confirmatory factor analyses with Varimax rotation (Comrey & Lee, 1992), five subscales emerged: (1) monitoring and teaching personal safety (e.g., "I permit my child to play on playgrounds only when directly supervised by an adult," "I teach my child to tell the teacher if another child picks on her/him"); (2) teaching neighborhood survival tactics (e.g., "I talk to my child about safe routes for walking in the neighborhood," "I tell my child to avoid drug dealers or troublemakers in the neighborhood"); (3) reducing media violence exposure (e.g., "I keep my preschool child from playing video games that have a lot of violence," "I do not allow my preschool child to watch TV or movies that have violent scenes"); (4) engaging in community activism (e.g., "I participate in neighborhood watch or other groups that try to reduce neighborhood violence," "I call the police when I hear gunshots"); and (5) fighting back (e.g., "I tell my preschool child to fight back in order to be safe;" "I carry a weapon, like mace or a knife, in case I need to protect myself or my child"). Item response options were anchored by 0 = never and 4 = always. Cronbach's coefficient alphas for the five subscales were monitoring and teaching personal safety (16 items), [alpha] = .91; teaching neighborhood survival (10 items), [alpha] = .80; reducing media violence exposure (4 items), [alpha] = .56; community activism (7 items), [alpha] = .81; and fighting back (10 items), [alpha] = .84.