Father-Child Relationships: How and Why They Matter for Children's Development

In this presentation, Natasha Cabrera will review the empirical evidence that links father involvement to children's developmental outcomes during early childhood. She takes a family systems perspective that fathers' contribution to their children's development is over and above the contribution of mothers and presents evidence for direct and indirect effects, exploring various mechanisms of influence. Cabrera will place her father-involvement research in a cultural context that has important implications for programs and policies.

Cabrera is professor of Human Development at the University of Maryland. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on policy, methodology, theory and the implications of fathering and mothering behaviors on child development in low-income minority families. She is the co-editor of the Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Latina/o Child Psychology and Mental Health: Vol 1 and 2.

In 2015, the National Academy of Sciences appointed her to its committee on parents of young children; in 2016, she was a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar; and in 2017 she was a DAAD visiting scholar at the University of Ruhr, Germany. She is co-PI at the National Center for Research on Hispanic Families and Children, co-directing the fatherhood and healthy marriage focus area.