2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

significant increase in the percentage of mothers who reported taking their children to the library. Therewas also a small but statistically significant increase in the percentage of mothers who reported tellingstories to their children. These increases are, again, consistent with the increasing age of the children.Similar to the trend for mothers, the percentage of fathers or partners engaging in most of the positiveparenting activities increased significantly between years 1 and 2, and then remained fairly stablethereafter (see Table 25). Between years 4 and 5, however, there were significant increases in thepercentages of fathers/partners who told stories to their children, took the children to the library,encouraged the children to read a book, did household chores with children, and who talked to theirchildren about television programs.Table 25. Fathers’ Positive Parenting Practices over Time aActivity% FathersYear 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5(n=250) (n=238) (n=225) (n=225) (n=225)Read books to children 52 77 81 77 83Told stories to children 53 67 64 61 78Sang songs with children 70 80 80 75 75Took children on errands (e.g., post office,store)76 90 87 89 89Took children outside for walk or play 69 90 89 86 90Played with clay, drew pictures, or otherarts/crafts28 53 52 42 51Played with a game, puzzle, or building toy(Y2)— b 65 58 53 63Took children to library (Y2) — 15 13 17 30Did household chores with children (Y2) — 41 38 38 51Praised children 92 95 97 96 97Encouraged children to read a book 84 81 73 73 87Talked to children about a television program— — 55 52 65(Y3)Mean (SD) Positive Parenting Score(range: 0–1) c 0.63 (.29) 0.79 (.22) 0.78 (.22) 0.75 (.23) 0.81 (.21)a Data were weighted to adjust for the oversampling of mothers in the Glades and mothers screened “at risk.” “Father” includesbiological fathers and other men mothers identified as partnersb Asked only of mothers with children 1 year or older (n=137 in year 1 and n=236 in year 2).c Mean parenting scores are based on parenting items included in all three surveys. (Y2) and (Y3) indicate items added in year 2or year 3 that were excluded in the calculation of mean scores.*Paired sample t-tests indicate that the following year-to-year differences are statistically significant at p < .05 or lower: books1 vs.books2, books3, books4, and books5; books2 vs. books5; stories1 vs. stories2; stories1 vs. stories5; stories2 vs. stories5; stories3 vs.stories5; stories4 vs. stories5; songs1 vs. songs2; songs1 vs. songs3; errands1 vs. errands2; errands1 vs. errands3; errands1 vs.errands4; errands1 vs. errands5; outside1 vs. outside2; outside1 vs. outside3; outside1 vs. outside4; outside1 vs. outside5; arts1 vs.arts2; arts1 vs. arts3; arts1 vs. arts4; arts1 vs. arts5; arts2 vs. arts4; games2 vs. games4; library2 vs. library5; library3 vs. library5;library4 vs. library5; praised1 vs. praised3; praised1 vs. praised5; praised2 vs. praised5; encouraged1 vs. encouraged3; encouraged1vs. encouraged4; encouraged2 vs. encouraged3; encouraged3 vs. encouraged5; encouraged4 vs. encouraged5; chores2 vs. chores5;chores3 vs. chores5; chores4 vs. chores5; tv3 vs. tv5; tv4 vs. tv5; score1 vs. score2; score1 vs. score3; score1 vs. score4; score1 vs.score5; score3 vs. score5; score4 vs. score5.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 46