Running head: FATHERING PRECURSORS OF SOCIOEMOTIONAL ADJUSTMENT 1 Early Fathering Predictors of Children’s Late School-Age Peer Acceptance, Emotion Regulation, and Behavior Problems

Parenting characteristics have profound effects on children’s early development. Adverse parenting places young children at risk for poor self-regulation, as well as for mood and behavior problems (Duncombe, Havighurst, Holland, & Frankling, 2012). On the other hand, positive mothering has been associated with well-developed self-regulation (Yagmurlu & Altan, 2010). However, the role of father’s parenting characteristics in these developmental models has been under-explored. In addition, girls and boys respond to parenting practices in distinct ways that influence their behavioral adjustment (Chang, Olson, Sameroff, & Sexton, 2011), but research is lacking regarding whether dimensions of father’s parenting differentially relate to boys’ and girls’ later adjustment outcomes. In this thesis I examine relationships between early fatherreport behaviors and children’s school-age adjustment outcomes, as moderated by gender. Fathers provided information about their parenting practices when their child was 3 years old. At age 10, mothers, fathers, and teachers answered questionnaires about the child’s socioemotional adjustment. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the relationship between age 3 fathering behaviors and age 10 adjustment problems, both with the full sample and separately by gender. As hypothesized, both positive and negative fathering behaviors were associated with children's behavioral adjustment, emotion regulation, and peer adjustment at home and school, especially for boys. Implications for including fathers in research, treatment, and prevention are discussed.