Two aspects of parenting are examined in this study, including qualitative variations in parenting skills and the quantitative level of father involvement. Qualitative variations in parenting patterns have been found to reflect two primary dimensions of behavior, namely emotionality and control (Baumrind, 1991; Parke & Buriel, 2006). Emotionality refers to how warm and responsive the parent is toward his/her child and control refers to how restricting parents are of their children’s behavior. The current study examines acceptance and rejection as the emotionality dimension, and discipline and monitoring as the control parenting dimension. Research has found parenting characterized by high warmth and low rejection to be related to positive emotional, social, and cognitive development in children (Baumrind, 1991). Furthermore, mothers’ and fathers’ inconsistent discipline has been linked to externalizing behaviors in children (Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006) and poor monitoring has been related to lower academic skills and peer acceptance, and higher rates of delinquency and externalizing behavior (Dodge et al., 2006).
