>> FCRG Projects - CYDS


Investigators: Deborah Gorman-Smith, Ph.D., Patrick N. Tolan, Ph.D., and David B. Henry, Ph.D.

Funded by: National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Child Health and Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Science Foundation, and William T. Grant Foundations

The Chicago Youth Development Study (CYDS) is a longitudinal study of risk for delinquent and violent behavior among African-American and Latino male adolescents living in the inner-city and other urban-poor communities. The CYDS began in 1990 and applies a multilevel, multiwave assessment to evaluate interactions between individual, family, peer, community, and social factors affecting boys involvement in antisocial behavior. The CYDS focuses on the population most at risk for the development of delinquent and violent behavior, yet underrepresented in most longitudinal studies.

In the original study, funded by NIMH, approximately 300 male youth and their families participated in yearly interviews, beginning when the boys were in 6th and 8th grade. In addition, archival data were collected from school, police and court records. A continuation of this study was funded jointly by CDC-P and NICHD.

Partner Violence

The purpose of the continuation was to begin to evaluate the relation between violence on the street and partner violence, by interviewing the romantic partners of the original CYDS sample, as well as friends of the partners. Using an snow-ball sampling method, 294 females (93% of those referred) participated in the study. Two annual waves of data have been collected from male and female participants during the continuation funding.

The most recent analyses from these data have focused on (1) the relation of family functioning to risk for violent and non-violent delinquent behavior, (2) identification of patterns of delinquent involvement over time, (3) the nature community and neighborhood influences on family functioning and youth behavior, (4) intergenerational transmission of risk for antisocial behavior, and (5) the relation of partner and street violence.


Fathering Among Inner-City Men

The purpose of this study is to further understanding of the influences on paternity among inner-city young adults, the influences on father’s involvement with his child(ren) and the impact of involvement and parenting practices on his child(ren)’s development.

We will collect two additional waves of data from the young adult males who took part in the Chicago Youth Development Study (CYDS). Two waves of data will be collected from the men, the biological and non-biological children of the men, and the mothers of both the biological and non-biological children. This opportunity to build from this longitudinal data set of Latino and African-American males who grew up in the inner-city can build on other existing studies of the inter-generational transmission of risk and related paternal influence on child development (e.g., Capaldi and Patterson’s Oregon Youth Study, Conger’s Critical Transitions Project, Thornberry’s Rochester Youth Study ) and other less extensive studies of early fathering, father involvement and parenting (Cabrera et al., 2000).

Building from theoretical syntheses provided by Belsky (influences on parenting), Lamb and Pleck (father involvement) and parenting effects on children (Patterson, 1982; Conger, et al., 1994), we will incorporate findings from key qualitative and small quantitative studies to assess three dimensions of father involvement: (accessibility, responsibility, and engagement) and relate these to important aspects of parenting practices (discipline methods, monitoring, and emotional support). We will examine how involvement and parenting practices are predicted and then examine how dimensions of fathering predict children’s functioning and change in functioning over time (child’s cognitive functioning, social competence, and mental health problems). We will also examine predictors of timing of first paternity and its role in involvement and parenting practices.

This study will contribute to research knowledge and related practices and policies in several ways. First, the study can provide needed information about risk for early fatherhood and the impact of becoming a father on these young men’s adjustment (Fagot et al., 1998; Jafee et al., 2001). Second, data from this study can be used to identify factors related to extent of father involvement and change in involvement over time. These data are critical to informing intervention and prevention. Third, the study can improve the quality of understanding of fathering by applying measurement of father involvement that is consistent with extant theory and emergent findings from exploratory studies (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1999). Fourth, this study can provide needed direction for understanding what leads to positive fathering, particularly among men living in a high-risk inner-city environment (Amato, 1998). Finally, this study can provide understanding of how inner-city men’s fathering links to risk and therefore suggest advantageous foci for preventive interventions designed to promote children’s cognitive and social competence and reduce mental health problems (Cabrera et al., 2000).

In addition to these substantive contributions, this study will also apply some measurement advances; considering all children of a given father in estimating fathering and its impact (biological and/or non-biological children), including extensive interview and observation material directly obtained from the father, and considering how the relationship with the mother might affect fathering and its impact. These additions to the current approaches are expected to improve the applicability of these findings to prevention and other efforts to promote healthy development of children growing up in the inner-city.

This study has three major specific aims:


1. To evaluate the predictors of the occurrence of paternity and the timing of first fathering (prior developmental history, personal characteristics, relationship with the mother and family of origin) and to determine the impact of timing and involvement in fathering on the psychosocial adjustment of these young men (mental health, occupational and educational attainment, and relationships).

2. To determine the predictors of involvement and, in particular, the change in involvement over time among these men.

To test the variation of father involvement and parenting practices related to children’s development as a function of child characteristics (age, gender, presumed biological relation, and temperament), relationship with the child’s mother (quality of relationship, stability, partner psychopathology and parenting practices, and receptivity of partner’s family to father’s involvement), and father’s current characteristics (age, employment and financial status, antisocial behavior, mental health problems).