Fathers' behaviors and children's psychopathology Eirini Flouri ⁎ Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, 25 Woburn Square, London WC1H OAA, UK abstract article info Article history: Received 5 November 2009 Received in revised form 2 January 2010 Accepted 21 January 2010 Keywords: Child psychopathology Fathering Fathers The psychological literature on how fathers' behaviors may be related to children's psychopathology has grown substantially in the last three decades. This growth is the result of research asking the following three overarching questions: (1) what is the association between family structure, and particularly biological fathers' non-residence, and children's psychopathology, (2) what is the association between fathers' parenting and children's psychopathology, and (3) what is the association between fathers' psychopathology and children's psychopathology. The three broad theoretical perspectives relevant to this literature are the standard family environment model, the passive genetic model, and the child effects model. The evidence from studies comparing the first two models seems to suggest that the origin of the association between parental divorce and children's emotional and behavioral problems is largely shared environmental in origin, as is the association between resident fathers' parenting and children's emotional and behavioral problems, according to studies comparing the standard family environment model with the child effects model. However, research needs to compare appropriately all theoretical perspectives. The paper discusses this, and also points to the importance of considering theory-driven specificity in modeling effects. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363 2. Children's psychopathology and fathers' non-residence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 2.1. The theoretical models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 3. Child psychopathology and father's parenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 4. The standard family environment model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 5. The child effects and the passive genetic models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 6. Child psychopathology and father's psychopathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 1. Introduction The last two decades have witnessed a growing concern and interest in the role that fathers play in the lives of their children (Calzada, Eyberg, Rich & Quersido, 2004; Phares, Lopez, Fields, Kamboukos & Duhig, 2005; Stolz, Barber & Olsen, 2005), and recently a lot of good studies have been carried out to model links between fathers' and children's behaviors. This interest in fathers can, in part, be attributed to the growing interest in the rapid pace of family change in the last three decades. The consequences, especially for children, of these changes have been the subject of a heated debate. In developmental psychopathology this debate usually involves evi- dence for the following three associations: the association between family structure, and particularly biological fathers' non-residence, and children's psychopathology, the association between fathers' parenting and children's psychopathology, and the association between fathers' and children's psychopathology. The three broad theoretical perspectives that drive the research on fathers' absence and child psychopathology, but also on paternal parenting and child psychopathology, are the standard family environment model, the passive genetic model, and the child effects model (Amato & Cheadle, 2008). This paper discusses the evidence for these associations, and Clinical Psychology Review 30 (2010) 363–369 ⁎ Tel.: +44 2076126289; fax: +44 2076126304. E-mail address: e.flouri@ioe.ac.uk. 0272-7358/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.004 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Clinical Psychology Review