PhD Defence: Tine Steenhoff

Tine Steenhoff defends her PhD Thesis:

"Fathers as caregivers: An investigation of similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior, predictiveness of parental reflective functioning and associations with problem behaviors in preschool children”.

Time and place:

Thursday 20 February 2020 at 13:00.

CSS 2.0.63, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K.

Please note that the defence will start precisely at the announced time.

Assessment Committee:

  • Professor MSO Barbara Hoff Esbjørn (chairperson), Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.

  • Associate professor Maartje Luijk, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.

  • Associate professor Tea Trillingsgaard, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University.

Abstract:

Fathers around the world are increasingly involved in caregiving and they spend more time with their children from an early age. This is especially true for Scandinavian fathers, who seem to have embraced the role as caregivers. With these tendencies, reflecting modern family life, there is a need for more studies investigating how fathers parent and impact child development. For decades fathers were almost absent in parenting research and while the interest in fathers is currently fast-growing, parenting studies are still conducted with mothers three times more often than with fathers. The aim of this PhD-thesis was to investigate different aspects of mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior. More specifically, the three empirical studies addressed the following three areas: (1) similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior during observed interaction with their preschool children, (2) similarities and differences in associations between mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior and children's problem behaviors, and (3) similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' capacity for parental reflective functioning and associations with parenting behavior. The participant sample compromised 52 mothers, 41 fathers and their 5-year old children.


Prior to the defence, a copy of the dissertation will be available at the Library of Faculty of Social Sciences, Gothersgade 140, Copenhagen K.