Supportive coparenting is an identified protective factor for child development and behavioral outcomes. What is less known is how supportive coparenting dynamically links with other aspects of parenting and parent well-being, particularly in multi-stressed nonmarital families. This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, analyzed within a structural equation model, to explore how mothers' experience of maternal depression, maternal age, father education, and SES interacted with their parenting stress and supportive coparenting to impact child behavioral problems and harsh parenting practices. Among the findings, more supportive coparenting was found to be significantly associated with fewer child behavioral problems and less harsh parenting. Transmitted through supportive coparenting and parenting stress acting as mediator, maternal depressive symptoms were indirectly and positively related to harsh parenting practices and child behavior problems. These findings are discussed within the context of the broader literature and next steps for research are discussed.

This study investigated levels of health literacy and factors predicting health literacy among 407 Korean American immigrants living in New York City. The authors adopted the Andersen's Behavioral Model (Andersen, 1968(Andersen, , 1995 as the theoretical guide of the study, examining predisposing, enabling, and need factors for health literacy and used a 12-item health literacy scale adopted from Chew, Bradley, and Boyko's (2004) work. They categorized participants into 3 health literacy groups based on their level of understanding and effective use of given health information: inadequate, marginal, and adequate health literacy. More than 60% of the participants had inadequate (31.7%) or marginal (29.8%) levels of health literacy, indicating a lower level of health literacy in this immigrant group. The areas that those with an inadequate health literacy level struggled with were understanding written health care information and filling out medical forms at the clinics. Results from an ordinary least squares regression analysis revealed that the predisposing factors of being female and having a low level of modesty toward health care professionals were predictors in having higher levels of health literacy. Of enabling factors, higher level of English proficiency and education, and having a primary care physician were significant predictors of higher level of health literacy. None of the need factors were significantly associated with health literacy. This study highlights an urgent need for developing a community-based health literacy education program in immigrant communities, as well as to initiate staffing a health education worker at clinics to reduce health disparities among immigrants with limited health literacy.

The present study examined the direct and indirect effects of neighborhood conditions on the health and development of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Two waves of data were analyzed from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and its subsample of 3,656 mothers and their young children at ages 3 and 5. The results show that social cohesion was directly and indirectly associated with children's behavioral problems and health status. Social control was found to have an indirect effect on children's behavioral problems and cognitive development transmitted through maternal parenting quality and parenting stress. There were significant direct effects of neighborhood physical disorder on children's behavioral problems and cognitive development. In terms of effect size, mothers’ parenting stress and parenting quality, economic hardship, education level, and health care coverage were also prominent factors in determining the health and development of children. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed.

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Objective:To evaluate the level of cancer literacy among Korean American immigrants and to identify the most influential predictors of cancer literacy in this population. Method: Using a quota-sampling strategy, 407 Korean American immigrants were recruited in the New York metropolitan area. The study was theoretically guided by the Andersen's Health Behaviour Model and ordinary least squares regression analysis was used for data analyses. Results: The cancer literacy level of this Korean American immigrant sample was much lower than that reported in studies of non-Latino whites and other racial/ethnic minorities. The results from the multiple regression models indicated that age was the only predictor of cancer literacy among predisposing factors. As for enabling factors, educational attainment and having a primary care physician were significant predictors. No need factors were found to be significant predictors in this study.