Spencer B. Olmstead joined the faculty as a new assistant professor in Fall 2010. Spencer received a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from The Florida State University in the Summer of 2010. He earned a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from The University of Oregon in 2006. Although he has a background in family therapy, Spencer has focused his research on men’s health, with attention devoted to sexual and reproductive health and fathering. From a qualitative standpoint, Spencer has given attention to emerging adult men’s expectations about unplanned pregnancy and contraceptive decision making and discussion, and has used quantitative methods to examine sexual risk taking behaviors, including “hooking-up” and “friends with benefits” relationships. Also, Spencer has used qualitative methods to examine father role identity and the termination of fathers’ parental rights. His dissertation examined the Responsible Fathering framework and how father involvement mediates the relationship between a variety of factors and child cognitive development, longitudinally. Ultimately, he would like to make an empirical link between men’s early sexual risk taking/responsibility behaviors, later father involvement, and child outcomes (cognitive and social development).
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In the child’s best interest: Terminating the rights of fathers with children in foster care (with Lenore M. McWey and Tammy L. Henderson), Journal of Family Issues (2010)
The authors conducted a content analysis of appellate court foster care cases in which fathers...
No degree, no job: Adolescent mothers’ perceptions of the impact that adolescent fathers’ human capital has on paternal financial and social capital (with Ted G. Futris and Robert B. Nielsen), Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal (2010)
Becoming an adolescent father truncates young males’ opportunities to complete high school and secure employment,...