Suchergebnisse

This article examines what we know about how low-income fathers matter for children. The authors first provide a theoretical background about how parents generally (and fathers more specifically) are expected to influence children's development and well-being. The authors note the importance of considering differences across children's age, gender, and race/ethnicity; and they identify key methodological challenges in this area. Then, they summarize the literature on residential fathers and child well-being, finding that greater involvement has been linked to better outcomes for children; however, much of this research has been conducted on more socioeconomically advantaged samples. For fathers who live away from their children, child support payments appear to improve children's outcomes, but the benefits of father-child interaction are much less clear and likely depend on the quality of the interaction and the characteristics of fathers. Overall, the authors conclude that low-income fathers can have a positive influence on children's well-being, but the evidence about the population overall is rather weak.

Although an extensive literature has shown that family structure is linked with child well‐being, less well understood is how the dynamics within families affect children, in particular the extent to which positive mother–father relationship quality is linked with children's outcomes. In this study the authors used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 773) to examine how couple supportiveness in stable coresident families is related to children's externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems over ages 3 through 9. Using latent growth curve and fixed effects models, they found that parents' greater supportiveness has a slight association with lower levels of children's behavioral problems. Using cross‐lagged structural equation models to examine the direction of the association, they also found some evidence that parents' relationship quality and children's behavioral problems are reciprocally related. Overall, this study suggests that more positive couple interactions are beneficial for children residing with both of their biological parents.

ObjectivesThis article examines how the levels of nonresidential fathers' involvement (over child ages 1–9) differ by race/ethnicity (comparing white, black, and Hispanic fathers), and then considers how individual and couple characteristics may "account for" any observed differences.MethodData from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,447) and random effects models were used to examine how nonresidential fathers' involvement (with respect to time, engagement, shared responsibility, and co‐parenting with mothers) is differentiated by race and ethnicity.ResultsOverall, black nonresident fathers were significantly more likely to spend time and engage in activities with their children as compared to Hispanic fathers—but not white fathers. Black fathers also shared responsibilities more frequently and displayed more effective co‐parenting than Hispanic and white fathers.ConclusionFathers' involvement with children is shown to differ across major race/ethnic groups, with implications for children as well as for future research and public policy.

AbstractFathers' roles in family life have changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In addition to ongoing breadwinning responsibilities, many fathers are now involved in direct caregiving and engagement with children. Yet there is considerable variation in what fathers do, especially depending on whether they live with or away from their child. In this article, the authors use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N= 3,869) to describe how fathers' economic capacities (money) and direct involvement with children (time) are associated over child ages 1 to 9 for resident versus nonresident fathers, net of confounding factors. They found suggestive evidence that money and time investments operate differently across residential contexts: Resident fathers experience a trade‐off between market work and time involved with children. In contrast, nonresident fathers' higher economic capacities are associated with more time involvement, underscoring the greater challenge for such fathers to remain actively involved.