IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v621y2009i1p149-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Claiming Fatherhood: Race and the Dynamics of Paternal Involvement among Unmarried Men

Author

Listed:
  • Kathryn Edin

    (John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University)

  • Laura Tach

    (Harvard University)

  • Ronald Mincy

    (Columbia University School of Social Work)

Abstract

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan argued that the black family was nearing “complete breakdown†due to high rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing. In subsequent decades, nonmarital childbearing rose dramatically for all racial groups and unwed fathers were often portrayed as being absent from their children's lives. The authors examine contemporary nonmarital father involvement using quantitative evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with 150 unmarried fathers. The authors find that father involvement drops sharply after parents' relationships end, especially when they enter subsequent relationships and have children with new partners. These declines are less dramatic for African American fathers, suggesting that fathers' roles outside of conjugal relationships may be more strongly institutionalized in the black community. The challenges Moynihan described among black families some forty years ago now extend to a significant minority of all American children.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathryn Edin & Laura Tach & Ronald Mincy, 2009. "Claiming Fatherhood: Race and the Dynamics of Paternal Involvement among Unmarried Men," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 621(1), pages 149-177, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:621:y:2009:i:1:p:149-177
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716208325548
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716208325548
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716208325548?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elizabeth Cooksey & Patricia Craig, 1998. "Parenting from a distance: The effects of paternal characteristics on contact between nonresidential fathers and their children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(2), pages 187-200, May.
    2. Sara McLanahan, 2008. "Fragile Families and the Reproduction of Poverty," Working Papers 1016, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    3. repec:pri:crcwel:wp08-04-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Frank Mott, 1990. "When is a father really gone? Paternal—Child contact in father-absent homes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 27(4), pages 499-517, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nancy E. Cohen, 2003. "Unmarried African American Fathers' Involvement with Their Infants: The Role of Couple Relationships," Working Papers 954, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    2. Laura Tach & Ronald Mincy & Kathryn Edin, 2010. "Parenting as A “package deal”: Relationships, fertility, and nonresident father involvement among unmarried parents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 181-204, February.
    3. Marcia J. Carlson & Katherine A. Magnuson, 2011. "Low-Income Fathers’ Influence on Children," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 635(1), pages 95-116, May.
    4. repec:pri:crcwel:wp03-13-ff-cohen is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jacob Cheadle & Paul Amato & Valarie King, 2010. "Patterns of nonresident father contact," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 205-225, February.
    6. Evenhouse, Eirik & Reilly, Siobhan, 2010. "Multiple-Father Fertility and Arrest Rates," MPRA Paper 22818, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Marcia J. Carlson & Sara S. McLanahan, 2009. "Fathers in Fragile Families," Working Papers 1189, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    8. Laura Tach & Kathryn Edin & Hope Harvey & Brielle Bryan, 2014. "The Family-Go-Round," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 654(1), pages 169-184, July.
    9. Maya Rossin-Slater, 2017. "Signing Up New Fathers: Do Paternity Establishment Initiatives Increase Marriage, Parental Investment, and Child Well-Being?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 93-130, April.
    10. Evenhouse, Eirik & Reilly, Siobhan, 2010. "Women's multiple-partner fertility in the United States: Prevalence, correlates and trends, 1985-2008," MPRA Paper 26867, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-09-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ragni Hege Kitterød & Jan Lyngstad, 2013. "Comparing mothers' and fathers' reports on the non-resident father's contact with his children," Discussion Papers 744, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    13. repec:pri:crcwel:wp09-14-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Sarah Reynolds, 2022. "Household transitions between ages 5 and 15 and educational outcomes: Fathers and grandparents in Peru," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(14), pages 397-440.
    15. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Schools, Skills, And Synapses," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 289-324, July.
    16. Sandra Hofferth & Frances Goldscheider, 2010. "Family structure and the transition to early parenthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(2), pages 415-437, May.
    17. Matthijs Kalmijn, 2015. "Family Disruption and Intergenerational Reproduction: Comparing the Influences of Married Parents, Divorced Parents, and Stepparents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 811-833, June.
    18. Tina Haux & Lucinda Platt, 2021. "Fathers’ Involvement with Their Children Before and After Separation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 151-177, March.
    19. Astrid Würtz Rasmussen & Leslie S. Stratton, 2016. "How distance to a non-resident parent relates to child outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 829-857, December.
    20. Margaret L. Usdansky & Douglas A. Wolf, 2009. "Missing Work and Quitting Work: Child Care-Related Employment Problems," Working Papers 922, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    21. repec:pri:crcwel:wp98-12-ff-mclanahan is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Lawrence M. Berger & Callie E. Langton, 2011. "Young Disadvantaged Men as Fathers," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 635(1), pages 56-75, May.
    23. Ragni Hege Kitterød & Jan Lyngstad, 2012. "Untraditional caring arrangements among parents living apart," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(5), pages 121-152.
    24. Marcia Carlson & Sara McLanahan & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, 2008. "Coparenting and nonresident fathers’ involvement with young children after a nonmarital birth," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 461-488, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:621:y:2009:i:1:p:149-177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.