Marcia J. Carlson (Columbia University) Sara S. McLanahan (Princeton University) Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University)
Abstract
We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to investigate the association between co-parenting quality and nonresident fathers’ involvement with children over the first five years after a nonmarital birth (N=2,191). Using structural equation models to estimate cross-lagged effects, we find that positive co-parenting is a strong predictor of future fathers’ involvement, whereas fathers’ involvement is only a weak (but significant) predictor of future co-parenting quality. The positive effect of co-parenting quality on fathers’ involvement is robust across several techniques designed to address unobserved heterogeneity and across different strategies for handling missing data. We conclude that parents’ ability to work together in rearing their child across households helps keep nonresident fathers connected to their children and that programs aimed at improving parents’ ability to communicate may have benefits for children irrespective of whether parents’ romantic relationship remains intact.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. in its series Working Papers with number
910.