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Journal Article This qualitative study explored 18 high-risk adolescent Latinas' perceptions of their relationships with nonresident fathers. A number of interrelated factors -- early childhood memories, mothers' interpretations, and fathers' behaviors -- shaped girls' perceptions, which in turn, influenced how they interacted with fathers. Some girls struggled to make sense of fathers' diminished involvement and continued to long for them. Others grew angry and refused to have anything to do with hostile and aggressive fathers. Some girls never knew or did not remember their fathers, and they were largely…
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Journal Article This study examined modeling and compensatory processes underlying the effects of an early paternal model on father involvement in child care. Drawing on social learning theory, it was hypothesized that father-son relationships would moderate the association between a father's involvement and his own father's involvement. A sample of 136 kibbutz father-son dyads completed extensive questionnaires. Findings provided evidence for modeling effects on the socio-emotional care dimension, whereas imitation of highly involved fathers occurred simultaneously with compensation for relatively…
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Journal Article Over the past few decades, the federal government has intensified child support enforcement policies in response to high rates of child poverty and single-mother households. This study provides a comprehensive review of empirical, peer-reviewed articles from the past 20 years on the direct effects of child support enforcement policies on payments to custodial mothers and the indirect effects of these policies on behaviors such as fertility, sexual activity, welfare utilization, father involvement, and labor participation. The review indicates that child support enforcement has contributed to…
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Journal Article This study examined the relationships of incarcerated fathers (n = 185) with their children while in a maximum security prison. Despite the attention to parental incarceration and at-risk children, the child welfare and corrections literature has focused mostly on imprisoned mothers and children. Demographic, sentence, child-related, and program participation factors were investigated for their influence on father-child relationships. Multiple regression analyses indicated race and sentence contributed to the father's positive perceptions of contacts with their children. Most important, many…
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Journal Article Using data of 775 nonresident father families and 1,407 resident father families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study examined whether neighborhood disorder was associated with fathers' supportive involvement in child care. Bivariate analysis indicated that mothers and children of nonresident father families were more likely to live in disordered neighborhoods than those of resident father families. Multivariate analysis indicated that neighborhood disorder was negatively associated with nonresident fathers' involvement in child care, but not with that of resident…
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Journal Article Qualitative interviews with 215 fathers describe the emergent and responsive nature of the father-child relationship and its consequent influence on fathers themselves. Using a social constructionist or dialogic model of relationships, we highlight the importance of understanding the experience of fathers as they are actively engaged in responsive, relational, and interactional activities with their children. Fathers' descriptions of responsiveness highlight father-child interaction "in the moment," attention to children's expression of needs, and the influence of fathers' own sets of…
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Journal Article This article presents the approach that other investigators and I take in fathering research employing the construct of paternal involvement. First, I review the involvement construct, analyzing its social and methodological background, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it evolved subsequent to its initial formulation. Next considered are approaches and findings concerning the sources and consequences of involvement, with emphasis on my research program. Finally, five potential contributions of paternal involvement research to the broader parenting field concerning the dimensions of…
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Journal Article This paper contributes to the field of comparative research on fatherhood practice and policy. Specifically, the paper promotes knowledge of welfare state variations by providing a theoretical model of "two worlds" of father politics, as exemplified by the USA and Sweden. By adopting a historical approach, the analysis identifies a longstanding divergence between neo-patriarchal trends in the USA and de-patriarchalisation trends in Sweden. In addition, the study finds that neopatriarchal perspectives on fatherhood have amplified under the American neo-liberal social policy paradigm of welfare…
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Journal Article Much is unknown about how traditional fathering roles have changed in the developing nations in conjunction with the rise of nuclear dual earner families. Fathers' employment leave patterns and involvement with children were assessed for a convenience sample of 86 parents in Bangladesh. Fifty-nine mothers and 27 fathers completed self-administered questionnaires on employment leave, child care activities, and attitudes. Questionnaires and measures used were based on a United States (U.S.) study with a comparable sample (cf. Seward, Yeatts, Amin, & DeWitt, 2006) in order to allow a…
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Journal Article In this article, the authors examine how low-income Black men in South Africa and the United States work with their kin to secure fathering and ensure the well-being of children. They use ethnographic and life history data on men who fathered children from 1992 to 2005 to demonstrate how fathers' roles as kin workers enable them to meet culturally defined criteria for responsible fatherhood in two contexts marked by legacies of racism, increasing rates of incarceration and HIV/AIDS, and a web of interlocking inequalities that effectively precludes them from accessing employment with good…
