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Journal Article
Department of Defense (DoD) surveys were examined to develop a demographic profile of military families affected by divorce and remarriage. It appears that a substantial portion of military personnelhave experienced divorce, are in remarriages, and have nonresidential children, particularly given the young average age of military personnel. Compared to the U.S. population, service members marry, divorce, and remarry earlier. Divorced and remarried service members are slightly over-represented among the enlisted ranks, joint service couples, and lower education categories. Notably, the…
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Journal Article
Recent trends in marriage and fertility have increased the number of adults having children by more than 1 partner, a phenomenon that we refer to as multipartnered fertility. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the prevalence and correlates of multipartnered fertility among urban parents of a recent birth cohort (N = 4,300). We find that unmarried parents are much more likely to have had a child by a previous partner than married parents. Also, race/ethnicity is strongly associated with multipartnered fertility, as is mothers' young age at…
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Journal Article
In "Fatherhood, Cohabitation, and Marriage," Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services, summarizes the importance of fathers to child well-being. He explains that "fatherlessness is a significant risk factor for poor developmental outcomes for children." This connection has led some observers to view cohabitation as a substitute or at least an alternative to marriage. Horn argues, however, that marriage is the best option for children and that cohabitation is a weak family structure compared with marriage. Children in households…
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Journal Article
We use longitudinal survey and qualitative information from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how risk factors such as physical abuse, problematic substance use, and incarceration among unmarried fathers in the study are related to fathers' early involvement with their children. The survey results indicate that nearly half of fathers have at least one risk factor and that each risk is negatively associated with paternal involvement. The results also show that fathers with risk factors are less likely to have romantic relationships with mothers and that relationships…
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Journal Article
The present study was designed to shed light on the relation between parenting stress, father's alcohol use, child characteristics and father's engagement and availability. The study cohort comprised 821 fathers of preschool children in Finland. Parenting stress and child's mood, acceptability and demandingness were related to father's engagement to the preschooler and to the extent of the father's availability. Parenting stress began a cycle of alcohol abuse and child-negative characteristics, and eventually led to a decrease in joint father-child activities, father's feeling of…
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Journal Article
The impact of children's perception of a father's and mother's support on children's quality of relationship with their classroom teacher was examined in a sample of 51 third and fourth grade Asian children rated by their teachers as aggressive. Children's perception of a father's support predicted teacher-ratings in all three areas of the teacher-student relationship (instrumental help, satisfaction, and conflict) but children's perception of a mother's support did not. This adds to a gradually expanding research base documenting the benefits of fatherly support across selected and…
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Journal Article
This research links residence with biological and nonbiological married and unmarried parents to the cognitive achievement and behavioral problems of children aged 3-12, controlling for factors that make such families different. The data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Achievement differences were not associated with father family structure per se, but with demographic and economic factors that differ across families. In contrast, behavioral problems were linked to family structure even after controls for measured and unmeasured…
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This journal issue discusses the findings from the Early Head Start Father Studies, a series of studies that investigated activities that fathers engage in with their infants and toddlers, how fathers express responsibility for their children, and the types of social, human, and financial capital that fathers afford their children. In the studies, fathers were also asked questions on how men perceive the father role, their experiences with the own fathers, and the support they need to be a father. Specifically, articles in the issue discuss: the project's methods and research questions; low-…
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Journal Article
The purpose of this study is to identify factors that predict recidivism among families in which the father is the perpetrator of physical abuse and to compare these factors to the factors that investigators believe are related to higher risk. A case-comparison design was used to understand risk among 137 predominantly Caucasian families in which a father had injured a child. The multivariate analysis showed that families in which the father was unemployed (greater time at risk), had younger children, was not the biological father of all of the children, did not take responsibility for his…
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This study compared perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal and marital problems, and aspects of family climate of maltreating fathers and mothers. Subjects were 2841 offenders (1918 of whom were fathers or father-figures) who were identified and treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program between 1988 and 1996. Independent variables for the analysis were parent sex (mother vs. father) as well as type and severity of maltreatment, history of repeat offenses, and history of abuse in childhood. Maltreating mothers were more distressed and reported more problems from individuals outside…
