Putting Fathers Back in the Picture: Parental Activities and Children's Adult Outcomes.

Drawing on more than a quarter of a century of Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, this paper examines links between childhood home environment (as reported by fathers during those childhood years) and children's outcomes in early adulthood. The emphasis is on the role of fathers and the unique contribution of their activities and characteristics to children's development, measured in terms of the children's completed schooling, wage rates, and nonmarital childbearing in early adulthood. Results indicate that fathers' abilities add substantial predictive power to models based on maternal characteristics. Fathers' church attendance and the precautionary actions of parents also are strong predictors of children's adult outcomes, although differentially so for sons and daughters. 32 references, 14 notes, 2 tables. (Author abstract)