Problematic Community Environment and Paternal Engagement of Residential Fathers and Non-Residential Fathers

Purpose Research suggests that fathers' supportive engagement in child caring contributes to child social psychological development and can buffer maternal child maltreatment (e.g., Guterman, Lee, Lee, Waldfogel, & Rathouz, 2009). Prevalent absence of non-residential fathers' engagement, particularly in the child welfare system, has raised serious concerns. Existing research has examined the effects of father/mother characteristics and family contexts on paternal engagement (e.g., Carlson, McLanahan, Brooks-Gunn, 2008; Fagan, Palkovitz, Roy, & Farrie, 2009). However, few studies have investigated whether community environment affects such engagement, and even fewer studies have distinguished such influence on between residential and non-residential fathers. This study attempts to fill such a knowledge gap.

Methods The study used a sample of 1426 residential (married/cohabiting) fathers and 888 non-residential fathers, drawing data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study wave 3 and 4 mother/father core surveys and three-year in-home focal child survey. FFCW initially surveyed 5000 mothers with newborns and available fathers in 20 U.S. large cities around 1998-2000, with about 2/3 unwed-birth families in the sample. Wave 3 and 4 mother/father follow-up surveys along with two focal child surveys were conducted about 3 and 5 years after the initial surveys respectively. Outcome variable paternal engagement (range 8-48, Cronbach alpha =.93) was measured at wave 4 with a scale consisting of 12 items regarding fathers' capacity and cooperation in child caring (e.g., father discussed with mother about child care problems, and father can be counted on for temporary child care). Independent variable community environment (range 8-32, Cronbach alpha=.90) was measured with a scale constructed from 8 items reported by mothers reflecting community problems such as prevalence of drug dealer, drunker, and gang activates. Two OLS regression models were conducted for multivariate analysis. Mother-father relationship quality, their social demographic characteristics such as age, education, income, alcohol dependence, social support, and child characteristics at wave 3 were controlled.

Results Single mother headed families were more likely to reside in more problematic communities than two-parent families. Multivariate analysis indicate that problematic community environment measured at wave 3 was negatively associated with non-residential fathers' engagement at wave 4 (standardized b =-0.10, p=0.001), but not with residential fathers (standardized b=-0.03, p=0.23), when holding other factors constant. Among control variables, mothers' social support resources, age, being a black or Hispanic (vs. white) mother, father living time with children, and father employment status were positively associated with residential and/or non-residential fathers' engagement, but poor father-mother relationship was negatively associated with all fathers' engagement.

Implications The findings suggest that compared with residential fathers, non-residential fathers are sensitive to community environment and have less paternal engagement in more problematic communities where mothers and children reside. This may exacerbate the vulnerability of mother-headed single families. Policy makers and community programs should pay attention to the needs of these vulnerable mother and children lacking of paternal engagement, and consider responsive strategies to increase such engagement. It is also important to build safe and ordered community environment for paternal engagement and other family wellbeing.