Predictors of Father Involvement in Urban Cities: Comparisons Between American Indian Fathers and Fathers of Other Races/Ethnicities

Background and Purpose: In  2013, 40.6% of children in the US were born to unmarried mothers. Though the numbers of unmarried births are represented across all races, American Indian children born to unmarried mothers continue to be over represented (66.4% in 2013). While research indicates positive effects of father involvement on a child’s development, fatherlessness in low-income American Indian families remains among the highest in the nation which is concerning. Research suggests that income, education and parental relationship quality are associated with increased father involvement. However, there have been limited studies examining the link between socioeconomic conditions and American Indian father involvement. In the current study, we conducted multivariate analyses of secondary data from a sample of fathers to identify predictors of father involvement.

Method: This study utilized data from the first two waves of the Fragile Families Child and Wellbeing (FFCWS) study. The sample consisted of 2,933 fathers of which 116 identified as American Indian. The outcome of interest was two measures of father involvement; physical involvement and evocative/imaginary involvement with their child. Predictor variables included income, age, race, marital status, education, employment status and relationship quality with child’s mother. Multiple linear regression models were run in SPSS to examine predictors associated with father involvement.

Results: Findings showed that American Indian fathers were less likely to be involved in physically active involvement (M = 3.24, SD = 2.53) than the rest of the fathers in the sample (M= 3.9, SD = 2.06, p <. 01). In addition, American Indian fathers in the sample tended to be younger (M = 27.21, SD = 6.5) than the fathers of the general population in the sample (M = 29.33, SD = 7.2, p < .01). The first multiple regression model showed that income, relationship quality, education and employment status were statistically significant predictors of father’s evocative/imaginary involvement across all races (p < .05). Contrary to the first model, father’s age had a significant positive effect on physically active father involvement (p <  .01), while father’s education and employment status had no statistically significant effect on physically active father involvement. Results showed no differences on the effects of income on father involvement between American Indian fathers and fathers who identified as Black, White, Asian or Other.

Conclusions and Implications: Results from this study contributes to prior research by identifying supportive evidence of the role of socioeconomic factors on father involvement. Our findings further expand upon previous research by extending the discussion to the American Indian population. Implications for social work research and practice include the need for increased support toward improving father’s socioeconomic conditions in promoting father involvement. Further investigation is warranted with a larger population of American Indian fathers to examine father involvement from a longitudinal perspective to establish whether involvement maybe linked to changes in socio-economic conditions across the lifespan, and whether differences exist with rural American Indian fathers.