Session: The Facilitators and Barriers of Nonresident Father Involvement (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

Children's living arrangements in the U.S. have become less stable, with an increasing number who live apart from their father, and many of these children are economically vulnerable. Some research suggests that nonresident father involvement has important effects on child well-being, but relatively little is known about the factors associated with involvement. One recurring theme is that a father's economic difficulties may limit his involvement, whether this is not having enough resources to see his children regularly, or that his work (both the amount of time and when it occurs) may hinder involvement. Another theme points to the importance of relationships. For example, a father may have had children across multiple families so that it is hard to be involved with them all, or his relationship with his ex-partner may be conflictual, which could limit involvement. This symposium brings together four important papers that examine the factors that facilitate involvement and barriers that make it difficult, focusing on both economic and relational factors. The first paper explores whether a father's low earnings are a barrier to contact or whether contact is more related to relational factors. The second paper is focused on fathers who have had children with multiple partners, examining whether his involvement with his youngest child is stronger than his involvement with his eldest. The third paper examines whether nonstandard work schedules limit a father's involvement with his children. Finally, the last paper focuses on a particular type of involvement, child support payments, including formal cash payments, informal cash payments, and in-kind payments. The papers use a variety of data sources well-suited to their questions. Two papers use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and two use specialized surveys originally designed to evaluate interventions. Multiple quantitative approaches are used. In general, the papers find support for both economic and relational factors, although the results are not always as expected. The symposium includes two discussants. One has qualitative research expertise in this area, who will discuss how the findings relate to what we have learned from a variety of in-depth qualitative analyses and provide insights into the next questions for research. The other is the senior policy analyst with the longest history of involvement with fatherhood programs at the federal level, who will draw out the lessons for policy and propose further inquiries that are needed to move policy forward. Looking at the papers as a whole will broaden and deepen our understanding of the lives of fathers and ways that their connections to their children can be strengthened.