Low-Income Noncustodial Fathers' Perceptions of Their Parenting: Past and Current Challenges

A growing number of children live with only one of their biological parents at some point during childhood. When children reside with only one parent, it is typically their mother, creating challenges for nonresident father’s involvement in parenting, especially if they have low incomes. Research suggests nonresident fathers’ parenting can promote child well-being, especially if it is high-quality involvement. While there is research on father-child contact and parenting, there is little research that examines a nonresident father’s own assessment of the quality of his parenting. My research provides information on father’s parenting assessments and factors related to this.

Nonresident fathers with limited contact with their own father may have particular difficulties parenting their own children (an intergenerational effect). Nonresident fathers’ assessments of their parenting also could be associated with the demands on their time. One key parenting time demand may be related to whether they have had children with more than one partner and are trying to parent across multiple households. Yet multiple-partner fertility (MPF) may be more common among those who had limited contact with their own father, which could limit our ability to understand the relationship between a father’s experience of being parented and his assessment of himself as a parent.

This study takes advantage of unique data and has three aims: (1) to document low-income nonresident fathers’ assessments of their parenting; (2) to understand if these perceptions of parenting are associated with the way they were parented; and (3) to test if having MPF is mediating the intergenerational effect on the self-view as parent.

Method: I use baseline surveys of more than 7,000 low-income noncustodial fathers behind in their child support payments and having employment difficulties from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration. Fathers are in seven states and were surveyed between 2013 and 2016. Self-assessment of parenting is based on a single question, covering all children; relationship with one’s own father is based on two questions summarizing the level and quality of that involvement. MPF is measured with fathers’ self-report. I present descriptive statistics, and then use a standard mediation model approach to examine the relationship between a father’s childhood experience of being parented, MPF, and their self-assessment as parent.

Results by aim: (1) About half the fathers considered themselves an excellent or very good parent. (2) Preliminary results suggest that those who had a better relationship with their own biological father consider themselves to be a better parent, controlling for a variety of other factors. (3) Those who had better relationships with their own father are less likely to have MPF, and those with MPF have lower self-assessments of their parenting. MPF partially mediates the relationship between the way fathers were parented and their assessment of their parenting.

Implications: This study provides the first large-scale results of noncustodial fathers’ self-assessment of their parenting. The results of this study can be used in developing effective parenting programs; one clear implication is that parenting curriculums need to include strategies for dealing with children across multiple households.