The Effect of Paternal Experiences of Economic Hardship on Father Involvement and Co-Parenting

Background/Purpose: Each year, over 1 million children are born to unwed parents, resulting in a high number of youth raised in single-mother homes (CDC, 2017). A well-documented risk factor for youth developmental problems is having a non-resident (NR) father, which often coincides with poverty. NR fathers are often unfairly labeled “deadbeat dads.” However, many fathers despite their non-resident status remain involved in their child’s life. Further, NR father involvement (FI) can mitigate the negative effects of single-motherhood and poverty (Choi & Jackson, 2011).

Social justice prevails when all children thrive, and strong families are needed for this to occur. Previous research shows that paternal breadwinning and co-parenting are major factors associated with NR FI (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010; Varga & Gee, 2017). In order for social workers to facilitate the development of strong families, it is essential to understand how one major systemic issue, poverty, affects families. This study longitudinally examined the relations between paternal economic hardship (EH), FI, and co-parenting. I hypothesized that higher levels of EH would predict lower levels of FI and co-parenting, and that more optimal levels of co-parenting would be associated with higher levels of father involvement.

Method: Data was drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Inclusion criteria were families with a NR father at the Year-9 follow-up wave (N = 1,267). On average, fathers were 31, and mothers were 39, years old (Year-9). Fathers identified as Black (65.9%), Latino (19.7%), White (11.5%), and “other” race (2.7%).

Paternal EH (Year-5) was measured by father responses to questions from the SIPP (Reichman, 2001). NR FI was measured as father-child closeness (child report) and father direct engagement (mother and father report), latent variables were developed from survey items targeting these constructs (Year-9). Co-parenting was constructed from Year-9 mother and father responses to survey items that targeted co-parenting behaviors.

I utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine whether paternal EH predicted father direct engagement and father-child closeness, whether EH predicted co-parenting, and whether co-parenting was associated with the father involvement factors. The models were run separately by adolescent sex.

Results: Results of the boy and girl SEM model fit were good. In both models, EH did not emerge as a significant predictor of the FI variables. Higher paternal EH predicted lower co-parenting scores. Higher co-parenting scores were associated with higher levels of each father involvement factor.

Conclusions and implications: Paternal experiences of adversity in the form of EH did not have a long-term impact on father involvement, but it did lead to worse co-parenting. This is important, given that co-parenting was a robust indicator of all three father involvement measures in both the boy and girl models. These findings underscore the importance of eradicating poverty, as it has a negative effect on critical relationships within the family system, and therefore family functioning. Going forward, prevention and intervention efforts with impoverished families should explicitly target the mother-father relationship, attending to how issues of poverty and father’s breadwinning affect parents’ ability to effectively co-parent their children.