Understanding Financial Well-Being and Father-Infant Relationships during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Purpose: U.S. men parent in the context of a “breadwinner” narrative, highlighting the expectation that they provide financially for their families. Prior research suggests that economic hardship and financial dissatisfaction negatively affect fathers’ parenting, including infant parenting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many fathers earned less, potentially straining father-infant relationships. Yet, the pandemic may have also increased the amount of time fathers spend with their infants, and prior research has linked father-infant time together and relationship quality. Here, we examine indicators of financial well-being and assess their association with father-infant attachment during the pandemic.

Methods: Biological fathers of infants (N=396) completed a Qualtrics questionnaire between October 2020 and February 2021. Participants identified as male and lived with both the infant and the infant’s biological mother. Almost 20% of the participants identified as Black/non-Hispanic, and another 20% identified as Hispanic/Latinx or bi/multiracial. The sample was economically diverse, with approximately one-third (34%) with a total household income of $50,000 or less, and another third (30%) with a household income of $100,000 or more. While a majority (68%) of the sample reported moderate or extreme satisfaction with their current financial situation, 18% of the sample indicated moderate or extreme dissatisfaction. Finally, 40% of the sample reported improved financial well-being during COVID, while almost a quarter (23%) reported diminished financial well-being.

Results: Using multiple regression techniques, we first examined factors associated with financial dissatisfaction. These included being employed (b=-.60, p=.005), diminished financial well-being during COVID (b=.29, p<.001), and total household income (b=-.15, p<.001). Attachment with their infant (b=.014, p=.012), father’s education (b=-.09, p=.032), and father’s depression symptoms (b=-.07, p=.026) were also associated with financial dissatisfaction. We then looked more closely at the relationship between financial dissatisfaction and paternal attachment. Contrary to our expectation, fathers who were moderately or extremely dissatisfied with their current financial state reported higher levels of attachment with their infant (b=6.51, p=.009 and b=5.83, p<.001 respectively) than those who indicated they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Income was not significantly associated with attachment (b=.29, p=.363).

Conclusions and Implications: Much of the literature regarding financial well-being and father-child relationships assumes that financially strained fathers are less attached to their children because of that financial state. This study shows the reverse pattern- fathers reporting financial dissatisfaction had significantly higher attachment scores. These findings expand our understanding of families experiencing financial strain, allowing for a more nuanced narrative regarding income and fatherhood. The observed link between dissatisfaction and attachment could be interpreted to mean a close father-infant relationship drives a desire in the father to better provide for the child. It may also be that fathers experiencing financial dissatisfaction parented their children differently than those reporting neutral or moderate/extreme satisfaction, something found in other studies. Finally, it could be that financially dissatisfied fathers had more time to spend with their infants during the pandemic, and it is this extra time together that explains their closer relationship.