Do Nonresidential Fathers' Financial Support and Contact Improve Children's Health?

Associations between Paternal Co-residence and Child Health among African American Children

We investigated the associations between paternal co-residence and asthma, obesity, and blood pressure among children aged 3-5 years. Mother/child dyads (N = 250) self-identified as African American or Black. Mothers reported on father's co-residence and child's asthma diagnosis. Height, weight, and blood pressure were measured. Regression models were used to examine paternal co-residence with child health outcomes (i.e., asthma, obesity, and blood pressure). Confounders included maternal and child age, child sex, maternal smoking, and insurance status. Children who lived with their fathers were less likely to have asthma (OR = 0.39, 95% CI 0.18-0.79), though this association was not significant after adjustment for confounders (aOR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.22-1.01). Paternal co-residence was not significantly associated with child obesity (aOR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.35-1.73), systolic (β = 0.57, SE = 1.2, p = .64), or diastolic (β = 1.91, SE = 1.0, p = .07) blood pressure. More research is necessary to understand the diversity of family living situations and how they affect child health.

Family and Health over the Past Decade: Review of Selected Studies and Areas of Future Inquiry

Research on the family-health nexus cuts across disciplines, focuses on a broad range of issues, and is set against a backdrop marked by increasing diversity of family structures and households, aging families, and intensifying concerns about health and social inequalities. Over the last decade, a plethora of articles appearing in The Journal of Family and Economic Issues (JFEI) have examined the interplay between family and health. This article attempts to crystallize the primary contributions of this body of work. My discussion is organized around various thematic areas that emerged from the review: (a) childbearing, (b) children's health, (c) relationships, (d) caregiving, and (e) the impact of health on household finances. I close by sketching out some useful areas for future research in the next decade.

Does Time with Dad in Childhood Pay Off in Adolescence?

OBJECTIVE

We aim to understand the association between father involvement in middle childhood and adolescent behaviors and whether the relationship differs by father residence.

BACKGROUND

Internalizing and externalizing behaviors in adolescence can trigger a cascade of negative outcomes later in life, including lower educational attainment, criminal justice involvement, and future psychological distress. Evidence, largely focusing on nonresidential fathers and older cohort, suggests that father involvement-particularly closeness and engagement-may reduce adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

METHOD

We use data six waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort survey representative of births in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, to estimate OLS regression models examining (a) whether father involvement in middle childhood is associated with fewer problem behaviors at Age 15, (b) if the salience of father involvement differs depending on whether the father was present in the home (i.e., was married to or living with his child's mother) in middle childhood, and (c) whether father involvement matters differently based on the child's sex.

RESULTS

We find protective associations between father involvement and adolescent behavioural outcomes that persist even among children who were not living with their fathers. In models stratified by the child's sex, father involvement matters for both boys and girls. In all models, father presence alone, apart from active involvement, is not significantly associated with behavioral outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Father involvement protects against negative adolescent behaviors even among children with nonresidential fathers and for both boys and girls.

IMPLICATIONS

These results suggest that policies that promote greater father involvement and father-child bonds, rather than other options such as promoting marriage, may be more effective in reducing behavioral problems among adolescents.

Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Child Development

Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children's development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father-child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies on parenting and children's development. The first aim of this monograph was to provide a brief update on the current state of research on fathering and to lay out a developmental ecological systems perspective as a conceptual framework for understanding the different spaces fathers inhabit in their children's lives. Because there is wide variability in fathers' roles, the ecological systems perspective situates fathers, mothers, children, and other caregivers within an evolving network of interrelated social relationships in which children and their parents change over time and space (e.g., residence). The second aim was to present examples of empirical studies conducted by members of the international working group that highlighted different methods, data collection, and statistical analyses used to capture the variability in father-child relationships. The monograph ends with a commentary that elaborates on the ecological systems framework with a discussion of the broader macrosystem and social-contextual influences that impinge on fathers and their children. The collection of articles contributes to research on father-child relationships by advancing theory and presenting varied methods and analysis strategies that assist in understanding the father-child relationship and its impact on child development.

A tripartite model for recruiting African-Americans into fatherhood intervention research

Many studies have examined factors influencing African-American (AA) participation in research studies. But none inform the recruitment of AA men into fatherhood intervention research. Our purpose is to describe the recruitment and enrollment framework of the Dedicated African American Dad (DAAD) Study, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test a fatherhood intervention against a financial literacy comparison condition. AA nonresident (AANR) fathers are fathers who do not reside with their child on a full-time basis. Fathers attended 10 group-based sessions; and father and mother informants completed research interviews at baseline, postintervention, and 12 weeks postintervention. The DAAD Study tripartite model is a system of strategies that address three factors that individually and cooperatively affect recruitment of AANR fathers into research: community partnerships; study infrastructure; and recruitment personnel. The intersection of these three components forms a recruitment nexus that can be used to guide community-based research. The DAAD study serves as an exemplar of recruitment challenges, strategies, and lessons learned.

If looks could heal: Child health and paternal investment

Data from the first two waves of the Fragile Family and Child Wellbeing study indicate that infants who look like their father at birth are healthier one year later. The reason is such father-child resemblance induces a father to spend more time engaged in positive parenting. An extra day (per month) of time-investment by a typical visiting father enhances child health by just over 10% of a standard deviation. This estimate is not biased by the effect of child health on father-involvement or omitted maternal ability, thereby eliminating endogeneity biases that plague existing studies. The result has implications regarding the role of a father's time in enhancing child health, especially in fragile families.

Fathers' Financial Support of Children in a Low Income Community in South Africa

We used data from the Birth to Twenty Cohort study to understand children's receipt of financial support from their fathers in a low income, Black community in urban South Africa. Specifically, we (1) described fathers' financial support over the life course of children; (2) estimated survival probabilities of receiving support for all children and notreceiving support for children who experienced a parental union dissolution; and (3) identified factors that explained variation in the receipt of support after a union dissolution. Results suggest that most children received full or partial support throughout the life course. Furthermore, a high proportion of children received support after a union dissolution with much of the variation driven by pre-dissolution support, father's education and the presence of extended kin.