Poster #36 - Longitudinal Links among Early Unmarried Fathering, Later Father-child Relationship Closeness, & Child Externalizing Behavior

• In Event: 2-001 - Poster Session 1 during Breakfast

Abstract

Strikingly, in 2017, 40% of all births were to unmarried parents. The non-marital birth rate is even higher among low-income families (53%). Children raised by low-income, unmarried parents are at greater risk for externalizing behavior problems. Furthermore, rates of unmarried parenting differ dramatically by race/ethnicity: 35.8%, 70.1%, and 53% for White, African-American, and Hispanic families, respectively. Extensive research has focused on the direct associations between father involvement and child behavior within these non-traditional family structures, yet research has increasingly suggested that father involvement shapes child behavior indirectly through father-child relationship closeness. However, studies examining children’s perceptions of father-child relationship closeness within unmarried families is still limited. The high prevalence of unmarried parenting for African-American families may give rise to differences in children’s expectations and feelings of closeness with their fathers. For instance, Black adolescents often report greater closeness to their nonresident fathers than White adolescents. Evidence of wide variability in unmarried father-child relationships characterized by diverse cultural views, patterns of coresidence, and continuity in father involvement throughout early and middle childhood further warrants scholarly attention. Children who lived with their nonresident fathers at some point during early childhood report feeling closer to them in middle childhood and have better behavioral outcomes than those who did not experience prior coresidence. Thus, a father’s presence is not merely a reflection of concurrent coresidence or involvement activities, as typically measured, but also the child’s perception of father-child relationship closeness that considers the continuity of fathering experienced over time.
The present study extends current literature by examining how unmarried father involvement and coresidence during early childhood jointly shape children’s perceptions of relationship closeness, and in turn, children’s externalizing behavior in middle childhood. This study uses the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal study of 4,898 children born between 1998 and 2000, with an oversample of non-marital births to examine whether longitudinal associations among early father involvement and coresidence and later children’s behavior are mediated by relationship closeness within unmarried families. Structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to better examine these dynamic processes, formally testing the mediation across racial/ethnic subgroups. The present study stands to contribute to understanding the integrated, longitudinal processes of child-perceived relationship closeness and behavioral outcome in middle childhood that might be especially complex in the context of unmarried families in which coresidence status may change over time and fathers’ involvement may be limited.

Authors

• Kendra Whitfield, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh