Fathers’ Positive Parenting and Coparenting Quality: Complex Links in Economically Disadvantaged Families of Young Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Mounting evidence highlights the positive influence of fathers on young children’s development and the interdependence of fathers’ parenting on family relationships and contextual demands (Schoppe-Sullivan & Fagan, 2020). However, the developmental processes that promote positive father involvement and its linkages to children’s development are less understood among unmarried, low-income families.

The goal of this symposium is to advance research on complex links between fathers’ parenting and coparenting in early childhood. The papers all draw data from samples of low-income, primarily unmarried fathers. Each paper applies different advanced statistical techniques and measures of positive father involvement to embed fathers’ parenting and coparenting in the context of father and family characteristics, including parental relationship quality, father age and work-family conflict, and fathers’ depression and financial contributions.

Paper 1 draws data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW) to examine how dual trajectories of father involvement and supportive coparenting across early parenthood are associated with family characteristics and children’s behavior problems. Paper 2 also uses FFCW to test whether perceived fathering quality mediates pathways between supportive coparenting and father engagement, and whether these pathways vary by paternal age. Paper 3 uses the Building Strong Families dataset to consider how fathers’ engagement is longitudinally linked to children’s development via coparenting and other father and family characteristics. The symposium discussant is a well-recognized expert on father involvement in early childhood.

Collectively, these papers advance understanding of the complex relationships among fathering and coparenting, with clear implications for best practices to support families.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Melissa A. Barnett, University of Arizona

Discussant

• Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Dual Trajectories of Supportive Coparenting and Father Involvement: Parental Predictors and Child Behavior Outcomes - Presenting Author: SuJung Park, Texas Tech University; Melissa A. Barnett, University of Arizona; Ann M Mastergeorge, Texas Tech University

• Supportive Coparenting, Work-Family Conflict and Father Engagement: The Role of Perceived Fathering Quality - Presenting Author: Caroline Frances Dorothy Black, Northern Arizona University; Priscilla Leticia Zambrano, University of Arizona

• The Direct and Mediated Role of Father Engagement on 36-Month-Old Developmental Outcomes - Presenting Author: J. Scott Crapo, Utah State University; Olena Kopystynska, Southern Utah University