The Long Reach of Financial Support: Unmarried, Nonresident Fathers’ Contribution to Their Children’s Development

• In Event: 1-140 - Unmarried Fathers of Young Children: Correlates, Consequences, and Contributions

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Policies and programs aimed at increasing unmarried, nonresident men’s involvement in their children’s lives have focused on their ability to support them financially. Children in single-parent families exhibit less favorable outcomes, including more behavioral problems and lower test scores than children in two-parent families. The extensive literature on the mechanisms linking money to children’s development has tested mostly two theoretical mechanisms: parental investment that economic hardship affects how parents provide for (opportunities, toys, books, etc.) and interact with (time spent investing in interactions) their children, and a family stress model asserting that economic hardship increases parenting stress, which can lead parents to be harsher with their children and less supportive, which, in turn, will have a negative effect on children’s outcomes (Conger et al., 2002). To date studies have tested these models by examining whether financial support payments matter for children’s development because they increase maternal investment of time on cognitive stimulating activities or money on educational toys. However, single mothers are likely to use what financial support they receive from nonresident fathers to cover basic expenses rather than investments in children’s education. Moreover, it is plausible that higher financial support from nonresident fathers may increase their time in learning activities. Lastly, this literature ignores children’s contribution to their own development; increases in financial support might also operate thru the child by strengthening skills early in development, which would then impact later skills. We address this gap.

Research Questions: We ask: (1) Is there an association between fathers’ financial support during early childhood and children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes at ages 5 and 9; (2) Is this association mediated by mothers’ and fathers’ provision of cognitive stimulation in the home (investment pathway), parenting stress (family stress pathway) and, children’s skills at an earlier point in development (developmental cascading pathway)?

Methods: We use a sample of 942 children born to mother-headed families drawn from the FFCWS.

Analysis: Using path analysis, preliminary results show that fathers’ financial support in the early years, when measured continuously, was directly related to children’s aggressive behavior and math and reading at age 5. These associations are quite small and when provided through a formal order/agreement such support was positively related to children’s aggression at age 9. We also found that above average amounts of support were directly related to children’s cognitive skills at age 5, and well above average amounts of support were directly related to children’s aggressive behavior and math and reading achievement at age 9. Finally, we found that well-above average amounts of support were significantly related to math and reading achievement at age 9 through children’s cognitive skills at age 5 (developmental cascade mechanism).

Implications/discussion. Results suggest that policies and programs that increase financial support will do little to help children, unless they also substantially increase the amounts of support nonresident fathers actually provide. Further, if such efforts yield modest increases in support through the formal system, they might be harmful to children.

Authors

• Ron Mincy, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Natasha Cabrera, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hyunjoon Um, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author