Parenting Practices of Resident Fathers: The Role of Marital and Biological Ties

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,098) to examine differences in the parenting practices of four types of resident fathers, defined by their biological relationship to a focal child and their marital status with regard to the focal child's mother. R...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 2008-08, Vol.70 (3), p.625-639
Main Authors: Berger, Lawrence M., Carlson, Marcia J., Bzostek, Sharon H., Osborne, Cynthia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Background
Biological family
Child care
Child Rearing
Childbirth
Childrearing Practices
Children
Cohabitation
Comparative Analysis
Cultural Influences
Divorce
Evolution
Family (Sociological Unit)
Family life
Family relations
Family Structure
Family studies
father involvement
Fatherhood
Fathering
Fathers
Kinship
Marital Status
Marriage
Mothers
Parent Child Relationship
Parenting
Parenting Styles
Parents
Parents & parenting
Regression (Statistics)
Resistance (Psychology)
Resource Materials
Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations
Single status
social fathers
Sociology
Sociology of the family. Age groups
Step-parents
Stepfamily
stepfathers
Well Being
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Summary:This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,098) to examine differences in the parenting practices of four types of resident fathers, defined by their biological relationship to a focal child and their marital status with regard to the focal child's mother. Regression results suggest that biological fathers and social fathers (i.e., stepfathers or mothers' cohabiting partners) differ significantly, and in some unexpected ways, on most measures of parenting. A considerable portion of these differences, however, can be explained by variation in the background characteristics of the individuals and families in each group. Additionally, difference-in-difference analyses reveal a stronger link between marriage and higher quality parenting practices among social fathers than among biological fathers.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00510.x