Absent Parents Are More Than Money

Abstract

Numerous studies have failed to detect any long-term consequences of involvement by absent parents on their children's well-being beyond the effects of financial transfers. However, many of these studies often narrowly define involvement as parent-child contact and do not address possible joint effects between parental involvement and other variables. In this study, the author used a sample of 269 cases from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to explore the possible effects of (a) levels of child-absent parent activity and (b) interactions between child-absent parent activity and financial transfers from absent parents on children's educational attainment. The author found that although activities by themselves have no significant effect, combining activities with financial support increases the probability both that youths will graduate from high school and that they will go on to college. The author discusses the theoretical and policy-oriented implications of these findings.