Paternal Participation and Children's Well-being after Marital Dissolution

Abstract

Using a nationally representative sample from the National Survey of Children of 227 children in the US aged 11-16 who had experienced their parents marital dissolution this paper examines whether children generally fare better when their noncustodial father maintains an active presence in their lives. For measures of academic difficulty problem behavior and psychological distress there is little evidence that paternal involvement had either harmful or beneficial effects. Paternal economic support reduced somewhat the likelihood of problem behavior. The general absence of effects of paternal participation on childrens well-being is surprising in view of the widespread belief that children benefit from maintaining contact with their fathers. In addition the effects of fathers participation did not depend on the sex of the child or the presence of a stepfather. There are several possible explanations for these negative results. The relatively crude measures of well-being may not reveal subtle differences which are detectable using clinical or observational techniques. Closeness to the mother however is related to measures of well-being.