What Fathers Say About Involvement With Children After Separation

Abstract

This article examines the potential impact of nonresponse on information about paternal involvement after separation by comparing the sample of mothers whose children have a nonresident father to the sample of nonresident fathers in the National Survey of Families and Households. We show that when the samples are restricted to parents of children who were born in a first marriage, resident mothers and nonresident fathers are similar on a variety of demographic characteristics, including racial composition, family size, and duration of separation. Although resident mothers and nonresident fathers in the restricted sample report more similar levels of paternal involvement after divorce than in the comparison of the unrestricted samples, fathers still report greater involvement than do mothers. Whether the respondent is the mother or father does not affect the factors that predict variation in child support receipts or payments or visits between nonresident fathers and children. The last part of the article examines nonresident fathers' attitudes toward their role as a parent. Fathers' evaluations of their role depend more on their remarriage and characteristics of the children in their new household than on involvement with children from a previous relationship.