Confining Fatherhood: Incarceration and Paternal Involvement Among Nonresident White, African American and Latino Fathers
Type
We examine the consequences of incarceration for non-resident White, Latino, and African American fathers' contact with children and their formal and informal child support agreements. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we found that fathers' current incarceration presented serious obstacles to maintaining contact with children and interfered with the establishment of informal financial support agreements with mothers. Recent and past incarceration were strongly and negatively associated with how often non-Latino White fathers saw their children, while having a considerably smaller effect for African American and Latino fathers. A similar pattern of racial and ethnic differences was observed with respect to mothers' trust of fathers to take care of their children. Findings suggest the continued need for fathering programs in prisons and for re-entry programs for fathers in communities following their release.