Fathers' Involvement and Fathers' Well-being over Children's First Five Years
Publication Year
2010
Abstract
Despite the growing scholarly attention to fathers' roles in family life, the consequences of fathers' involvement with children for men's well-being have been little explored. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=3,880), we evaluate how fathers' involvement (time, engagement and responsibility) is linked to fathers' well-being with respect to health and mental health, social integration, and economic outcomes. We evaluate resident and non-resident fathers separately, using data from three survey waves about 1, 3 and 5 years after a baby's birth. Our results indicate that fathers' involvement is not strongly related to paternal health and mental health, but greater involvement is linked with better relationship quality with the child's biological mother for both resident and nonresident fathers. With respect to economic outcomes, there is modest evidence that greater involvement is linked to lower earnings for resident fathers—and to higher earnings for non-resident fathers.
Keywords
Call Number
WP10-10-FF