Objective of this publication was to test a model linking economic hardship, parenting stress, and nonresident fathers' involvement in single mothers' family life during Black boys' early childhood (3–5 years of age) to harsh parenting and behavior problems in middle childhood (9 years of age). Parenting stress among single mothers heading low-income Black families is poorly understood. Most of the research on the effects of stress in the parenting role and outcomes for mothers and children has focused on middle-class White samples. Boys are of primary interest in this article because of evidence, based largely on studies of economically disadvantaged, two-parent, White families, that boys may be more negatively affected than girls by aspects of family conflict that include harsh and coercive parenting.