Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Nonresident fathers'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2005.
Title from title screen (viewed 19 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Studies of nonresident fathers have largely neglected the influence of their personality on their contact and involvement with children. The present two-stage study, using quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, undertook to investigate the extent to which selected personality characteristics influenced nonresident fathers� continued engagement with children. The study initially collected demographic and personal data from two hundred and sixty nonresident fathers throughout Australia. This first stage of data collection focussed on fathers� experience of the separation and their subsequent frequency and level of contact and their level of involvement with children. It included several multi-item variables, which measured nonresident fathers� relationships with former partners and children, their adjustment to their new parental role, their role satisfaction and role strain. It also included measures of fatherhood salience, nonresident fathers� parental authority within the separated family, their satisfaction with that authority, their attitude to child support and their perception of resident mothers� attitude to contact. It also administered abridged Sensitivity and Impulsivity scales devised by Eysenck (1969). At the second stage of the study, one hundred and thirty-five of these fathers participated in an interview. One hundred and twenty of them completed a personality questionnaire, which measured scores on the four folk scales of Responsibility, Socialization, Self-control and Good Impression, taken from the California Psychological Inventory. The study found Socialization was the only selected personality characteristic to be significantly associated with nonresident fathers� engagement with children. All four folk scales were positively correlated with nonresident fathers� role adjustment, which was significantly associated with nonresident fathers� contact and was part of the model best predicting their involvement with children. Results showed that nonresident fathers� scores on the Sensitivity measure were negatively associated with role adjustment. Most nonresident fathers in the study had frequent contact with children but limited involvement with them. They reported having little scope to share in parental decision making or to be involved in children�s schooling. The study found fatherhood salience, role adjustment, parental authority and attitude to child support to be positively associated with engagement. It showed interparental hostility, interparental conflict and nonresident fathers� role strain to be negatively correlated with engagement. The study also found that dissatisfaction with parental authority within the separated family, role strain and a negative attitude to child support were associated with ongoing interparental hostility. Qualitative data confirmed nonresident fathers� common experience of being marginalised within the family. They also revealed that many participants went to great lengths to maintain some parental relevancy for their children, despite social and legal systems tending to impede them from meeting parental responsibilities and caring for their children.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology Clinical Psychology." Discipline: Psychology; Department/School: Psychology.

The demands on fathers to be more involved with their children have steadily been increasing since the 1970s. However, fathers have received less attention in the social science literature compared to mothers. This difference is evident regarding the parenting practices of ethnic minority fathers such as nonresident Black fathers. This dissertation investigates the effects of nonresident Black fathers’ perceptions of the coparenting relationship and coparenting support on their perceived father involvement and their perceived paternal stressors; while testing the mediating effects of maternal gatekeeping. The dissertation is presented in a three manuscript-style format with the intent to publish each manuscript in peer-reviewed journals. The aim of the first manuscript is to assess the cross-cultural adaptation and reliability of a modified Everyday Stressors Index titled, the Everyday Stressors Index-Minority Nonresident Fathers version (ESI-MNF). Using a sample of 105 nonresident Black fathers, the ESI-MNF was developed to include items that measure aspects of ethnic minority stressors and characteristics of nonresident fathering. The results indicate that the ESI-MNF is reliable. A paternal stressors subscale emerged that indicated specific areas of stress for nonresident fathers. The goal of the second manuscript is to test the effects of nonresident Black fathers’ perceptions of the coparenting relationship and coparenting support on their perceived paternal stressors; while testing the mediating effects of maternal gatekeeping. Results show that the mediating effects of maternal gatekeeping behaviors are minimized when the relationships with their children’s mothers are good and their children’s mothers are perceived as supportive. The purpose of the third manuscript is to test two models of nonresident Black father involvement with maternal gatekeeping as a mediator. Model 1 tests the mediating effects of maternal gatekeeping when parenting with one mother. Model 2 tests the effects of maternal gatekeeping when parenting with two mothers. For the sample of fathers with multiple sets of nonresident children, the results indicate that the dimensions of father involvement may be different when parenting with the first mother and when parenting with the second mother.

The current study identified subgroups of individuals regarding nonresident fathers’ childcare provision by taking the growth mixture modeling approach (GMM) and Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; wave 1 to wave 5). The three-profile model was the most fitted model, where Profile 1 (n = 548, 68.7%) showed the lowest childcare across waves, and Profile 3 (n = 106, 13.3%) was the most involved group, and the Profile 2 (n = 144, 18.0%) showed moderate levels of care provision (see Figure 1). Follow-up analysis revealed that the profiles significantly differed on child gender and the fathers’ education level; participants were more likely to be in the Profile 3 when the child was boy and fathers had higher education achievement.

Studies of nonresident fathers have largely neglected the influence of their personality on their contact and involvement with children. The present two-stage study, using quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, undertook to investigate the extent to which selected personality characteristics influenced nonresident fathers� continued engagement with children. The study initially collected demographic and personal data from two hundred and sixty nonresident fathers throughout Australia. This first stage of data collection focussed on fathers� experience of the separation and their subsequent frequency and level of contact and their level of involvement with children. It included several multi-item variables, which measured nonresident fathers� relationships with former partners and children, their adjustment to their new parental role, their role satisfaction and role strain. It also included measures of fatherhood salience, nonresident fathers� parental authority within the separated family, their satisfaction with that authority, their attitude to child support and their perception of resident mothers� attitude to contact. It also administered abridged Sensitivity and Impulsivity scales devised by Eysenck (1969). At the second stage of the study, one hundred and thirty-five of these fathers participated in an interview. One hundred and twenty of them completed a personality questionnaire, which measured scores on the four folk scales of Responsibility, Socialization, Self-control and Good Impression, taken from the California Psychological Inventory. The study found Socialization was the only selected personality characteristic to be significantly associated with nonresident fathers� engagement with children. All four folk scales were positively correlated with nonresident fathers� role adjustment, which was significantly associated with nonresident fathers� contact and was part of the model best predicting their involvement with children. Results showed that nonresident fathers� scores on the Sensitivity measure were negatively associated with role adjustment. Most nonresident fathers in the study had frequent contact with children but limited involvement with them. They reported having little scope to share in parental decision making or to be involved in children�s schooling. The study found fatherhood salience, role adjustment, parental authority and attitude to child support to be positively associated with engagement. It showed interparental hostility, interparental conflict and nonresident fathers� role strain to be negatively correlated with engagement. The study also found that dissatisfaction with parental authority within the separated family, role strain and a negative attitude to child support were associated with ongoing interparental hostility. Qualitative data confirmed nonresident fathers� common experience of being marginalised within the family. They also revealed that many participants went to great lengths to maintain some parental relevancy for their children, despite social and legal systems tending to impede them from meeting parental responsibilities and caring for their children.

The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how self-identified academically successful students perceived their nonresident African American fathers’ involvement in their education and to determine ways to encourage paternal participation in schools. Joyce Epstein’s Six Types of Parental Involvement Typology was used as assess how the nonresident African American fathers were involved in their children’s education. The research design used for this study was a basic interpretive qualitative approach. Participants in this study were students who attend or have previously graduated from a four-year university or college. There were 25 participants in the study. The students were 18–23 years of age. The data collection method for the study was in the form of a 60-minute in-depth interview with each participant. Semistructured interview questions were used to collect information for the study.

Data obtained from the interviews revealed eight themes: (a) encouragement, (b) breaking the cycle, (c) sports, (d) help with schoolwork, (e) offering advice, (f) financial assistance, (g) phone calls, and (h) helping others with similar struggles. The participants revealed that their fathers were not involved directly in their schools, as measured according to Epstein’s six types of parent involvement, but rather the fathers were involved in indirect ways in accordance to Dewey’s view on education.

Two of the themes were more participant based: (a) the need to break the cycle of paternal absence, so that their children would not grow up without knowing their fathers; and (b) the desire to be of some support and to offer assistance to others going through the same struggle of not having their fathers in their lives.

The findings revealed that the involvement of the nonresident African American fathers in this study did not conform to Epstein’s parental involvement model, but rather their involvement was indirectly involved in their children’s education. Physical absence of the father does not mean that he is not important, but rather that various factors may hinder his involvement with his children. Schools should make a conscious effort to foster relationships between fathers and their children. Nonresident African American fathers can make a difference.

Paternal support is often linked to lower levels of maternal distress. However, this link is less established among the increasing numbers of Mexican-American families with a romantic partner social (RPS) father, that is, mothers' partners who are not formally identified as stepfathers. This study applied a bioecological systems framework to test linkages between RPS father support and maternal depression and parenting stress above and beyond ecological stressors, and to consider whether nonresident biological father support and general instrumental support moderate this link. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we analyze a subsample of Mexican-American mothers (N = 76) with three-year-olds, who are involved in a relationship with a RPS father and maintain contact with the nonresident biological father. Findings indicate that mothers who reported greater support from RPS fathers also reported lower depressive symptomatology when they also reported greater support from nonresident biological fathers or reported being in a recent relationship with the RPS father; mothers from more established relationships reported more depressive symptoms. However, mothers with lower perceived instrumental social support reported high maternal depressive symptoms, even while receiving support from RPS fathers. Neither source of support significantly predicted maternal parenting stress. Overall, our results reveal complex, interactive associations between these combined sources of support and maternal mental health in these increasingly common family structures.

This study examined the role of nonresidential, Black fathers in the psychosocial adjustment of Black adolescents from single-mother households. Participants included 107 noncohabiting Black parental dyads with children between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Participants completed measures of positive parenting, parent-child relationship quality, depressive symptoms, coparenting relationship quality, and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral functioning. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions found that father factors contributed unique variance to adolescent outcomes when using father-reported and combined father- and mother-reported adolescent functioning. Coparenting relationship quality mediated the relationship between father-child relationship quality and adolescent behavioral problems when using mother-reported and combined father- and mother-reported adolescent functioning. This study highlights the unique contributions of nonresident Black father factors to adolescent outcomes and supports the need for further research in this area.

The purpose of the study was to examine the leisure patterns of nonresident fathers while spending time with their child(ren), and to examine leisure constraints, leisure facilitators and nonresident fathers' satisfaction with family leisure activities. Four instruments were used to collect the data. Family leisure involvement was measured using the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP), leisure constraints were measured using the Nonresident Father Leisure Constraint Scale (NFLCS), leisure facilitators were measured using the Nonresident Fathers' Leisure Facilitator Scale (NFLFS), and family leisure satisfaction was measured using the Family Leisure Satisfaction Scale (FLSS). The sample was nonresident fathers (n=129) from 36 states in the U.S. The data supported leisure constraints as a significant predictor of nonresident fathers' satisfaction with family leisure involvement, and their family leisure patterns. The data did not support, however, leisure facilitators as contributing to fathers' satisfaction with family leisure involvement or leisure patterns.

The two studies of this dissertation examined mothers' perspectives of nonresident fathers' involvement in low-income families. The overall goal of these studies was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of nonresident fathers' involvement and its effect on family well-being. In the first study I applied a relatively new methodology, zero-inflated negative binomial regression, to overcome the methodological shortcomings of previous studies. The models (N=1215) examined what factors predicted two aspects, presence and level, of father-child contact and paternal engagement. Different factors were found to influence presence of father-child contact and frequency of contact. Similarly, different factors predicted presence of paternal engagement and level of engagement. Thus, a nonresident father's decision to be involved in his child's life may be a fundamentally different decision than how much he is involved. In addition, parents' positive relationship--romantic relationship and higher quality of relationship--was found to be the major predictor influencing all outcome variables. It appears that a positive co-parental relationship is central to nonresident father involvement. In my second study, I qualitatively examined rural mothers' perceptions of nonresident fathers' involvement (N=83). Specifically, I investigated whether mothers are really "gatekeeping" the father involvement, as suggested by previous research. There was no simple yes/no answer to this question, rather, results suggested that whether a mother acts as a gatekeeper of her children depends on her unique circumstances. Mothers, by at large, wanted the nonresident fathers to be involved in their children's lives and to perform responsible fathering, but mothers' expectations of the fathers' roles may be narrowly defined and, therefore, easily violated. Some mothers did intentionally refuse or limit father-child contact in cases where they believed that father involvement would threaten the safety of their children. In these cases, "gatekeeping" behavior can be viewed as one survival strategy for the mothers. The two studies presented here collectively demonstrate the complexity of non-resident father's involvement and provide insight that will be useful for policy targeted to low-income families.
Graduation date: 2005

With around 50 percent of all dissolving marriages consisting of families with children, and around half of residential parents reporting some experience with dating new partners within 60 days of filing for divorce, there is a need to understand the influences on children’s relationships and the possible consequences or benefits that may be imposed on children due to not only divorce, but additional parental transitions such as repartnering. In this study, I used data from the Texas Families Project, a longitudinal, multi-informant, multi-method study, to examine the implications of mothers’ repartnering for children’s closeness and involvement with nonresident fathers. Resident mother’s dating status alone does not seem to impact children’s closeness and involvement with their nonresident fathers as much as the new relationship that children are forming with their mothers’ partners impacts these relationships. Mothers’ and children’s reports differ, providing competing results as to whether or not children’s relationships with their mothers’ partners is associated with changes in children’s relationships with their fathers. Children report a positive relationship between involvement with their mothers’ romantic partners and involvement with their nonresident fathers, suggesting that both children’s biological fathers and their alternative caretaker play a valuable role in their lives. Mothers’ reports show that there is a negative relationship between the amount of time spent with their mothers’ romantic partner and positive involvement with children’s nonresident father, suggesting that children could be substituting time with their fathers for time with their mothers’ romantic partner. Although contact may decrease due to the child and mothers’ romantic partner relationship, child’s closeness to their father is not affected, supporting research that states that children may continue to feel close to their fathers even when contact is low.
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