Divorced Fathering: Testing A Social Interaction Model

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Divorced fathers represent one of the fastest growing family types in the United States, increasing at a faster rate than single mothers. Quality post-divorce father involvement provides direct benefits for children, mothers, and society. Unfortunately, fathers tend to disengage in parenting roles over time. Social support for fathers is a key determinant of involvement, yet support for parenting is virtually unstudied. In general, there is sparse research on divorced fathers. Much of what is known comes from reports of custodial mothers, surveys, and census data. These data sources, however, do not provide reliable data on fathers' parenting or give expression to fathers' views. Consequently, we know little about determinants of quality involvement or parenting behaviors. How much do fathers utilize informal networks for parenting? What factors in the social environment promote father involvement? The aims of this study are to: 1) Address the scarcity of empirical research on divorced fathers by oversampling underrepresented subpopulations of custodial and noncustodial divorced fathers using random sampling; 2) Test social interactional hypotheses using never-before-collected data on father-child and father-confidant interactions; 3) Explore and enumerate fathers' reliance on various sources of social support for specific parenting needs; 4) Test social interactional models of confidant support as a predictor of father and child adjustment and father involvement by utilizing direct observation of father-confidant interactions, father-child interactions, and analogue parenting tasks; 5) Test identity theories of parental role strain and identity salience as predictors of fathers' adjustment and post-divorce involvement; and 6) Utilize longitudinal data to address theoretical propositions in support and identity theories yet to include divorced fathers' observed parenting. Specifically, the 4-year study will assess 244 divorced fathers over 24 months. Three waves of father data will be collected: Baseline, 9, and 18 months. Full-custody and no-custody fathers will be oversampled to obtain a total of 90 full-, 90 co-, and 64 no-custody fathers. Eligible fathers must have been divorced within the last 24 months and have a boy or a girl between the ages of 4 and 10. Based on pilot data, we expect 90% of fathers will recruit confidants and roughly 83% of the fathers will potentially have children participating in father-child assessments.