Union Formation Among Men in the U.S.: Does Having Prior Children Matter?

Our study investigates whether fatherhood, and specifically involvement with nonresident children, influence men's entrance into marital and cohabiting unions. Using the National Survey of Families and Households, our findings suggest that neither resident nor nonresident children affect men's chances of entering a new marriage, but nonresident children have a positive effect on cohabitation. The positive association between nonresident children and men's union formation is not uniform; instead, we find that it is involvement with nonresident children, specifically visitation, that enhances men's chances of forming new unions. Whereas women's obligations to children from prior unions represent a resource drain that lowers their chances of union formation, our analysis suggests that involved nonresident fathers are more likely to enter subsequent unions than other men.     

The Role of Men's Childbearing Intentions in Father Involvement

An expanding body of research has investigated factors that influence fathers' involvement with their children. Generally overlooked has been the role of pregnancy intentions on men's fathering behaviors. In this study, the authors used nationally representative data from men interviewed in the 2002 and 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth to examine relationships between fathers' pregnancy intentions and multiple aspects of their parental involvement. Using propensity score methods to control for confounding, they found that men were less likely to live with a young child from a mistimed than intended pregnancy and that among nonresident fathers, mistimed pregnancies were associated with lower levels of visitation and consequently reduced participation in caregiving and play. Among both resident and nonresident fathers, mistimed pregnancies were also associated with lower self‐appraisals of fathering quality when compared with intended pregnancies; for nonresident fathers, however, this association was moderated by other involvement.     

Early Adult Obesity and U.S. Women's Lifetime Childbearing Experiences

Literature from multiple disciplines suggests that women who are obese during early adulthood may accumulate social and physiological impediments to childbearing across their reproductive lives. This led the authors to investigate whether obese young women have different lifetime childbearing experiences than leaner peers by analyzing data from 1,658 female participants in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Study sample members were nulliparous women ages 20–25 in 1982. The authors examined their childbearing experiences between 1982 and 2006 and found that young women who were obese at baseline had higher odds of remaining childless and increased odds of underachieving fertility intentions than young women who were normal weight at baseline. These results suggest that obesity has long‐term ramifications for women's childbearing experiences with respect to whether and how many children women have in general and relative to the number of children they want.     

Grasping the Diversity of Cohabitation: Fertility Intentions Among Cohabiters Across Europe

The authors examined the association between different meanings of cohabitation and fertility intentions. Using data from the Generations and Gender Surveys on 5,565 cohabiters from 9 European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, and Russia), they proposed a cohabitation typology based on attitudes toward marriage, intentions to marry, and perceived economic deprivation. Despite substantial variation in the prevalence and types of cohabiting relationships across Europe, cohabitation has become a living arrangement within which childbearing intentions are commonly formed and at times carried out. The authors found that the meaning that cohabiters attached to their union influenced significantly their short‐term fertility intentions, net of other covariates. Cohabiters who viewed their unions as a prelude to marriage were the most likely to plan to have a child in the near future, both in Western and Eastern European societies. The association between fertility intentions and marriage intentions was particularly strong among cohabiters who do not as yet have children in common, but it was also present in a more muted form among cohabitating parents. The findings suggest that, although marriage and childbearing are becoming less closely linked life events, they are not disconnected decisions for a large majority of cohabiters across Europe.     

Facets of Agency in Stories of Transforming From Childless by Choice to Mother

Family scholars have explored in depth how and why some women choose to never have children. However, some childless‐by‐choice (also termed childfree or voluntarily childless) women—who have declared their desire and intention to never have children—ultimately become mothers because of changes in choice or circumstance. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with mothers who once articulated themselves as permanently childless by choice, this article presents three facets of agency in women's stories about childbearing transformations: accidental conception, ambiguous desire, and purposeful decision. Participant interviews indicated that each facet of agency was enabled and constrained by multiple individual, relational, and cultural considerations, including self‐described biological urges, partners' childbearing desires and intentions, and cultural stigma against abortion. Pathways from childless by choice to mother often encompass multiple facets of agency and include movements in and out of various fertility desires and intentions before conceiving.     

Fathers' Investments of Money and Time Across Residential Contexts

Fathers' roles in family life have changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In addition to ongoing breadwinning responsibilities, many fathers are now involved in direct caregiving and engagement with children. Yet there is considerable variation in what fathers do, especially depending on whether they live with or away from their child. In this article, the authors use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,869) to describe how fathers' economic capacities (money) and direct involvement with children (time) are associated over child ages 1 to 9 for resident versus nonresident fathers, net of confounding factors. They found suggestive evidence that money and time investments operate differently across residential contexts: Resident fathers experience a trade‐off between market work and time involved with children. In contrast, nonresident fathers' higher economic capacities are associated with more time involvement, underscoring the greater challenge for such fathers to remain actively involved.     

Children With Nonresident Parents: Living Arrangements,Visitation, and Child Support

One third of all children in the United States have a nonresident parent. On the basis of 13,085 children with a nonresident parent drawn from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families, this study examines nonresident mothers' and fathers' involvement (visitation and child support) with children who reside in different household types: single‐parent families, married and cohabiting stepfamilies, and families headed by grandparents, other relatives, or nonrelatives. The relationship between children's living arrangements and nonresident parent involvement is complex and depends on both the gender of the nonresident parent and the type of involvement. Because nonresident parent involvement is low regardless of household type, policies and programs designed to increase involvement should include children in a variety of family forms.     

Coparenting and Nonresident Fathers' Monetary Contributions to Their Children

The percentage of children in the United States living apart from their biological father has increased, while public assistance for single mothers has diminished. This has resulted in a need to better understand and promote nonresident fathers' economic support of their children. In the present study the author used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,752) to examine how coparenting—the degree to which parents are mutually supportive and cooperative in raising their child—is related to nonresident fathers' monetary contributions. Results from pooled regression and fixed effects models indicate that coparenting is positively associated with fathers' likelihood of paying formal and informal child support and the amount of these payments. Findings from cross‐lagged structural equation models suggest that the association between coparenting and fathers' payments is reciprocal but that coparenting has a stronger effect on fathers' payments than fathers' payments do on coparenting.     

Adolescents With Nonresident Fathers: Are Daughters More Disadvantaged Than Sons?

This study examined sons' and daughters' involvement with nonresident fathers and associated outcomes (N = 4,663). Results indicated that sons and daughters reported equal involvement with nonresident fathers on most measures of father investment, although sons reported more overnight visits, sports, and movies and feeling closer to their fathers compared to daughters. Sons and daughters generally benefited from nonresident father involvement in the same way in internalizing and externalizing problems and grades. Feeling close to one's nonresident father, however, was associated with lower internalizing problems for daughters than sons. These findings suggest that nonresident fathers should be encouraged to be equally involved with their sons and daughters, as such involvement was associated with higher levels of well‐being for both sons and daughters.     

Comparing Father and Mother Reports of Father Involvement Among Low‐Income Minority Families

Currently available data and concerns about the validity of reports by mothers significantly truncate the ability of researchers to address a myriad of research questions concerning the involvement of fathers in families. This study aimed to inform this concern by examining predictors of father involvement and father‐mother discrepancies in reports of involvement within a low‐income, predominantly minority sample of families with both resident and nonresident fathers (n= 228). Paired hierarchical linear models were used to control for the interrelation between pairs of reporters. The results indicate that although fathers' and mothers' reports are similar, mothers consistently report lower levels of involvement than do fathers. Parental conflict, fathers' nonresidence, and fathers' age, as well as mothers' education and employment, predicted larger discrepancies between fathers' and mothers' reports.     

Nonresident father support and reunification outcomes for children in foster care

Over the past decade an interest in fathers and their contributions to family stability and children's healthy development has heightened the attention paid within the child welfare field to identifying, locating, and involving fathers. The article presents findings from analyses of data on nonresident fathers and child welfare case outcomes for foster children. Using data available from a telephone survey of child welfare caseworkers, together with administrative data on case outcomes, a positive association between nonresident father support and reunification outcomes for foster children is shown. The sample of foster children with nonresident fathers who provided financial support, nonfinancial support, or both types of supports, were far more likely to experience a reunification outcome than children whose fathers did not provide these supports. The findings demonstrate associations between support and reunification but cannot demonstrate causality given the cross-sectional nature of the dataset. More research is needed to better understand the nature of nonresident father support in the lives of foster children, and the quantity and quality of interactions between mothers, nonresident fathers, and their children.     

Overnight Custody Arrangements,Attachment, and Adjustment Among Very Young Children

Large numbers of infants and toddlers have parents who live apart due to separation, divorce, or nonmarital/noncohabiting childbearing, yet this important topic, especially the controversial issue of frequent overnights with nonresidential parents, is understudied. The authors analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal investigation of children born to primarily low‐income, racial/ethnic minority parents that is representative of 20 U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. Among young children whose parents lived apart, 6.9% of infants (birth to age 1) and 5.3% of toddlers (ages 1 to 3) spent an average of at least 1 overnight per week with their nonresident parent. An additional 6.8% of toddlers spent 35%–70% of overnights with nonresident parents. Frequent overnights were significantly associated with attachment insecurity among infants, but the relationship was less clear for toddlers. Attachment insecurity predicted adjustment problems at ages 3 and 5, but frequent overnights were not directly linked with adjustment problems at older ages.     

Hispanic Familism Reconsidered

Familism has been described as a cultural trait that might explain why the fertility of Hispanic women remains higher than non‐Hispanic white women. Still, few studies have analyzed group differences in childbearing attitudes. This article focuses on two dimensions of childbearing orientation: social value of children and fertility intentions. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we find limited support for the idea that familism undergirds differentials in fertility between native‐born Hispanics and whites. However, for foreign‐born Hispanics, there are some differences in the perceived value of children compared with whites, and these differences could contribute to fertility differentials.     

Understanding Grandfamilies: Characteristics of Grandparents,Nonresident Parents,and Children

Using data from the Year 9 Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N ～ 3,182), we investigated the characteristics grandfamilies (grandparents raising their grandchildren with no parent present, N = 84) and compared them to other key groups, including children's nonresident parents and other economically disadvantaged families with children. Results show that grandparents raising their grandchildren were generally better off in terms of educational attainment, marital status, and economic well‐being than the child's parents. Grandparents raising their grandchildren also had characteristics very similar to other disadvantaged mothers. Academic and socioemotional well‐being were poorer among children in grandfamilies compared with those living with their mothers, but parenting practices were very similar. These findings suggest that although children in grandfamilies may be at a disadvantage academically and socioemotionally, grandparent caregivers are in many ways similar to other fragile‐family mothers. Overall, this study enhances our knowledge of an important yet understudied family type.     

Indebted Relationships: Child Support Arrears and Nonresident Fathers' Involvement With Children

Low‐income, nonresident fathers owe a disproportionate amount of child support arrears, creating potential challenges for these fathers and their family relationships. This article uses mediation analysis to provide new evidence about how and why child support debt is related to paternal involvement using information from 1,017 nonresident fathers in the Fragile Families Study. Results show that child support arrears are associated with nonresident fathers having significantly less contact with children, being less engaged with them in daily activities, and providing less frequent in‐kind support 9 years after the birth. This negative association between child support debt and father involvement is most strongly and consistently mediated by the quality of the relationship between the biological parents. Although child support policies are designed to facilitate fathers' economic and emotional support, these results suggest that the accruement of child support debt may serve as an important barrier to father involvement.     

裕固族妇女生育观念与生育意愿的调查分析

本文采用自编问卷,对肃南县裕固族妇女的生育观念和生育意愿进行了调查与分析。结果发现：（1）裕固族妇女生育目的注重情感效用;（2）裕固族妇女生育年龄相比较于过去普遍推迟;（3）裕固族妇女生育孩子没有显著的性别偏好;（4）裕固族妇女意愿生育数量少。文章在分析裕固族妇女生育观念和生育意愿现状的基础上提出了相应的对策和建议。     

I would like them to get where I never got to: Nonresident fathers' presence in the educational lives of their children

Through the lens of social role theory, provider role strain and father ‘presence’, a qualitative design was used to explore nonresident fathers' perceptions of their role in their children's education and the ways in which they are actively engaged in their children's educational lives. Findings revealed that nonresident fathers with diverse racial, educational and occupational backgrounds (N = 39, mean age = 35) experienced regret over not meeting their own educational goals and they attributed their inability to consistently support their children financially to their educational failures. These low to moderate income fathers hoped to prevent their children from experiencing the same disappointments and financial hardships that they did and consequently emphasized the importance of education to their children. Fathers reported being present in their children's educational lives as advisors, teachers and/or investors. As advisors, fathers encouraged their children to stay in school and to not make mistakes that might derail them from their educational goals. As teachers, fathers provided cognitive support. Finally, fathers aimed to invest in their children's education by saving money for their educational futures. Programs and policies that promote educational presence are likely to influence the educational outcomes of children with nonresident fathers. Recommendations includ educational savings accounts and an emphasis on educational engagement in responsible fatherhood policies and programs.     

Creating Stepfamilies: Integrating Children Into the Study of Union Formation

As a result of the growth in out‐of‐wedlock childbearing and union instability, adults contemplating forming a new union are often already parents. This article examines the role of children in stepfamily formation, both coresident and not, using the 2,594 respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households who were not living with a partner in 1987/1988. We consider children of the respondent and of the partner, which allows us to examine the determinants of entering a stepfamily. We found that being a coresident father dramatically increases forming a union with a woman with children. Women’s coresidential children reduce women’s odds of forming unions with men who do not have children and increase them for unions with men who do.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Housing Hardships Among Urban Fathers

Stable housing is widely recognized as a prerequisite for the functioning of individuals and families. However, the housing stability of fathers is understudied, particularly for fathers living apart from their children. This analysis measures the extent and nature of fathers' housing insecurity using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national longitudinal survey of urban families. Housing insecurity affects a substantial portion of fathers, with 25% experiencing insecurity at least once in their child's first 9 years. However, few fathers report persistent insecurity that spans consecutive waves. Data also indicate significant differences in rates of housing insecurity between fathers living with, and apart from, the mothers of their children, with nonresident fathers far less likely to report secure housing and more likely to experience incarceration. The nature of insecurity experienced by nonresident fathers is also qualitatively different than that experienced by their coresident counterparts.