Father Involvement And Preadolescent Behavioral Outcomes: An Econometric Analysis of Parental Investment in Fragile Families

Abstract

The body of research surrounding parental investments in child health and wellbeing has not yet determined how father involvement influences child behavior. This paper utilizes data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to analyze the effect of non-material father involvement (i.e., in-person contact, helping with homework, reading stories, etc.) on preadolescent behavioral outcomes, examining the samples of families in which the mother and father were never married. This study finds that an increase in the frequency of quality time invested in a child is more effective in decreasing behavioral problems than an increase in the general quantity of time invested. These models also find that father involvement is more strongly associated with changes in externalizing behavior than internalizing behavior. However, the estimated effect of father involvement is sensitive to model specifications and appears to have only a minimal effect on child outcomes in the strictest models. Overall, the findings suggest that non-material father involvement is not definitively linked to improved preadolescent behavioral outcomes.