Paternal psychological well-being after union dissolution: does involved fatherhood have a protective effect?

Although the attention scholars have paid to the question of how the involvement of fathers affects the well-being of their children in post-separation families has increased tremendously in recent years, the question of how fathers’ involvement affects their own well-being has been hardly examined. Using data from the cross-sectional survey “Fathering after Union Dissolution,” which was conducted in Lithuania in 2016 (N = 1225), we looked at the extent to which the involvement of fathers with their non-resident children (contact frequency, relationship quality, payment of child support, and the quality of the co-parenting relationship with the mother) was associated with their psychological well-being (depressive feelings and general life satisfaction). Our multiple regression results indicated that the self-assessed quality of the father’s relationship with the child was the most important factor contributing to paternal psychological well-being: i.e., the better the relationship quality, the less likely a father was to report having depressive feelings, and the more likely he was to report having a high level of general life satisfaction. However, while making regular child support payments was found to be associated with a lower likelihood of having depressive feelings, it was not shown to be associated with having a high level of general life satisfaction. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the frequency of contact with the non-resident child and the quality of the co-parenting relationship with the mother did not affect paternal psychological well-being. Accordingly, we concluded that the protection provided by involved fatherhood after union dissolution is not universal, but instead depends on the nature of the involvementSocialinių tyrimų centrasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

The Changing Face of Teenage Parenthood in the United States: Evidence from NLSY79 and NLSY97

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Background: Previous studies identify consistent patterns of economically disadvantaged backgrounds, educational deficits, and relatively weak labor market outcomes of teen parents. Objective: In this study, we provide an updated report on differences in adult cohabitation rates during past decades, examine the risk factors associated with becoming a teen parent, and track teen parents’ educational and labor market outcomes until the age of 29 to examine whether the outcomes associated with become teen parents have changed in recent decades. Methods: We select two nationally representative birth cohorts in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 and 1997 (N = 9821). We use the difference-in-difference approach to examine whether the positions of teen parents have progressed or worsened across the two cohorts. Conclusion: The birth rates to teenage girls remained unchanged across the two cohorts, but the reported rates of teenage fatherhood increased. The proportions of both unmarried teenage fathers and mothers increased between the two cohorts. Teen fathers and mothers came increasingly from single-mother families with disadvantaged backgrounds. The proportion of teen mothers or fathers living with partners has not changed, but there has been a major shift from marriage to non-marital cohabitation. The education and earnings of the 1997 cohort of teen parents showed some progress relative to the earlier teen parent cohort, but no progress relative to peers who were not teen parents