SHARED PARENTING IN FRAGILE FAMILIES

Abstract

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the frequency of parent-child interaction in several areas across a range of family types. Overall, we find that few individual characteristics of mothers or fathers are consistently associated with how often parents engage in activities with their one-year-old children. The nature of parents’ relationship, however, does appear to be important for parenting. Non-resident fathers exhibit significantly lower levels of interaction with their children in activities such as care giving, playing and cognitive stimulation, than resident fathers. In addition, the father’s supportiveness toward the mother affects several mother-child and father-child activities. Future research with a larger sample and a greater number of comparable parenting items will be useful for improving our understanding of how mother-father relationships, mothers’ parenting, and fathers’ parenting are linked to each other and, ultimately, to children’s wellbeing.