Social Fathers and Child Well-Being.

Many young children born to unwed parents currently live with their biological mothers and their mothers' new partners (social fathers). This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (N = 1,350) to assess whether involvement by resident social fathers is as beneficial for child well-being as involvement by resident biological fathers and whether the involvement of the child's nonresident biological father alters the relationship between resident social father engagement and child outcomes. Results indicate that involvement by resident social fathers is as beneficial for child well-being as involvement by resident biological fathers and that frequent contact with the child's nonresident biological father does not diminish the positive association between residential social father involvement and child well-being. Key Words: child well-being, family structure, father involvement, social fathers, stepfathers. Family demography in the United States has changed considerably in recent decades. More than one third of all children are now born to unwed parents (Hamilton, Martin, & Ventura, 2006), and many of these children will experi- ence their biological parents breaking up and forming new romantic partnerships early on in their lives (Bzostek, Carlson, & McLanahan, 2008). Previous research has found that children and adolescents living with a biological parent and one stepparent (usually a stepfather) gener- ally fare less well than children living with two biological parents (Amato, 1994; Brown, 2004; Coleman, Ganong, & Fine, 2000; Hetherington & Jodl, 1994; Hofferth, 2006; Manning & Lamb, 2003; Thomson, Hanson, & McLanahan, 1994). Research has also found that children living in families with a stepfather are often no better off than those living with single mothers, despite the potential for greater access to financial and parental resources (Amato; Coleman et al.). One commonly cited explanation for lower levels of child well-being in stepparent families is that stepparents invest less in their children than do biological parents (Coleman et al., 2000). Much of this research, however, has been based on older children and adolescents living in stepfamilies formed through divorce and remarriage. Emerging research about young children born to unwed parents has suggested that when mothers repartner after an unwed birth, they often do so with men who play an active role in their child's life (Berger, Carlson, Bzostek, & Osborne, 2008) and who have more human capital and fewer psychosocial problems than their child 's biological father (Bzostek et al., 2008). What remains unclear is whether involvement by these men is as beneficial for child well-being as involvement by a resident biological father. The level of bonding and attachment between children and resident social fathers is an important component of this question. Bonding between a child and a social father can be affected both by the duration of the social father-child relationship and by the child's age when the relationship begins. Previous research on adolescents has found that shorter relationships between social fathers and children may translate into less beneficial paternal involvement in these families than in resident biological father families (Yuan & Hamilton, 2006), presumably because shorter relationships provide less opportunity for bonding. Relationship duration, however, may be less important for young children, with whom social fathers are likely able to bond more quickly. Children who begin living with a social father at a relatively young age may also not have developed the capacity to understand the difference between a social and a biological father, and may therefore be more receptive to involvement by a resident social father than an older child would be. Older children - especially adolescents who are in the process of establishing their own independence - are more likely to recognize and resist the entry of a new authority figure into the household, making it more difficult to establish meaningful and positive social fatherchild relationships (Amato & Sobolewski, 2004). …