Commitments to Fathering and the Well-Being and Social Participation of New, Disadvantaged Fathers

This study uses data on 2,494 new fathers from the Fragile Families Study to analyze why and how the arrival of a new child may influence fathers' well-being and social participation. Our regression results indicate that changes in commitments to fathering are positively associated with changes in well-being, religious participation, and hours in paid labor. The one exception is that increases in fathers' engagement activities with their new child are negatively associated with changes in their hours in paid labor. The findings suggest that increases in commitments to fathering after the arrival of a new child are generally beneficial for fathers. In addition, greater commitments to fathering seem likely to benefit mothers, children, and society at large. Key Words: father-child relations, fatherhood, parental involvement, transition to parenthood. Although fatherhood has become the focus of considerable attention from scholars in the past decade, the bulk of this work has been on the effects that fathers have on children (Marsiglio, Amato, Day & Lamb, 2000; Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2003). This is understandable, given the vulnerability of young children. Nevertheless, we should also be concerned about the consequences of fatherhood for men's lives. Children and parents exert mutual influences upon one another throughout their lives (Knoester, 2003; Lytton, 1990). Furthermore, some scholars argue that when men assume the role of father, they tend to reevaluate their priorities and change their behaviors (Marsiglio, 1998; Snarey, 1993). Recent work has emphasized that fatherhood can have transforming effects on men's lives. Fatherhood encourages men to reorganize their social lives so that they participate in more service-oriented and family activities and allocate less time to personal leisure (Knoester & Eggebeen, 2006; Palkovitz, 2002). Yet research on the influence of fatherhood on men's feelings of well-being has produced inconsistent findings and reported modest negative effects when a relationship has been found (Eggebeen & Knoester, 2001; Knoester & Eggebeen; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003). In the present study, we seek to better understand why and how the arrival of a new child may influence fathers' well-being and social participation by analyzing a sample of new biological fathers. The purpose of this study is to consider whether changes in social-psychological commitments to fathering, coparenting relationship quality, and father involvement influence the well-being and social participation of new, disadvantaged fathers. Multiple indicators of wellbeing are used to tap both emotional and physical well-being, and include subjective measures of health, depressive symptoms, and substance abuse. For social participation, we focus on predicting changes in involvement in religious organizations and paid labor because it is expected that many men enact their priorities in life through their attachment to these institutions. Furthermore, men may be especially likely to change their attachment to religious organizations and paid labor for the benefit of their children (Knoester & Eggebeen, 2006; Palkovitz, 2002). We draw on unique data from the Fragile Families Study that allow us to consider changes in fathers' lives in a variety of different structural contexts. These include fatherhood experiences from being (a) married, cohabiting, or single; (b) a resident or nonresident parent; and (c) a first-time or experienced parent. The data also reflect the experiences of disadvantaged fathers who are disproportionately members of nonmarital, lower income, less educated, and racial-ethnic minority families. Even within a context of disadvantage that poses structural challenges to increasing commitments to fathering and especially fulfilling breadwinner roles, our conceptual framework and previous research suggest that changes in commitments to fathering are likely to be positively associated with changes in men's feelings of well-being and participation in activities that are intended to benefit children. …