Romantic Partner and Biological Father Support: Associations with Maternal Distress in Low‐Income Mexican‐Origin Families

Although there is a growing presence of nonbiological fathers in contemporary families, analyses of nonbiological father involvement, especially among ethnic minority families, lag far behind in family scholarship compared to studies on biological father involvement (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000). Families in the United States, including ethnic minority families, have experienced rapid shifts in family organization, including a high rate of divorce and separation and an increasing number of stepfamilies and single-parent families (Cherlin, 2010). For instance, Mexican-origin families face a 9% rate of divorce and separation, a growing number of single-mother families (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013), and resultant increases in stepfamilies (Coltrane, Gutierrez, & Parke, 2008). Despite this growing population of Mexican-origin repartnered families, research on Mexican-origin families continues to characterize households as married, twoparent families (Umana-Taylor & Updegraff, 2013). Therefore, little is known about how Mexican-origin mothers fare within repartnered, family structures. As Coleman, Ganong, and Fine (2000) emphasized, much of the focus on repartnered families has been on biological fathers and child well-being, without explicitly examining how relationships with various father figures may affect maternal well-being. Further, we know little about how the support mothers may gain from the men they repartner with, so-called romantic partner social (RPS) fathers (Jayakody & Kalil, 2002), influences maternal functioning. Although studies have theoretically set the foundation for dual father dynamics, many have failed to consider the cumulative impact the contributions from different fathers have on maternal well-being (Bzostek, 2008).Bioecological Systems FrameworkThe bioecological systems framework (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), which accounts for the interactive influences of multiple contextual factors on individuals, informs our approach to examining the influence of perceived levels of support from RPS fathers and biological fathers on maternal psychological distress. Recent research captures dynamic processes shaped by interactions among individual and contextual characteristics (Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009). Therefore, we propose a processperson- context model that incorporates important proximal processes of the mother, meaning her social support, and its interactionwith person characteristics (language) and the context (family structure) in which it occurs to influence the mother's psychological outcomes. Development occurs as a result of interactions between nested, interactive ecological contexts; thus relationships influence maternal mental health, which is simultaneously influenced by other ecological factors (economic hardship). For example, Mexican-origin mothersmay face stressors at the macrosystem level (economic hardship, English competency pressures, and immigration status) and at the microsystem level (children's problem behaviors) that influence their psychological distress (depressive symptomatology, parenting stress). This study considers a limited set of these interactions to highlight how family structure (exosystem level) places mothers in a context where they receive multiple forms of support from microsystem-levels (RPS father support, biological father support, instrumental social support) that operate within amesosystem context interacting with one another and with other factors from multiple contextual levels to influence maternal mental health. These interactions take place across time and thus are influenced by the length of mothers' romantic relationships.Maternal Mental HealthMaternal depressive symptomatology and parenting stress undermine parenting behaviors and overall family relations and functioning (Goodman, 2008; Lovejoy, Graczyk, O'Hare, & Neuman, 2000). Parenting stress in this study is restricted to parenting daily hassles from children's typical, but challenging behavior, and potential frustrations and challenges from childrearing. …