Nonresident Parenting and Adolescent Adjustment

Abstract

Aside from providing financial support, exactly how nonresident fathers benefit children remains unclear. This article assesses whether the quality of the interaction between nonresident fathers and their children is related to adolescent adjustment, net of visitation frequency. Results suggest that participating in leisure activities with nonresident fathers does not influence children’s well-being. Results provide mixed evidence as to whether children benefit from nonresident fathers’ involvement in authoritative parenting. Whereas talking to nonresident fathers about “other things going on at school” is consistently positively related to adjustment, other measures of authoritative parenting are not. Closeness to nonresident fathers, although negatively related to emotional distress, does not mediate the effect of father involvement. Results suggest that we should continue to examine nonresident fathers’ involvement in specific aspects of authoritative parenting, as opposed to leisure and recreational activities more typical of nonresident father-child contact.