Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Non-Resident Father Involvement And Adolescent Well- Being: Father Effects Or Child Effects?, Daniel Hawkins, Paul R. Amato, Valarie King

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Is active fathering by nonresident fathers a cause or a consequence of adolescent well- being? Past studies of nonresident father involvement have assumed a father effects model in which active parenting by fathers improves adolescent adjustment. A child effects model, in which fathers respond to levels of well-being among their adolescent offspring by becoming more or less involved parents, could also account for the positive association between active fathering and adolescent adjustment. We utilize nationally representative data from the 1995 and 1996 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to estimate the cross-lagged associations between nonresident …