Maternal Kinship Involvement and Father Identity in Fragile Families

Research has shown that nonresident versus resident fathers are less involved with their biological children and involvement may be a function of father identity. Research also has shown that maternal kin play a central caregiving role in families. This paper examines the extent to which maternal family involvement is associated with father identity. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( N = 1836) showed that, net of a number of confounding factors, maternal family involvement was associated negatively with father identity, although nonresident fathers were significantly likely to feel less good about themselves as fathers regardless of maternal family involvement. Overall, results suggested that the extended family context in which parents (of young children) are embedded may contribute to how men identify as fathers.