Involved fathering (including both socioemotional involvement and financial support) has important consequences for child development (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth & Lamb, 2000; Day & Lamb, 2004; Lamb, 1997; Lamb, 2004; Tamis-LeMonda & Cabrera, 2002) , and recent research suggests positive consequences for the father himself (Eggebeen & Knoester, 2001).  However, the data on fathering from national and other representative samples analyzed up to now are almost entirely derived from cohorts of young men entering adulthood nearly two decades or more ago (Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004); these analyses' results may not apply to more recent cohorts.

Project III investigates the contributions of family interaction, mothering, and paternal residence (viewed as three key family processes) to men's involved fathering.  These contributions are analyzed both within family generations and intergenerationally.  The project will use data from the Young Adult samples of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the Early Head Start Father component, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the 2002 Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

The specific aims of project III are:

1)      To analyze the influence of family interaction and father residence on fathering (and mothering) within family generations, with demographic factors controlled;

2)      To analyze influence across family generations, or intergenerational learning, that is, the influence of generation 1 (G1) fathering and mothering, G1 family interaction, and G1 father residence on generation 2 (G2) fathering (and mothering), with demographic factors controlled (i.e., influence across family generations, or intergenerational learning);  

3)      To analyze trajectories of fathering (and mothering) across time within family generations, and how they are influenced by family interaction and father residence, with demographic factors controlled.