Co‐Parenting Relationships among Low‐Income, Unmarried Parents: Perspectives of Fathers in Fatherhood Programs

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12152
• Author: Rebecca Kaufman,Jay Fagan
• Date: 01 April 2015
• Published date: 01 April 2015

CO-PARENTING RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LOW-INCOME,

UNMARRIED PARENTS: PERSPECTIVES OF FATHERS IN

FATHERHOOD PROGRAMS1

Jay Fagan and Rebecca Kaufman

The current study examined low-income, unmarried, nonresidential fathers’ engagement in co-parenting with the child’s

mother. Qualitative interviews wereconducted with 71 fathers attending nine different fatherhood programs in five cities that

serve low-income, primarily unmarried, nonresidential fathers.The results revealed that co-parenting in this sample of fathers

is a multidimensional construct that includes both negative and positivecomponents. Our results also point to specific behaviors

or indicators that seem to be unique to this population of fathers and mothers and that should be used to inform the development

of measures of co-parenting. The need for such measurement development is important given the growing number of

unmarried, nonresident fathers and the resources that are currently being invested by federal, state, and local governments to

improve low-income, unmarried, nonresidential fathers’involvement with their children.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

• Co-parenting relationships among low-income, unmarried, nonresidential fathers and mothers are multidimensional

and include both negative and positive components, including undermining, gatekeeping, parenting alliance, conflict,

support, and division of labor.

• The components of co-parenting that are relevant to co-residential fathers and mothers are also relevantto low-income,

unmarried, nonresidential parents.

• Co-parenting relationships between unmarried, nonresidential mothers and fathers often times involve another adult,

particularly the father’s new partner.

• Practitioners who work with low income, unmarried,nonresidential parents should conduct multi-dimensional assess-

ments that include both the negative and positive aspects of co-parenting.

Keywords: Co-Parenting;Low-Income Parents;Nonresidential Father;Responsible Fatherhood;andUnmarried Parents

INTRODUCTION

The rising rates of nonmarital childbearing across the latter part of the 20th century and early part

of the 21st century (Cherlin, 2010; Ventura & Bachrach, 2000) have been associated with large

numbers of fathers who co-parent with the mother but live away from their children (Amato, 2005).

Currently, 41% of all births in the United States are to unmarried parents, with higher proportions

occurring among racial and ethnic minorities (Child Trends Data Bank, 2014). While many parents

are cohabiting at the time of their child’s conception, about half of these parents will live apart by their

child’s third birthday (Osborne & McLanahan, 2007). Census data indicates that the proportion of

children living in single mother families with no father present was 23.7% in 2013 (U.S. Census

Bureau, 2013). These trends and the growing evidence that children benefit from fathers’ positive

involvement in their lives (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth & Lamb, 2000; Lamb 2010),

have directed researchers’ and policy makers’ attention to understanding co-parenting in complex

family situations (Bronte-Tinkew, Horowitz & Carrano, 2010).

The bulk of prior research on co-parenting has focused on two-parent co-residential families or on

divorced couples and has used small or nonrepresentative samples of White middle-class families

(Arendell, 1996; Van Egeren, 2004). Consequently, current conceptualizations and measures of

co-parenting are based on our understanding of how co-residing, mostly married parents engage in

Correspondence: jfagan@temple.edu; tue45053@temple.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW,Vol. 53 No. 2, April 2015 304–316

© 2015 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts