Nonresident Fathers and the Economic Precarity of Their Children

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221119348
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Support from Nonresident Fathers

78 ANNALS, AAPSS, 702, July 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221119348

Nonresident

Fathers and the

Economic

Precarity of

Their Children

By

LENNA NEPOMNYASCHY,

MARGARET THOMAS,

ALEX HARALAMPOUDIS,

and

HUIYING JIN

1119348ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYNONRESIDENT FATHERS AND CHILDREN’S ECONOMIC PRECARITY

research-article2022

This study examines the relationship between nonresi-

dent fathers and their children’s economic precarity.

We use a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically

diverse sample of children in large U.S. cities and con-

sider a comprehensive set of measures of the involve-

ment of nonresident fathers in their lives. We evaluate

both voluntary and involuntary (court-ordered child

support) involvement of fathers, and we look at mate-

rial hardship and income-to-poverty ratio as measures

of children’s economic precarity. We find that only high

levels of formal child support have a protective effect

on children’s economic well-being, while fathers’ volun-

tary involvement (experienced by 70 percent of chil-

dren) has a more consistent protective effect. Overall,

policies to reduce children’s economic precarity need

to focus on improving nonresident fathers’ ability to be

involved with and contribute to their children, as well

as on direct assistance to custodial mother families.

Keywords: nonresident fathers; father involvement;

child support; economic precarity; poverty;

material hardship

One-quarter of all children in the United

States today live apart from one of their

biological parents, most often their father,

which is the highest rate among 130 countries

across the world (Kramer 2019). Additionally,

because of the dynamic nature of family processes,

Lenna Nepomnyaschy is an Associate Professor at

Rutgers School of Social Work. Her work examines the

effects of poverty and inequality on child well-being,

with particular focus on the role of low-income fathers

and how social and economic policies promote or

inhibit fathers’ ability to be involved with their children.

Margaret Thomas is an Assistant Professor of social

welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles

Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her scholarship centers

on material hardship and poverty, examining their con-

sequences for the health and well-being of children and

families in the United States and policies that shape

those experiences of deprivation.

Correspondence: lennan@ssw.rutgers.edu

NONRESIDENT FATHERS AND CHILDREN’S ECONOMIC PRECARITY 79

over half of U.S. children will spend some part of childhood in this type of living

arrangement (McLanahan and Jencks 2015). Children in single-parent, female-

headed households are four times more likely to experience poverty than their

peers living in two-parent households (U.S. Census Bureau 2021). These chil-

dren are also much more likely to encounter other forms of economic deprivation

including food insecurity, housing instability, evictions, homelessness, and insuf-

ficient medical care. Nonresident fathers’ financial and social involvement may

reduce economic precarity in children’s households by increasing economic

resources, reducing maternal stress, enhancing mothers’ ability to work, and

improving relationships (McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Magnuson and

Votruba-Drzal 2009). However, prior empirical evidence of the effect of non-

resident father involvement on economic precarity is quite mixed, likely due to

differences in measures of economic well-being and nonresident fathers’ involve-

ment, sample composition, and country of analysis. In this study, we address

some of these inconsistencies. We use panel data on a racially and ethnically

diverse sample of families to examine the associations of a comprehensive set of

measures of nonresident father involvement with two measures of the economic

well-being of 5- to 15-year-old children living with their biological mothers1 in

the United States over a 10-year period.

Background

Economic precarity refers to experiences of economic insecurity and instability

that are marked by low levels of economic resources and deprivation. In the cur-

rent study, we focus on household income poverty and experiences of material

hardship. As documented above and throughout the other articles in this volume,

children in single-parent, female-headed families in the United States, and in

other countries, are at the greatest risk of experiencing these forms of economic

precarity compared to children in all other family forms.

Nonresident father involvement

Nonresident father involvement, a multifaceted construct encompassing pro-

vision of economic resources and quantity and quality of interactions with

Alex Haralampoudis is a PhD candidate at Rutgers School of Social Work. Her research focuses

broadly on the impact of social policies on families living in poverty, with a particular interest

in tax policy. Her work is supported by a Presidential Fellowship from the Graduate School

New Brunswick.

Huiying Jin is a PhD candidate at Rutgers University. Her research focuses broadly on the

well-being of children living in poverty, with a particular interest in work-life programs. Her

interests include mothers’ nonstandard work schedules, childcare costs, nonresident fathers’

involvement, and poverty alleviation programs.

NOTE: We would like to thank Francesca Baroni and Emily Dalton, MSW students at Rutgers

University, for their research assistance on this article.