Nonresident fathers' complex parenting.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

About half of U.S. fathers who don't live with their biological offspring have family ties to another set of children, and 24% have three or more groups of kids in their lives. These include nonresident biological children of other former mates, biological children and stepchildren who live with the men, and stepchildren who live elsewhere. "Many nonresident fathers have quite complex parenting responsibilities," indicates Pamela J. Smock, a sociologist at the Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor. She is coauthor of a study to use national data to provide a complete portrait of the parenting obligations of nonresident fathers, along with sociologists Wendy Manning of Bowling Green (Ohio) State University and Susan Stewart of the University of Richmond (Va.).

Even for fathers highly skilled in allocating whatever emotional and financial resources they possess, the complexity of contemporary paternal responsibilities must present a challenge, the researchers maintain. About eight percent of all nonresident fathers are living with (some, but not all of the) biological children fathered prior to their current union, while 26% are living with stepchildren. About 14% of nonresident fathers are living with women who are also nonresident parents, and 42% have biological children with their current spouse or partner.

"These...