Perceptions of father involvement patterns in teenage‐mother families: Predictors and links to mothers’ psychological adjustment*

• Author: Ariel Kalil,Rebekah Levine Coley,Kathleen M. Ziol‐Guest
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.0197-6664.2005.00016.x
• Published date: 01 April 2005
• Date: 01 April 2005

Perceptions of Father Involvement

Patterns in Teenage-Mother

Families: Predictors and Links

to Mothers’ Psychological

Adjustment

*

Ariel Kalil Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest** Rebekah Levine Coley

Abstract: Based on adolescent mothersÕreports, longitudinal patterns of involvement of young, unmar-

ried biological fathers (n ¼77) in teenage-mother families using cluster analytic techniques were exam-

ined. Approximately one third of fathers maintained high levels of involvement over time, another third

demonstrated low involvement at both time points, and the final third started out highly involved at

Wave 1 but decreased to low levels of involvement by Wave 2. Multinomial logistic analyses suggest that

mothersÕpositive relationships with both the father and his family predict a greater likelihood of initiated

and sustained high father involvement. In contrast, stronger support from the maternal grandmother is

related to decreasing father involvement over time, and coresidence with the grandmother is related to

sustained low father involvement. Whereas a decreasing pattern of father involvement was significantly

associated with increased maternal parenting stress over time, the patterns of father involvement were

unrelated to changes in young mothersÕlevels of depressive symptoms and mastery.

Key Words: father involvement, mother-father relationships, poverty, psychological adjustment, teenage

mothers.

The involvement of fathers with their children is

a topic of growing concern among policymakers

and the public. As the link between father ab-

sence and poverty has become clearer, this con-

cern has been targeted particularly at unmarried,

nonresident fathers and low-income families.

The welfare reform bill of 1996 (the Personal

Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconcili-

ation Act) made this concern explicit, including

in the primary provisionsÕdemands that mothers

in the welfare system comply with paternity

establishment and child support enforcement

*This work was supported in part by grants from the Joyce Foundation, the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin—

Madison, the Office of the Vice-President for Research at the University of Michigan, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop-

ment (F-32 HD08145-01), and by a grant from the McCormick-Tribune Foundation to the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

**Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, 1155 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 (kmziol@uchicago.edu).

Family Relations, 54 (April 2005), 197–211. Blackwell Publishing. Printed in the USA.

Copyright 2005 by the National Council on Family Relations.