The effects of involved nonresidential fathers' distress, parenting behaviors, interparental conflict, and the quality of father-child relationships on children's well-being

Fathering, Fall, 2006 by Scott E. Harper, Mark A. Fine

Paternal limit setting comes from the Limits scale that was developed for use in the Detroit Area Study (Alwin, 1997). Each father was asked to report how often he engaged in monitoring and limit setting behaviors when the child was with him. The 8 items used for this measure were answered on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (Very often) to 5 (Never). Scores were reverse coded so that higher scores would reflect more frequent limit setting behaviors. Scores for the 8 items were averaged to obtain a composite paternal monitoring score. Example items include "Set limits on how much time your children can watch TV during the day," "Set limits on how late your child can stay up at night," and "Set a time when your child does his/her homework." The reliability coefficient for the scale was .67.

Father-child relationship quality was measured from the perspectives of both the father and mother. Each father was asked one question pertaining to his overall feelings of the child's relationship with him, with responses ranging from 1 (Excellent) to 4 (Poor). The perception of the father-child relationship, as reported by the mother, was assessed by one question: "[child's] closeness to the biological father." Responses ranged from 1 (Extremely close) to 4 (Not close). Both of these items were reverse coded so that higher scores reflected a closer relationship between the father and child. Inter-parent conflict reflects the degree of conflict or agreement between the resident and nonresident parent over issues concerning the child. The 10 items on this scale were selected primarily from the National Survey of Families and Households (Sweet & Bumpass, 1996). Response options ranged from 1 (Often) to 4 (Never). Example items include "Where the child lives," "How he/she is raised," "The amount of time (father) spends with child," and "(Father's) contribution to child support." Items were reverse coded so that higher scores reflected more inter-parent conflict. The items were then averaged to create an inter-parent conflict score. Both the father and mother were asked to respond to these items. The reliability coefficients were .82 and .85 for the fathers' and mothers' reports, respectively.

Paternal distress assesses the psychological well-being of the nonresident father. The 10-item Psychological Distress Scale (Kessler et al., 2002) was designed to yield a global self- report measure of distress. Example items include "Feel tired for no good reason," "Feel restless or fidgety," and "Feel worthless." Responses ranged from 1 (All the time) to 5 (None of the time). Items were reverse scored so that higher scores represented greater distress. The 10 items were then averaged to create a psychological distress composite score. The reliability coefficient for the scale was .82.

Results

Prediction of Child Well-Being

As shown in Table 2, 4 models were tested to consider various contributions to child well being. To be consistent, several control variables were included in all regression models predicting child well being and father-child relationship quality. These control variables were selected from prior bivariate correlations that examined the relations among various demographic characteristics (see Table 1) with child well being and father-child relationship quality. Two of the variables were dummy coded prior to analysis. For the purposes of our study, child race/ethnicity was coded as non-African-American (coded as 0) and African-American (coded as 1). Father marital status was coded as previously married (0) and never married (1). Prior to all regression analyses, the independent variables of inter-parent conflict, father distress, father warmth, father limit setting, father-child relationship quality, child sex, and child ethnicity were centered. In model 1, we entered the demographic variables that were selected from prior correlation analyses. Child age was a significant negative predictor of child well being as reported by the mother, suggesting lower levels of child well being as children grew older. Results also indicated that mothers were more likely to report that their children had high levels of well being if the fathers had greater education. There were no significant father-report predictors of child well being.