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

Third, most of the fathers in this study reported little distress. It is unknown how the results would have been affected if more fathers had been suffering from high levels of distress. Perhaps future studies could examine clinical samples of nonresidential fathers who suffer from high levels of distress or depression. By observing or obtaining the insights of these individuals, we could gain greater insight into the effects of distress on the involvement and behaviors of nonresidential fathers, as well as their children's well-being.

Fourth, a quantitative approach was taken to examine a relatively small sample of nonresident fathers. Replicating the findings with a larger sample would help alleviate concerns related to statistical power. In addition, to compliment the quantitative data, it might be useful to gather deeper and more meaningful insights into the lives of nonresident fathers and their children through the use of qualitative approaches. Past studies have taken an in-depth look into the lives of African-American fathers from poverty stricken environments, many of whom do not live with their children (Jarrett, Roy, & Burton, 2000). These types of studies provide a rich contextual perspective on fathers as they deal with the daily pressures of work and family.

Fifth, whereas this study considered the influence of African-American nonresident fathers, there was no attention given to nonresident fathers from other ethnic backgrounds. Future researchers would do well to study nonresidential fathers who are Latino, Asian-American, and other ethnicities.

Sixth, many of the measures were based on the self-reports of nonresidential fathers. By examining the perspectives of these men, we moved beyond the traditional focus on the perspective of mothers. However, a potential bias exists when using self-report measures. Due to social desirability responding, fathers may misrepresent or exaggerate their description of how they behave towards their child. Past research on infant-father attachment has incorporated an observational-based approach in both naturalistic (Easterbrooks & Goldberg, 1984; Volling & Belsky, 1992) and laboratory settings (Goossens & van IJzendoom, 1990; Schneider & Rothbaum, 1993). Incorporating these same types of approaches for nonresident fathers and their pre-school and school age children could prove very beneficial in measuring the behaviors and relationship quality of fathers and their children, and would compliment the self-report measures. Further, some of the measures were based on only a single item, which makes it impossible to estimate the psychometric properties of these items. However, similar or identical items have frequently been used in large-scale national studies.

Seventh, it must be noted that other unmeasured variables could be responsible for the findings in this study. Among these various factors could be paternal economic support (Amato et al., 1999), pre-existing child personality and temperament (Belsky, 1984), maternal parenting behaviors (Papp et al., 2005), and/or maternal psychological health (Cummings et al., 2005). Continued efforts are needed to uncover the multiple mechanisms through which parents and children influence each other in various family structures.