Coparenting and Relationship Quality Effects on Father Engagement: Variations by Residence, Romance

Jay Fagan, Temple University
Rob Palkovitz, University of Delaware

We focused on coparenting support, partner relationship quality, and father engagement in families with young children that did not change structurally over four years of participation in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study (N = 1,756). There was a significantly stronger and more robust positive association between fathers’ perceived coparenting support at age 1 and father engagement at age 3 among nonresidential nonromantic parents compared with residential (married or cohabiting) and nonresidential romantic parents. There was a significantly stronger and positive association between relationship quality at age 1 and father engagement at age 3 among nonresidential nonromantic parents compared with residential parents. The findings emphasize the importance of considering both family structure and romantic involvement contexts of fathering when tracking father engagement over time.