Implications of New Marriages and Children for Coparenting in Nonresident Father Families

Abstract

Prior research has noted that although cooperative coparenting between resident and nonresident parents is beneficial to children, this form of shared parenting is relatively uncommon. Relying on nationally representative data from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 628), we examine the importance of nonresident fathers' and resident mothers' new marriages and new children for levels of cooperative coparenting and test whether changes in coparenting are linked to changes in parents' marital or fertility statuses. Consistent with prior studies, our data suggest that cooperative coparenting does not occur in most nonresident father families. Results suggest that changes to the nonresident father's family structure are of primary importance for cooperative coparenting, but that mother's family structure is relatively unimportant.

Keywords: children; coparenting; nonresident parenting; remarriage.

Figure 1

New Marriage and Children on Cooperative Coparenting at Time 1 Note: Model controls for time since the mother and father were separated, distance to the father’s household, whether the focal child was born in marriage, the focal child’s age and gender, whether the father and child have any contact, the mother’s race, and the mother’s and father’s education. The latent variable representing cooperative coparenting has been standardized, so the unstandardized coefficients predicting coparenting represent effect sizes. (Coefficients for the model without control variables are in parentheses.) All factor loadings are standardized coefficients and are significant at p < .001. R Square = .387; Chi Square = 17.865; df = 12, comparative fix index = .997; root mean square error of approximation = .028. N = 628. ^* p < .05. ^** p < .01. *** p < .001 (two-tailed tests).

Figure 2

Changes in Cooperative Coparenting over Time Note: Mothers and fathers who were unmarried at Time 2 or had no new children at either Time 1 or Time 2 served as the reference groups. Model controls for Time 2 measures of time since the mother and father were separated, whether the focal child was born in marriage, the focal child’s age and gender, the mother’s race, the mother’s and father’s education. and attrition. The model also controls for Time 1 and Time 2 measures of whether the father and child have any contact and the distance to the father’s household. Tha latent variable representing cooperative coparenting at Time 2 has been standardized, so the unstandardized coefficients predicting coparenting represent effect sizes. All factor loadings are standardized coefficients and are significant at p < .001. R Square = .573; Chi Square = 50.741; df = 40; comparative fix index = .997; root mean square error of approximation = .021. N = 628. ^* p < .05. ^** p < .01. *** p < .001 (two-tailed tests).