Author:

Keywords:

Children, Divorce, Fathers, Parenting, Parenting agreement, Self-Esteem, Social Sciences, Psychology, Developmental, Psychology, ADOLESCENT PROBLEM BEHAVIOR, ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS, FAMILY-STRUCTURE, INVOLVEMENT, STYLES, OUTCOMES, TIME, SATISFACTION, CONFLICT, PATTERNS, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Child, Child Behavior, Family, Father-Child Relations, Female, Humans, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Self Concept, Social Support, 1303 Specialist Studies in Education, 1701 Psychology, Developmental & Child Psychology, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5203 Clinical and health psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

Research suggests that high parental support and control improves children's well-being. However, a large part of these studies have focused on the parenting of married parents. Research on parenting after a divorce, mainly has focused on parenting of divorced mothers, with few exceptions concentrating primarily on non-residential fathers. Therefore, we compared both parenting dimensions support and control of fathers in different family structures (non-residential fathers, fathers in joint custody and married fathers). We also investigated the association between fathers' parenting dimensions and children's self-esteem, controlled for the parenting dimensions of the mother. Data from 587 children (50 % girls) between 10 and 18 years old and their parents were examined. Results revealed that non-residential fathers (n = 225) were less supportive and controlling than fathers in joint custody (n = 138) and married fathers (n = 224). Nevertheless, having a supportive father was beneficial to children's self-esteem in each family structure. We conclude that, even after a divorce, fathers have the capacity to enhance children's self-esteem and we suggest that future research should investigate this capacity.