“Like an uncle but more, but less than a father”—Irish children's relationships with nonresident fathers.

Abstract

Although previous research has highlighted the importance of the quality of nonresident father-child relationships for children's well-being, little is known about children's perspectives on what underpins feelings of closeness to their nonresident fathers. This qualitative study explored the processes that facilitate or constrain children's feelings of closeness to their nonresident fathers. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 27 children (ages 8 to 17) who had grown up in a single-mother household, where fathers were nonresident from early in the child's life. Findings revealed the fragility of children's ties with their nonresident fathers and the risk that nonresidence from the outset placed upon these relationships. Children's experiences of closeness to fathers were related to perceptions of their fathers' commitment to their relationship and his obligation to his parenting role, and to a sense of connection to and familiarity with their fathers. It was a challenge for children to feel connected to their fathers when contact arrangements were detached from caregiving activities and precluded immersion in each other's daily lives. Lack of effort on the part of fathers to maintain contact or failure to keep arrangements constrained children's feelings of closeness and gave rise to feelings of disappointment and anger. Children demonstrated their capacity to act as agents within their families as they made sense of these relationships for themselves and accepted or rejected their father as a person who could play a meaningful role in their lives. The implications of the findings for promoting positive relationships with nonresident fathers are discussed.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Mothers' and Fathers' Initial Fathering Identities and Later Father-Child Relationship Quality

“…Previous studies typically found that role centrality was more influential to father behavior than status centrality (Maurer, Pleck, & Rane, 2003;Rane & McBride, 2000). However, the current findings are consistent with studies about father-child relationships, which suggest children are sensitive to fathers' overall commitment to and feelings about being a father and such perceptions influence the quality of their relationships (Nixon et al, 2012). As such, the present findings support the proposition that role centrality is predictive of specific fathering role behaviors, whereas status centrality and measures of general fathering intent are associated with broader "status-level" outcomes like the quality of the father-child relationship.…”

“…Specifically, the tim-ing and frequency of visitation must be such that fathers and children can be fully engaged in one another's daily lives and have a real feeling of connectedness (one reason overnight visits were perceived as more meaningful and were more influential to father-child relationship quality than day-time visits). Conversely, when children perceive that their fathers are not putting in enough effort and have not maintained regular contact, children feel resentful, disappointed, and angry, and father-child relationship quality suffers (Nixon et al, 2012). Time spent also was important for developing knowledge about one another, which in turn could lead to greater responsiveness, understanding, and closeness between fathers and their children (Ashbourne et al, 2011).…”

“…Although not undertaken specifically from an identity theory perspective, some research can be reframed using identity theory and would support the importance of identity-related processes for father-child relationships. For example, children in one study reported feeling closer to their fathers when they perceived that fathers were committed to being a parent and to the father-child relationship (i.e., the parenting status was given high centrality) (Nixon et al, 2012). Another study (Ashbourne, Daly, & Brown, 2011) found that in qualitative interviews, fathers described the ways that self-definitions and priorities regarding fathering (i.e., their identity standards and role cen-trality hierarchies) influenced the ways they chose to be involved with their children.…”

“…However, not all fathers, resident or nonresident, have high quality relationships with their children, and fathers who lack romantic ties to their children's mothers are at particular risk of having poor relationships with their children, due to the numerous obstacles facing nonresident parents (Fox & Blanton, 1995;Nixon, Greene, & Hogan, 2012;Peters & Ehrenberg, 2008).…”

Nonresident Fathers' and Grandparents' Early Years Support and Middle Childhood Socio‐Emotional Adjustment

“…Reports of support from nonresident father are typically higher than mothers, and most divergent where there is interparental conflict (Coley & Morris, 2002 ). Measures of financial provision captured regularity rather than amount; and father involvement was based mainly on contact frequency although this has been shown to be strongly associated with emotional closeness (Nixon et al, 2012 ). Similarly, our measures of grandparent contact are likely to indicate, albeit imperfectly, the quality of relationships with the mother and child (Mueller & Elder, 2003 ).…”