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Prior research has sought to identify factors that promote or inhibit nonresident father involvement given its potential influence on child well-being. We examine the potentially important, but largely neglected, role that the coparental relationship plays in fostering nonresident fathers' ties to their children. Using data from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households, we focus on the link between two dimensions of coparenting: cooperative coparenting and conflict over childrearing, and three dimensions of nonresident father involvement: father-child contact, father-child relationship quality, and responsive fathering. We find that cooperative coparenting predicts more frequent father-child contact, which in turn predicts higher father-child relationship quality and more responsive fathering. Conflict over childrearing however, is not significantly related to any of the measures of nonresident father involvement. These findings are consistent across different groups of children. The results of this study suggest that cooperative coparenting between parents who live apart can enhance ties between nonresident fathers and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine whether parental involvement is associated with well-being for a sample of 5415 adolescents with nonresident fathers. We use structural equations models to create latent variables and measurement models for the main father involvement predictors (contact, activities, and communication) and adolescent outcomes (externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and grades). Father-adolescent relationship quality is also included as a central predictor. We find that father involvement in activities with adolescents is negatively related to externalizing problems and positively related to grades. In addition, adolescents with closer relationships to their fathers report fewer externalizing and internalizing problems. Communication is indirectly but significantly related to lower levels of externalizing and internalizing problems through closeness. As in past studies, we find that contact has no direct relationship to adolescent well-being, but is indirectly and positively associated with better grades through activities. This study demonstrates that the social contributions that nonresident fathers make to their adolescents' lives can have a positive effect on their well-being over and above economic contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]