Qualities Men prefer for Children in the US and Sweden: Differences among Biological, Step and Informal Fathers.

This study focuses on the processes that link differences in family structures to children's outcomes. There is ample documentation that children who grow up in nontraditional family structures achieve lower levels of education. Studies to date, however, suggest that the extent of the deficit varies, with the greatest differences in the U.S. and the least in Sweden. Most of the research on variation in men's parenting has focused on their relationships with their biological children, either coresident or non-coresident. Further, most of the research on outcomes of male parenting has focused on relating measures of father-child relationship quality to children's psychological well-being. The study examines a different dimension of the father-child relationship as a potential link in the process relating family structure to child outcomes: the qualities men prefer in children. There is evidence that parental values for independence or conformity also affect children's educational attainment, with greater attainment for children whose parents reinforce independence than for those whose parents value conformity. The analysis of the link between the qualities men prefer in children and their different paternal roles uses data from two nationally representative surveys, one for the U.S. and one for Sweden. The data for the U.S. are drawn from the 1987/88 National Survey of Families and Households.