William Atkins
Sunday, 10 August 2008 21:30
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 2
A U.S. study shows that stepfathers and social dads make somewhat better parents than married biological fathers in settings of high-risk urban families.
The researchers in study reported that stepfathers (those married to the mother) and social dads (those cohabiting with the mother), rather than biological fathers, are more active in marriages and families, better at parenting, and more trustworthy--at least in relationship settings of high-risk urban families.
The study also found that stepfathers/social dads are more cooperative and share more of the responsibilities of the families.
High-risk, or at-risk urban families, were described by the authors as “fragile families,” or those with combined characteristics of having low incomes, being located in urban settings, and involving a large percentage of non-marital (single) births.
The paper “
Parenting Practices of Resident Fathers: The Role of Marital and Biological Ties” is published in The Journal of Marriage and Family.
Its authors are: Lawrence M. Berger (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Marcia J. Carlson (Columbia University, New York City), Sharon H. Bzostek (Princeton University, New Jersey), and Cynthia Osborne (University of Texas, Austin).
The lead researcher in the study,
Lawrence M. Berger, from the School of Social Work and Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, and his colleagues used data from the
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study.
The FFCW study consisted of over two thousand interviews with urban mothers who had five-year-old children born between 1998 and 2000.
Their goal was to examine differences in the parenting practices of four types of resident fathers, which were characterized by their biological relationship to a "focal" child and their marital status with regard to the focal child’s mother.
The conclusions of the study are found on page two.
