Father-Child Relations, Mother-Child Relations, and Offspring Psychological Well-Being
in Early Adulthood
Author(s): Paul R. Amato
Source: Journal of Marriage and Family , Nov., 1994, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Nov., 1994), pp.
1031-1042
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/353611
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PAUL R. AMATO University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Father-Child Relations, Mother-Child Relations,
and Offspring Psychological Well-Being
in Early Adulthood
The present study, based on a national sample of
471 young adults, finds that closeness to fathers
makes a unique contribution to offspring happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological distress.
Parental divorce weakens the salience of the father-child relationship for adult children's life
satisfaction. Similarly, marriage, parenthood,
andfull-time employment diminish the salience of
both the mother-child and the father-child relationship for offspring well-being. Closeness to
stepfathers is also related to some dimensions of
offspring well-being. Overall, these findings suggest that fathers are important figures in the lives
of young adults.
Two major social changes have focused attention
on the role of fathers. First, the massive movement of married women into the paid labor force
disrupted the traditional division of labor within
the nuclear family. With 67% of married mothers
with children under 18 in the paid labor force,
mothers now share the breadwinning role with
their husbands (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992,
Table 621). Correspondingly, many people now
believe that fathers should be more involved in
providing care to their children, especially when
mothers are employed full-time (Thornton, 1989).
The belief that fathers should be more involved
with children is based on two reasons: (a) It is
more equitable to mothers, and (b) it benefits the
children (Hochschild, 1989). In spite of these
shifts in attitudes, time budget studies show that
fathers still spend relatively little time in child
care and rarely take sole responsibility for their
children (Lamb, 1987; Pleck, 1985). Even when
mothers are employed full-time, they spend twice
as much time in housework and child care as do
fathers (Hochschild, 1989; Pleck, 1985).
The second major change has been a decline in
the prevalence of the nuclear family and a corresponding increase in mother-only families, due to
a rise in both divorces and nonmarital births. Cur-
rently, the majority of children in the United
States will spend some portion of time in singleparent families, usually with their mothers (Nor-
ton & Glick, 1986). This trend has problematic
implications for relations between fathers and
Department of Sociology, 711 Oldfather Hall, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324.
Key Words: divorce, father-child relations, intergenerational
relations, mother-child relations, psychological well-being,
stepparents.
children. Many nonresident fathers have relatively little contact with children and either fail to pay
child support or pay less than they should
(Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983;
Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988). Furthermore, Eggebeen
Journal of Marriage and the Family 56 (November 1994): 1031-1042
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1031
1032
Journal of Marriage and the Family
Studies of adults yield supporting evidence. In
a longitudinal analysis of the Berkeley-Oakland
the increase in divorce have resulted in men
growth study, Block (1971) showed that well-adjusted
men and women generally grew up in famspending decreasing proportions of their
lives
and Uhlenberg (1985) demonstrated that the postponement of marriage, the decline in fertility, and
ilies in which fathers were warm and involved.
coresiding with children.
Komarovsky
(1976) found that college men expeChanges in gender roles and attitudes, and
the
riencing
growing divergence in the lives of men and
chil-a high level of strain tended to have un-
favorable
dren, lead to questions about the significance
of relationships with their fathers. More
recently, Snarey (1993), using longitudinal data,
demonstrated that paternal involvement during
garding the importance of fathers (reviewed
below) is surprisingly ambiguous. This articlechildhood is positively related to adult daughters'
and sons' educational and occupational mobility.
contributes new data on the significance of the fa-
fathers in children's lives. Available evidence re-
ther-child relationship, in particular the contribu- A second form of evidence comes from studtions fathers make to the psychological well-ies of father absence. In a review of the literature,
Hetherington, Camara, and Featherman (1983)
being of young adult children. In particular, I adconcluded that children in father-absent families
dress whether the father-child relationship is
score lower than other children, on average, on
associated with offspring well-being independentmeasures of academic achievement and cognitive
ly of the mother-child relationship. I also examine
whether the salience of fathers is moderated by
ability. More recent studies have yielded similar
results (e.g., Mulkey, Crain, & Harrington, 1992).
offspring gender, parental divorce, marital status,
Other research shows that children in father-abparenthood, or employment. Finally, I consider
whether relations with stepfathers are related sent
to families have a heightened risk of delinquency and deviant behavior (Dornbusch et al., 1985;
offspring well-being.
Matsueda & Heimer, 1987; Sampson, 1987). Living with a single mother also increases the likeliLITERATURE REVIEW
hood of giving birth outside of marriage (Hogan
Two positions can be constructed from available & Kitagawa, 1985; McLanahan, 1988; McLana-
research. The first holds that fathers are key fig- han & Bumpass, 1988). In addition, adolescents
ures in the lives of most children. In contrast, the in father-absent families are more likely to drop
second position holds that fathers are peripheral out of high school or, if they graduate, to go on to
figures in the lives of most children.
Fathers Are Important
tertiary education (Astone & McLanahan, 1991;
Keith & Finlay, 1988; McLanahan, 1985). Not all
studies are in agreement, and the differences between groups, even when significant, tend to be
Several types of research support the notion that small. Nevertheless, these studies suggest that fafathers are important. One cluster of studies ex- ther absence is a factor contributing to the lower
well-being and academic attainment of children in
amines correlations between father involvement
mother-only families.
and child outcomes. This research, reviewed by
A third type of evidence comes from studies
Lamb (1987), Radin and Russell (1983), and
Snarey (1993, Chapter 6), is generally supportivethat have interviewed children. This research
shows that most young children and adolescents
of the role of fathers. Father involvement and nurturance are positively associated with children's
intellectual development; this is particularly true
feel close to their fathers, admire their fathers, and
frequently mention their fathers as sources of
practical help, advice, and moral support (Amato,
outcomes, assist with homework, and have high1987; Rutter, 1979). Furthermore, many children
educational expectations for their children. In ad-of divorce continue to think of their fathers as key
figures in their lives, even when they have little
dition, father involvement and nurturance are positively associated with children's social compe-contact with them (Wallerstein & Blakesee, 1989).
tence, internal locus of control, and the ability to In summary, this research shows that children
empathize. More generally, authoritative parent-benefit from a high level of father involvement,
that some children may be disadvantaged when
ing (involving warmth and a moderate degree of
when fathers are interested in children's academic
control) by both parents is associated with psy-they do not live with their fathers, and that fathers
chological and social adjustment among childrenare psychologically salient figures for most children.
(Rollins & Thomas, 1979).
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Father-Child Relations
1033
Fathers Are Not Important
above, did not control for closeness to mothers.
However, two recent studies of young adult offIn contrast to the studies reviewed above, several
spring included data on both the mother-child and
groups of studies suggest that fathers play periphfather-child relationship. Barnett, Marshall, and
eral roles in their children's lives. One body of rePleck (1992) found that sons who reported a posisearch suggests that father absence has few contive relationship with their mother or father had
sequences for children once economic factors are
relatively low levels of psychological distress.
controlled statistically (Crockett, Eggebeen, &However, when measures of both the mother-child
Hawkins, 1993; Svanum, Bringle, & McLaughlin,
and father-child relationship were entered simulta1982). These studies suggest that although the faneously into a regression equation, only the fatherther's economic contribution is important, fathers
child relationship was significantly related to
contribute little beyond this to their children's
son's distress. Similarly, Umberson (1992) found
well-being and development. Other studies show,
that relationship strain with both mothers and fahowever, that even when economic factors are
thers was positively related to adult children's decontrolled, father absence continues to be associpression. However, when measures of both the
ated with an increased risk of child problems
mother-child and father-child relationship were
(Amato, 1993). Nevertheless, sufficient disagreeexamined simultaneously, only the mother-child
ment exists on this point to cast some doubt on
relationship was associated with children's depresthe importance of father's noneconomic contribusion. Existent research on this topic, therefore, is
tions to children.
A second set of studies deals with the conse-
either incomplete or contradictory.
quences of children's contact with nonresident fathers. If fathers are important resources for children, then we would expect the frequency of con-
THE PRESENT STUDY
Hypothesis
tact to be positively related to measures of
children's well-being and development. However,
The present study assesses the salience of both
although some studies show this pattern (e.g.,the father-child and the mother-child relationship
Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1982), many do notfor young adult offspring. The central hypothesis
(e.g., Furstenberg, Morgan, & Allison, 1987). The
is that closeness to fathers is associated positively
failure of research to provide consistent support
with adult children's psychological well-being infor this hypothesis casts doubt on the importance
dependently of closeness to mothers. To test this
for children of maintaining contact with nonresihypothesis, I include four dimensions of psycho-
dent fathers.
logical well-being as dependent variables: happiFinally, many studies of two-parent families
ness, life satisfaction, symptoms of psychological
that have shown positive "effects" of father indistress, and self-esteem. In a supplementary
volvement are methodologically limited. Manyanalysis, contact with parents (as opposed to
investigators report significant associations be-closeness) serves as the independent variable.
tween measures of father involvement and chil-
dren's outcomes. But it is not clear if fathers
Moderator Variables
make an independent contribution to children's
outcomes above and beyond that of mothers. It is
A number of variables may moderate the relationlikely, for example, that families in which fathers
ship between paternal closeness and offspring
are highly involved are also those in which mothwell-being. Because some child developmental
ers are especially competent, caring, and encourstudies have shown that father involvement has a
aging of their husband's participation in child
greater impact on sons than daughters (Radin &
care. As such, the extra attention of fathers may
Russell, 1983), this study considers whether the
be largely redundant, once one takes into account
association between closeness to fathers and off-
the mother's involvement. Before research can
spring psychological well-being is stronger for
conclude that fathers are important in their ownmen or women.
right, it is necessary to control for the quality of Some studies cited above suggest that fathers
the mother-child relationship. Most research, become less salient figures in children's lives folhowever, fails to do this.
lowing divorce. Because of this, I consider
The studies of adult offspring by Block (1971),whether the association between closeness to fa-
Komarovsky (1976), and Snarey (1993), noted
thers and psychological well-being is stronger for
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1034
Journal of Marriage and the Family
METHODS
children who grow up in continuously intact two-
parent families than for those who experience
parental divorce. Support for this notion was
found in an Australian study by Amato (1986),
who found that aspects of the father-child relationship were related to children's self-esteem in
intact families but not in mother-custody families
following divorce.
Roberts and Bengtson (1993) argued on the
basis of identity theory that the benefits of close
ties with parents should depend on the relative
salience of the son/daughter role. Their data
showed that parent-child affection was generally
positively associated with offspring psychological
well-being; however, offspring marriage, parenthood, and employment diminished the strength of
the association. This finding is congruent with the
notion that the son/daughter role becomes less
salient as people add new social roles to their
adult identities. The present study also considers
whether closeness to parents interacts with offspring marital status, parenthood, and employment in predicting offspring well-being. It extends the Roberts and Bengtson study by treating
the father-child and mother-child relationship
separately.
It is also possible that the importance of the father-child relationship varies with the closeness of
the mother-child relationship. Closeness to fathers
may be more important to children when the
mother-child relationship is emotionally distant
rather than close. For this reason, I use multiplica-
Sample
A national sample of 2,033 married persons was
interviewed in 1980 and reinterviewed in 1983,
1988, and 1992. All interviews were conducted
by telephone. Sample households were chosen
through a clustered random-digit-dialing procedure, and the husband or wife was selected for an
interview using a second random procedure. A
random sample of children who lived in the parents' household in 1980, and who were 19 years
of age or older in 1992, were also interviewed as
part of the fourth wave. Of the 58% of the original sample of persons who were successfully reinterviewed in 1992 (n = 1,183), 575 had offspring 19 years of age or older who were in the
parental household in 1980. The respondent was
asked to provide the name and telephone number
of the child. Eighty-seven percent (n = 496) of the
parents gave us names and telephone numbers of
children. We obtained interviews from 471 off-
spring for an overall completion rate of 82%.
Comparisons with national data revealed that
the original 1980 sample of married persons was
representative with respect to age, race, household size, presence of children, home ownership,
and region, although residents of large metropolitan areas were slightly underrepresented. Subsequent waves were slightly less representative with
respect to African Americans and Hispanics,
younger respondents, renters, and those with less
tive terms to see whether the salience of the fathan a college education.
ther-child relationship varies with the closeness of
We used a probit analysis to see whether 1988
the mother-child relationship.
parental demographic and marital quality variables affected the probability of a noninterview
Stepfathers
Relatively little is known about the salience of
stepparents for children, particularly once children enter adulthood. Although young children
are not generally as close to stepfathers as to biological fathers, many report a substantial level of
stepfather involvement (Furstenberg, 1987). Furthermore, White (1992, 1993) indicated that adult
stepchildren report a moderate degree of closeness to stepparents and that they visit and receive
occasional assistance from stepparents as long as
their parent and stepparent remain married. For
these reasons, the present study examines the hypothesis that young adults' closeness to stepfathers is positively related to psychological wellbeing, and that this association is independent of
children's closeness to mothers.
with offspring (either because the parent refused
to give a name or because we were unable to interview the offspring). Parental age, gender, education, the presence of children in the household,
divorce between 1980 and 1988, and several dimensions of parental marital quality were unrelated to obtaining an interview. The only significant
variable was home ownership, with renters being
less likely to yield an offspring interview than
homeowners. Overall, it appears that families that
yielded offspring interviews were representative
of the larger sample of parents.
Variables
Data on offspring psychological well-being, relations with parents, and offspring demographic
characteristics came from the offspring interview.
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Father-Child Relations
1035
A summary of all variables in the analysis is offspring psychological well-being. Cases with
shown in the Appendix. The number of items, codmissing information on any variable were exclud-
ing conventions, means, standard deviations, and
ed; this reduced the effective sample size to 435.
alpha coefficients are shown (when appropriate). Because directional hypotheses are being tested, I
Independent variables included measures ofused one-tailed significance tests for coefficients
closeness to and contact with parents. Parental
involving closeness to fathers or mothers and
two-tailed tests for all control variables.
closeness consisted of one item dealing with the
closeness of the relationship and five items from The first panel shows the results for the happiBengtson and Schrader's (1982) Positive Affect
ness rating. Model 1, which included only the
control variables, accounted for 11% of the variScale. The five items referred to parental understanding, trust, respect, fairness, and affection.
ance in happiness. Happiness was higher for re(Sample items are shown in the Appendix.) The
spondents who were female, well educated, marmean ratings served as measures of closeness to
ried, and did not have children. The equation in
mothers and fathers. Measures of closeness to
Model 2 included closeness to mothers, whereas
stepmothers and stepfathers were constructed
the equation in Model 3 included closeness to fathers. Note that closeness to mothers and closefrom similar items. In addition, offspring were
asked about the number of days since they ness
had to fathers were associated positively with
contact with mothers and fathers (including talkoffspring happiness. Finally, with both parental
ing on the telephone or receiving a letter).
variables included simultaneously in Model 4,
I used four measures of offspring psychologieach made a significant contribution to offspring
cal well-being as dependent variables. The first
happiness. This result indicates that closeness to
was a rating of global happiness. The secondfathers
inis bound up with offspring happiness indevolved respondents' ratings of satisfaction with
pendently of closeness to mothers. Furthermore,
eight life domains: neighborhood, job or career,
the two beta weights were quite similar.
house or apartment, friends, hobbies or leisure acThe results for life satisfaction appear in the
tivities, marriage, children, and financial situasecond panel of Table 1. The control variables in
Model 1 accounted for 12% of the variance in
tion. The mean rating across the various domains
served as the measure of life satisfaction. (The
offspring life satisfaction. Offspring were most
items dealing with marriage and children were
satisfied with their lives if they were well educatomitted if they were not applicable.) The third
ed, grew up in an intact family, and were married.
Models
consisted of items based on Langner's (1962)
2 and 3 show that when closeness to
screening scale of psychiatric symptoms. These
mothers and fathers were entered separately into
items referred to how often respondents had the
the equation, each was associated positively with
following distress symptoms: acid or sour stomlife satisfaction. Finally, in Model 4, closeness to
ach, headaches, cold sweats, nervousness, feeling
mothers and closeness to fathers made indepenisolated, feeling that nothing turns out the dent
way contributions to offspring satisfaction. In reone wants, wondering if anything is worthwhile,
lation to psychological distress, Model 1 revealed
and being in low spirits. The mean rating served
that education and being married were associated
as a measure of psychological distress. Finally,
with fewer distress symptoms. Subsequent results
six items from the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem
were similar to those reported above. Closeness to
Scale were included.
mothers (Model 2) and closeness to fathers
(Model 3) were both associated with less distress.
Control variables consisted of offspring age,
sex, education, marital status, number of children,
And in Model 4, both mothers and fathers made
employment, and whether or not their parentsindependent
are
contributions to distress.
The results for offspring self-esteem differed
divorced. These variables were controlled be-
cause they are likely to be related to bothsomewhat
the
from the above pattern. Model 1 requality of relations with parents and psychologivealed that high self-esteem was associated with
cal well-being.
being well educated, married, and childless. Models 2 and 3 showed that when closeness to moth-
ers and fathers were entered separately into the
equations, each made a significant contribution to
Closeness to Fathers and Mothers
offspring self-esteem. However, in Model 4, with
both variables entered simultaneously, only closeTable 1 shows the results of multiple regression
ness to mothers was significantly linked with selfRESULTS
analyses in which closeness to parents predicted
esteem.
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1036
Journal of Marriage and the Family
TABLE 1. STANDARDIZED REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS SHOWING ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN
OFFSPRING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND CLOSENESS TO PARENTS
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
Happiness
.12*
Female
Age
-.05
.12*
.11*
-.05
-.04
.11*
-.05
Education
.18**
.18***
.16***
.17***
Married
.31***
.32***
.28***
.30***
Children
Employment
Parental divorce
-.14*
-.13*
-.14
.02
.01
.02
.02
-.07
-.04
.02
.02
Close to mother
.21 ***
-.14*
.15**
Close to father
.24***
.17**
R2
.16***
.17***
Life satisfaction
Female
.07
.05
.07
.06
Age
.06
.06
.07
.07
Education
.11*
.12*
.08
.10*
Married
.23***
.25***
.20***
.23***
Children
.01
.02
.01
.01
.05
Employment
Parental divorce
-.1 1*
Close to mother
.03
.05
.04
-.08
-.01
-.02
.26***
.20***
Close to father
R2
Psychological distress
Female
.26***
.17***
.17***
.21***
.06
.08
.06
.07
Age
-.02
-.02
-.04
-.04
Education
-.14**
-.15**
-.11*
-13**
Married
-.18**
-.19**
-.15**
Children
.12
.11
.12
.11
Employment
.01
.02
.01
.02
-.01
-.04
Parental divorce
Close to mother
-.13*
-.27***
-.16**
.12*
-.19**
Close to father
R2
-.29***
-.20***
.11***
.14**
Self-esteem
Female
.09
.08
.09
.07
Age
.08
.08
.09
.08
Education
.17***
.17***
.16**
.17**
Married
.18**
.18**
.17**
Children
-.15*
.18**
-.14*
-.15*
.01
.00
.01
.00
.01
.03
.05
.04
Close to father
.11*
.02
R2
.08***
.11**
Employment
Parental divorce
Close to mother
.21***
-.14*
.20***
Note: Sample size for all analyses is 435.
*p<.05. **p<.01. ***p <.001.
To summarize the results of these analyses, tial
I
proportion of the explained variance was due
used the R-square values for various models toto the joint contribution of the two. However, for
calculate the percentage of variance uniquely acself-esteem, the unique effect of closeness to
counted for by closeness to mothers and fathers, asmothers carried most of the weight, with closeness
well as the joint contribution of the two. (The joint
to fathers having no independent contribution.
contribution reflects the fact that closeness to
mothers and fathers were positively correlated, r =
Moderator Variables
.44). These results appear in Figure 1. The figure
shows that for happiness, life satisfaction, andThe next step in the analysis involved an examinapsychological distress, mothers and fathers made
tion of moderator variables. I created two 2-way
roughly similar contributions, although a substan-
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Father-Child Relations
1037
FIGURE 1. OFFSPRING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND CLOSENESS TO FATHERS AND MOTHERS
Happiness
Life Satisfaction
Distress
Self-esteem
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Percentage of Variance
1 Mothers Fathers m Joint
interactions terms by multiplying sex of offspring
ther-child relationship less salient-although this
by closeness to mothers and closeness to was
fathers.
only apparent for one outcome.
These were entered in the regression equations
Following Roberts and Bengtson (1993), I also
along with closeness to mothers, closeness
to fa- a series of two-way interactions beexamined
tween mother-child and father-child closeness
thers, sex of offspring, and the control variables
described above. Of the eight interaction terms
(2
and offspring
marital status, parenthood, and emx 4 dependent variables), only the interaction
be- According to identity theory, we would
ployment.
tween sex of offspring, closeness to mothers,
and
expect
associations between closeness and wellpsychological distress was significant (T =
1.98,
being
to p
be stronger for offspring who had not yet
taken on
adult social roles than for those who had.
< .05). The regression equation revealed that
the
Preliminary analyses, involving one social role at
tress was stronger for sons (B = .24) than for a time, revealed a variety of significant interacdaughters (B = .11). No evidence emerged sug- tions in the predicted direction. To summarize
gesting that the father-child relationship was more these trends, I calculated the number of roles
important for sons than for daughters.
(marriage, parenthood, and employment) that
I also calculated interaction terms between
each young adult occupied. These scores ranged
parental divorce and closeness to mothers andfrom
fa- 0 to 3 with a mean of 1.23 (SD = 1.01). I
thers. Of the eight interactions, the one involving
then included this summary variable in equations
divorce, closeness to fathers, and life satisfaction
with closeness to each parent and multiplicative
attained significance (T = 2.82, p = .005). Insertterms to capture the interactions. (Separate equations were calculated for each interaction to avoid
ing values into the regression equation revealed
that the association between closeness to fathers
multicollinearity.)
and satisfaction was weaker in cases of divorce (B
Table 2 summarizes the results of these analy= .15) than when divorce did not occur (B = .44).ses. The first column shows that closeness to
The finding that divorce weakens the associationmothers was positively related to happiness (B =
between the father-child relationship and off-.32) when offspring occupied none of the three
spring life satisfaction is consistent with the no- roles. The significant interaction term indicates
tion, suggested above, that divorce makes the fa-that each role occupied by offspring reduced the
association between closeness to mothers and dis-
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1038
Journal of Marriage and the Family
TABLE 2. UNSTANDARDIZED REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS SHOWING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN
CLOSENESS TO PARENTS AND NUMBER OF SOCIAL ROLES IN PREDICTING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
Life
Happiness Satisfaction Distress Self-Esteem
Number of roles .39** .26* .47*** .29 -.21* -.10 .22 .18*
Closeness to mother .32*** .18** .40*** .24*** -.24** -.15*** .28*** .19***
Mother x roles -.12* -.13** .07* -.08*
Closeness to father .18*** .27*** .17*** .26*** -.13*** -.17*** .01 .09*
Father x roles -.07 -.07* .03 -.06*
Note:
Sample
*p <.05. **p <.01. ***p <.001.
size
for
all
equations
is
closeness-happiness coefficient by .12. So for a being, but the associations are not as strong or
married, employed person with a child, the coeffi- consistent as they were for closeness to parents.
cient for mother closeness was -.04 (that is, .32 +
(3 x -.12)). All four interactions involving closeness to mothers were significant and in the pre-
Closeness to Stepparents
dicted direction. Two interactions involving The final step involved examining associations
closeness to fathers were significant, the interac-
between closeness to stepparents and offspring
tion in column 2 for happiness was marginally psychological well-being. This analysis included
significant (p = .06), and all were in the predicted both residential stepparents (those with whom
direction. These results suggest that the well- offspring had lived) and nonresidential stepparbeing of offspring becomes less dependent on ents (for example, the second wife of a noncustoparent-child relationships as they take on addi- dial father). Forty-eight offspring had stepmothers
tional adult roles.
and 47 had stepfathers. The great majority of
Finally, to see if the impact of the father-child these cases involved nonresidential stepmothers
relationship depends on the closeness of the
mother-child relationship, I included two-way
and residential stepfathers.
Because of the small sample sizes, zero-order
multiplicative terms between closeness to fathers correlations without controls were examined first.
and closeness to mothers in the equations for each None of the correlations between closeness to
dependent variable. These interaction terms, how- stepmothers and offspring psychological wellever, were not significant for any outcome.
being were significant or approached signifiContact with Parents
cance. The data, therefore, yielded no evidence
that closeness to stepmothers is bound up with
offspring well-being.
Recency of contact with mothers and fathers were
For stepfathers two correlations attained sigonly moderately correlated (r = .37). The next nificance: Closeness to stepfathers was positively
step in the analysis involved a series of multiple associated with global happiness (r = .26, p < .05)
regression analyses using recency of contact with and life satisfaction (r = .37, p < .01). Although
parents (rather than emotional closeness to par- offspring rated their relations with stepfathers as
ents) to predict offspring well-being. Neither con- being closer than their relations with stepmothers
tact with mothers nor contact with fathers were
(means = 1.96 vs. 1.68, respectively), the stan-
related significantly to happiness or psychological
distress. With both parental variables in the equation, contact with mothers was associated with
dard deviations were quite similar (.61 vs. .57, respectively). This means that the absence of significant findings for stepmothers cannot be attribut-
life satisfaction (beta = -.12, p < .05) whereas ed to insufficient variance.
contact with fathers was not (beta = .01). (The
In spite of the small sample size, I carried out
multiple regression analyses using the same control variables described above (minus parental divorce, since this was a constant). With all controls
ciated with self-esteem (beta = .11, p < .05), but in place, closeness to stepfathers was marginally
contact with mothers was not (beta = .04). Theresignificantly related to happiness (beta = .21, p =
fore, we see some weak evidence that recency of .09) and continued to be significantly related to
contact with parents is related to offspring well- life satisfaction (beta = .46, p < .01). Furthermore,
negative association indicates that the greater the
number of days since contact, the lower the life
satisfaction.) Also, contact with fathers was asso-
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Father-Child Relations
1039
It is not clear why these findings differed. It may
because closeness to stepfathers and closeness to
biological mothers were positively correlated (r be
= because children's self-concepts are partly
formed through the reflected appraisals of others.
.63), closeness to mothers was added to the equaPerhaps mothers are more likely than fathers to
tion. On this step, closeness to stepfathers was
praise or criticize their children. Alternatively, it
marginally significantly related to happiness (beta
may have to do with the fact that children spend
= .26, p = .08) and significantly related to life satisfaction (beta = .39, p < .05). We see some evi-more time with their mothers than their fathers,
thus allowing more opportunities for mothers to
dence, therefore, that the quality of the stepfatherinfluence children's self-concepts.
stepchild relationship is associated with young
adults' psychological well-being independently of The amount of variance accounted for by
closeness to mothers and fathers is modest, but
the mother-child relationship.
not trivial. The percentages (summarized in Figure
1) are 6% for happiness, 9% for life satisfacDISCUSSION
tion, 10% for psychological distress, and 4% for
Previous research on the importance of fathers is self-esteem. Of course, measurement error in both
equivocal. Two perspectives appear in the litera- the independent and dependent variables attenuture, one suggesting that fathers contribute posi- ates correlations, so these figures are underesti-
tively to children's well-being and development mates of the true variance accounted for. Further-
and the other suggesting that fathers are peripher- more, given all the various factors in a person's
al figures in children's lives. The few studies that life that might contribute to psychological wellhave examined the importance of fathers in adult being (marital quality, children, friends, job,
children's lives are also contradictory. Barnett, physical health, leisure pursuits, and so on), it is
Marshall, and Pleck (1992) found that when mea-not surprising that parent-child closeness plays a
sures of both the mother-child and father-child remodest (but not trivial) role.
lationship were entered simultaneously into a regression equation, only the father-child relationship was significantly related to son's distress. In
contrast, Umberson (1992) found that when measures of the quality of relations with both parents
were examined simultaneously, only the motherchild relationship was associated with children's
depression.
The present study was able to go beyond previous studies of fathers and adult children by incorporating information on childhood family
structure and considering a variety of moderator
variables. The results generally support the notion
that fathers are salient figures in the lives of adult
offspring. For three out of four measures of psychological well-being (happiness, life satisfaction,
and psychological distress), closeness to fathers
yielded significant associations independently of
closeness to mothers. Regardless of the quality of
the mother-child relationship, the closer children
were to their fathers, the happier, more satisfied,
and less distressed they reported being. These results are consistent with those of Barnett, Marshall, and Pleck (1992). However, whereas Barnett et al. demonstrated this effect only for sons,
the present study indicates that it holds for both
sons and daughters.
The one exception to this pattern was for selfesteem; for this variable, fathers contributed little
once closeness to mothers was taken into account.
Some child developmental research suggests
that fathers are more important in the development of sons than daughters (Lamb, 1987; Radin
& Russell, 1983). However, the present study
found no evidence to support this notion among
young adult offspring. In fact, the one statistically
significant interaction involving the sex of the
child indicated that closeness to mothers was
more strongly related to psychological distress
among sons than daughters. Overall, father-child
relationships appear to be as closely bound up
with the well-being of daughters as that of sons.
The present study found some evidence that
family disruption weakens the salience of fathers
for children's psychological well-being. The association between closeness to fathers and offspring
life satisfaction was weaker when offspring experienced parental divorce than when offspring
grew up in continuously intact two-parent families. This result is consistent with the Australian
study by Amato (1986), and with research that
finds few positive consequences of contact with
nonresidential parents (e.g., Furstenberg, Morgan,
& Allison, 1987). In the present study, however,
divorce did not weaken the association between
closeness to fathers and either happiness or psychological distress. This indicates that even after
divorce the father-child relationship continues to
be bound up with some dimensions of offspring
well-being. Such a result is consistent with quali-
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1040
Journal of Marriage and the Family
tative research showing that many noncustodial
fathers continue to be significant others to their
children even if contact is minimal (Wallerstein
& Blakeslee, 1989).
Consistent with the study by Roberts and
Bengtson (1993), closeness to fathers and mothers was primarily associated with psychological
well-being among offspring who had not yet married, attained parenthood, or obtained a full-time
job. This is consistent with the notion, derived
from identity theory, that the adoption of new
roles in adulthood weakens the salience of the
fathers and offspring well-being. First, if we assume that children's ratings of closeness are intersubjectively valid (in the sense that they correlate
highly with fathers' views), then we might conclude that close father-child relationships facili-
tate children's psychological well-being. But
what if the ratings are not intersubjectively verifi-
able? This leads to a second, more phenomenological, interpretation: Believing that one is close
to one's father raises one's sense of well-being,
regardless of how one's father views the relationship. A third, and more problematic, possibility is
that children's
son/daughter role. As Roberts and Bengtson
affect level colors their evaluations
noted, however, it is likely that the parent-child
of their relationships; consequently, the associarelationship becomes more salient later in tion
life,may reflect nothing more than a general response
when aging parents begin to make demands
on bias.
their children for assistance.
This third interpretation, however, is inconsisIt is of interest that children's recency of con- tent with the finding, noted above, that the welltact with parents was only weakly and inconsis- being of people who occupy multiple adult roles
tently related to measures of psychological well- is less strongly related to parental closeness.
being. This contrasts with the generally signifi- There is no good reason to assume that people
cant associations involving feelings of closeness who occupy multiple adult roles are less affected
to parents. This partly reflects the fact that al- by response bias than are other people. It seems
though feelings of closeness and contact are posi- more likely that changes in the association betively associated (r = .30 for mothers and .62 for tween perceived closeness and well-being are due
fathers), a good deal of variance in these mea- to the reasons posited by identity theory, that is,
sures is not shared. Some children may not feel because of changes in the centrality of the
close to their parents but maintain a high level of son/daughter role and a corresponding decline in
contact out of a sense of obligation or because the the importance of the parent-child relationship.
parent initiates contact. Other children may con- The first two interpretations noted above, theretact parents relatively infrequently (perhaps be- fore, appear to be more consistent with the data
cause they are busy or live a great distance away), than does the third.
yet still feel a strong emotional bond. The present
It would be interesting to know if paternal ratresults suggest that it is the emotional bond rather ings of closeness are associated with offspring rethan the level of contact that is bound up with ports of well-being. Nevertheless, regardless of
people's sense of well-being.
whether parents and children agree about the
The present study also finds that adult chil- closeness of their relationships, the general condren's feelings of closeness to their stepfathers clusion of the present study remains the same.
are related to two dimensions of well-being (glob- That is, adult children's perceived closeness to faal happiness and life satisfaction). This finding is thers is bound up with several dimensions of their
plausible, given White's (1992, 1993) research psychological well-being, and these associations
showing that stepparents are moderately impor- are independent of perceived closeness to mothtant figures in the lives of adult stepchildren. ers. The general point is that fathers appear to be
Closeness to stepmothers, however, was not relat- uniquely psychologically salient figures in their
ed to any offspring outcome. This may be be- adult children's lives.
cause most stepmothers in the present study were
The processes through which fathers (and
nonresidential, thus decreasing their psychologi- mothers) actually contribute to children's wellcal salience for stepchildren. Alternatively, the being are obviously complex and cannot be adlow salience of stepmothers may be related to the dressed in the present study. We know little, for
special difficulties that often characterize rela- example, about whether fathers are more impor-
tions between stepmothers and stepchildren tant at some times in children's lives than in oth-
ers. And we know little about the social contexts
(Hetherington & Jodl, 1993).
In conclusion, there are several interpretations in which fathers influence children. Given the
of the positive association between closeness to small number of existing studies on this topic,
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1041
Father-Child Relations
however, additional research that details more Hetherington, E. M., Camara, K. A., & Featherman,
clearly the ways in which fathers make long-term D. L. (1983). Achievement and intellectual functioning of children in one-parent households. In J.
contributions to their children's well-being
throughout the life course would be useful.
Spence (Ed.) Achievement and achievement motives
(pp. 205-284). San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
Hetherington, E. M., Cox, M., & Cox, R. (1982). Effects
of divorce on parents and children. In M. Lamb
NOTE
(Ed.), Nontraditional families: Parenting and child
development (pp. 233-288). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
An earlier version of this article was presented at the Erlbaum.
annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society,
Hetherington, E. M., & Jodl, K. M. (1993, October).
St. Louis, Missouri, March, 1994. This research is supStepfamilies as settings for child development. Paper
ported by grant no. S R01 AG04146 from the National
presented at the National Symposium on Stepfami-
Institute on Aging. I thank Alan Booth and Laura
Sanchez for helpful comments.
lies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. New York:
Avon.
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APPENDIX
SUMMARY OF INDEPENDENT, DEPENDENT, AND CONTROL VARIABLES
Variable Items Sample Item/Codes Mean SD Alpha
Closeness to mother 6 How well do you feel that your mother 2.68 .43 .87
understands you? (1 = not very well,
2 = somewhat, 3 = very well)
Closeness to father
6 How much do you trust your father?
2.45 .54 .90
Closeness to stepmother
6 How well do you feel that your stepmother
1.69 .57
.91
2.06 .63
.90
understands you?
Closeness to stepfather
6
Days since mother contact
1
How much to you trust your stepfather?
How many days has it been since you last
.44 .35
talked with or had a letter from your
mother? (log)
1 How many days has it been since you last
Days since father contact
.73 .64
talked with or had a letter from your
father? (log)
Global happiness
1 Taking all things together, how happy
2.31 .54
would you say you are? (1 = not very
happy, 2 = somewhat happy, 3 =
very happy)
Life satisfaction
8 How much satisfaction do you get from
3.89 .52 .65
your friends? (1 = none, 5 = a great deal)
Psychological distress
9 How often in the past year were you
1.67 .34 .68
6 I feel that I have a number of good
2.84 .40 .77
bothered with headaches? (1 = never,
2 = sometimes, 3 = often)
Self-esteem
qualities (1 = strongly disagree, 4 =
strongly agree)
Parental divorce
1
0 = no, 1 = yes
.17
.38
Sex
1
0 = male, 1 = female
.51
.50
Age
1
Age in years
24.85
4.61
Education
1
Years of education
14.42
1.93
Married
1
0 = not married, 1 = married
.35
.48
Children
1
0 = no children, 1 = 1 or more children
.29
.45
Employment
1
0 = not employed full-time, 1 =
employed full-time
.59
.49
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