title: Parenting of divorced fathers and the association with children's self-esteem.
abstract: Research suggests that high parental support and control improves children's well-being. However, a large part of these studies have focused on the parenting of married parents. Research on parenting after a divorce, mainly has focused on parenting of divorced mothers, with few exceptions concentrating primarily on non-residential fathers. Therefore, we compared both parenting dimensions support and control of fathers in different family structures (non-residential fathers, fathers in joint custody and married fathers). We also investigated the association between fathers' parenting dimensions and children's self-esteem, controlled for the parenting dimensions of the mother. Data from 587 children (50 % girls) between 10 and 18 years old and their parents were examined. Results revealed that non-residential fathers (n = 225) were less supportive and controlling than fathers in joint custody (n = 138) and married fathers (n = 224). Nevertheless, having a supportive father was beneficial to children's self-esteem in each family structure. We conclude that, even after a divorce, fathers have the capacity to enhance children's self-esteem and we suggest that future research should investigate this capacity.
authors: Research Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, University of Antwerp, Sint-Jacobsstreet 2, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium. kim.bastaits@ua.ac.be
authors: Kim
authors: K
authors: Bastaits
authors: Koen
authors: K
authors: Ponnet
authors: Dimitri
authors: D
authors: Mortelmans
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D004243:Divorce / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support