title: Social mobility in the context of fathering: the intergenerational link in parenting among co-resident fathers.
abstract: Intergenerational transmissions extend across a number of family-related behaviors, including marriage timing, fertility, and divorce. Surprisingly, few studies investigate the link between the fathering men experience and the fathering they ultimately engage in. I use data on the grandfathers and fathers of the 2001 U.S. birth cohort - measured in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (N=4050) - to test whether men's perception of the parenting they received influences their subsequent paternal self-assessments and behaviors. I find a nonlinear association between experiencing warm fathering and men's self-assessed parenting quality and stress. Men with particularly warm fathers are more likely to report being good fathers themselves. Those who report having the harshest fathers also exhibit better paternal self-perceptions and lower stress. Perceptions of paternal warmth show similar associations with men's fathering engagement. This research sheds light on the significance of family dynamics and how a legacy of fathering may contribute to inequality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, The Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 4412 William Sewell Social Sciences, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, United States. Electronic address: cdiaz@ssc.wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Christina J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Diaz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D000066502:Grandparents; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D010465:Perception; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012937:Social Mobility; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study; Father–child relationship; Intergenerational transmission