Unmarried dads not necessarily ‘deadbeat dads'

BOWLING GREEN, O.—While some may assume that being a young, poor and unmarried father equates to being a “deadbeat dad,” that's often not the case, according to Dr. Randall Leite, a researcher at Bowling Green State University.

“Many of these men do want to take responsibility for their children,” the associate professor of human development and family studies says. “There are things preventing that from happening.”  

Those things include: low-paying jobs or unemployment; medical providers who leave the fathers feeling left out; maternal grandparents, and especially grandmothers, whose involvement may discourage theirs, and troubled relationships with the mothers of their children.

Leite's research on fathers appears in the current issue of the quarterly journal Family Relations.

“When you look at what would help these men, programs to enhance the co-parenting relationship with the mother are probably the most important,” Leite said. Mothers, he noted, are often the “gate-keeper” to the children.

Many people think grandmothers are more involved because dads aren't, but many men in Leite's study said they weren't involved because the grandmother was—an example of the “boundary ambiguity” discussed in his Family Relations article.

Leite advocates that more educational and support programs be made available to men well before their babies are born. A number of community programs on fathering help get new dads more involved with their children and some have positive effects, he points out, adding, “There needs to be more of them.”  

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(Posted June 15, 2007 )