Union Dynamics and Father Involvement amongst Low Income Children in Urban South Africa

We use data from the Birth to Twenty Cohort study in Johannesburg, South Africa to 1) describe trajectories of father involvement over the early life course of children and 2) examine the association between trajectories and the union dynamics of parents. We use sequence analysis to describe patterns of paternal engagement using residential and non-residential contact and the receipt of financial support as measures of involvement. We use multinomial logit models to examine the influence of union dissolution of parents and subsequent union formation of mothers on patterns of father involvement. Preliminary results suggest that 40% of children experience uninterrupted contact with fathers; 14% begin life having contact but lose it permanently at some point and the rest experience interrupted periods of contact. We find that children who experience parental union dissolution later in life have higher odds of having continuous contact with and support from their fathers post dissolution.