Non-residential fatherhood in France : socio-economic living conditions and fathers’ involvement at birth.

Non-residential fatherhood is an increasingly important phenomenon. The degree of non-residential fathers’ presence and engagement in their children’s lives vary widely: some fathers may not cohabit with the child but be in a relationship with the mother and be extensively engaged with the child; at the other end of the scale, non-resident fathers may not have recognized the child and have no presence in their lives. Father involvement has however been positively linked to child outcomes. We use data from the French Longitudinal Study of Children (ELFE) to describe three groups of non-residential fathers and their involvement with their child in comparison to residential fathers at birth, at two months and one year of age. Moreover, we estimate the effect of belonging to a specific father group on involvement with the child. Finally, we analyze the father-child contact over time and examine how it affects child outcomes at age one.