Sons and Daughters: Father’s Involvement and Marital Stability

Michael S. Pollard, Duke University

Recent evidence confirms that parents with girls (as opposed to boys) had higher marital disruption risks prior to 1980, but consistent with emerging gender indifference, the effect is attenuated after 1980. This paper directly tests the hypothesis that sex of children (girls vs. boys) is an unreliable but valid proxy for father's involvement. Using multiple datasets, convergence over time in father's affective and behavioral relationships with sons and daughters is assessed. The roles of father's involvement and children's sex composition on the likelihood of marital disruption are evaluated using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households and bivariate probit regression models that account for potential omitted variable bias involved in the codetermination of involvement and marital stability.