Percheski C, Wildeman C.
Becoming a Dad: Employment Trajectories of Married, Cohabiting, and Non-resident Fathers. Social Science Quarterly. 2008;89(2).
AbstractThis article considers how becoming a father affects men’s employment
levels and tests whether the effects of fatherhood differ by the relationship
of the father to the child’s mother at the time of the birth. We use
data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to fit growth
curve models of new fathers’ employment trajectories for the first five years
after they become fathers. Prior to becoming a father, married men
worked more hours per week and more weeks per year than cohabiting and
nonresident fathers. By five years after the birth, differences in employment
between unmarried and married fathers had diminished. The transition
to fatherhood is associated with an increase in employment for unmarried
fathers but is not associated with significant changes in employment for married
fathers.