Does involvement by nonresident fathers affect adolescents’ propensity to remain in school? If so, is some involvement necessarily better than none, and are changes in involvement with time associated with changes in the odds of school failure? What aspects of involvement matter the most? This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to show that nonresident fathers’ involvement and increases in this involvement over time are associated with lower probabilities of school failure among adolescents. However, those who have no involvement with their non-resident fathers may experience lower odds of school failure than those who have low or moderate levels of involvement. Disaggregation of involvement measures into component parts suggests that increased variety of activities—especially the discussion of schoolwork, grades, or other things going on in school—is important (although not critical) to the observed effect.
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