Modeling the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children Over the Life Course

a heuristic model, which identifies sets of variables that predict father involvement, variables that interact to predict involvement, and variables that influence father characteristics and thereby influence involvement. It also suggests moderators and mediators of pathways from predictors to father involvement and from father involvement to child outcomes. It is a dynamic model, assuming change over the life course, while retaining paternal influences from one developmental period to another. The model is rooted in the extant literature, although it is not circum-scribed by that literature. As a heuristic model, it offers a framework from which measurement models can be derived to address research questions of interest. Technological, social, and political changes beginning over a century ago have profoundly affected family life and, consequently, mothers’ and fathers ’ roles within the family. Although researchers have extensively documented what fathers do and how it affects child development,