The parenting styles of divorced fathers and their predictors

Research on paternal parenting after divorce indicated that children benefit from authoritative parenting. Fathers are not equally likely to be authoritative. Research on differences in divorced fathers' parenting styles remains underdeveloped. We sought to address this gap, investigating the predictors of paternal parenting styles following divorce. First, latent class analysis was utilized to derive parenting styles for divorced fathers. Second, predictors of these styles were investigated with multinomial logistic regression. Analyses examined Belgian data on 404 children (49.01% girls) and their parents. Results reveal that important predictors include not only father and child characteristics but also mother characteristics and divorce-related characteristics. The findings therefore lend support to the idea of studying paternal parenting following divorce within a multilateral family framework.