Maternal gatekeeping and low-income, unmarried fathers' responsibility and emotional support of children

Qualitative studies have indicated that maternal gatekeeping has a significant effect on low-income, unmarried, nonresident fathers' involvement with children. Very few quantitative studies of maternal gatekeeping have been conducted with these fathers. The present study addresses this gap using a community sample of 649 low-income, unmarried, nonresident (n = 548), and coresident (n = 101) fathers. Fathers' perceptions of mothers' restrictive gatekeeping and encouragement were examined in relation to fathers' responsibility for and emotional support of children from infancy through adolescence. Multivariate analyses indicated fathers were significantly less involved in responsibility when mothers engaged in higher levels of restrictive gatekeeping. There was a positive main effect for fathers' perceptions of mothers' encouragement on fathers' emotional support of children. Moderation analyses showed a significantly stronger positive association between encouragement and responsibility among nonresident fathers compared with coresident fathers, even after controlling for restrictive gatekeeping. These findings point to the importance of researchers' and practitioners' attention to encouragement as well as restrictive gatekeeping. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).