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Bringing together papers presented at the Conference on Father Involvement, this volume includes contributions by leading scholars in anthropology, demography, economics, family science, psychology, and sociology. Many of the contributors also address the implications of father involvement for family policy issues, including family leave, child care, and child support. Furthermore, the discussion of fatherhood ranges well beyond the case of intact, middle-class, white families to include fathers from various ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes and of varied marital status, including fathers of nonmarital children, single-father families, and nonresident fathers. Co-published simultaneously as Marriage & Family Review 29,2/3 & 4 (2000). Contents: I. The History of Fatherhood Research and Perspectives on Father Involvement. II. Fathers in Intact Families. III. Single Fathers and Fathers with Nonmarital Children. IV. Marital Disruption and Parent-Child Relationships: Interventions and Policies on Fatherhood. V. General Editors' Epilogue: The Diversity of Fatherhood: Change, Constancy, and Contradiction. REVIEW: How much power does a father have to influence his children's development? A lively and often heated public debate on the role and value of the father in a family has been underway in the US for the past decade. Nevertheless, we are far from understanding the complex ways in which fathers make contributions to their families and children. This book addresses the central questions of the role of fathers: What is the impact of father involvement on child outcomes? What factors predict increased involvement of fathers? It addresses both practical and theoretical concerns including the redefinition of fatherhood, changes over time in research on fatherhood, the predictive power of fathers' activities on their children's adult outcomes, the correlation between fathers' income and their involvement with their nonmarital children, the influence of fathers o n their sons' probability of growing up to become responsible fathers, the effects of divorce on father-son and father-daughter relationshps, and interventions that help to keep divorced fathers in touch with their children. This comprehensive, powerful book combines pioneering empirical research with thoughtful considerations of the social and psychological implications of fatherhood. It is essential reading for researchers, policymakers, psychologists, and students of family studies, human development, gender studies, social policy, sociology and human ecology