Qualities Men prefer for Children in the US and Sweden; Differences among Biological, Step and Informal Fathers

Abstract

This paper examines differences in child qualities preferred by biological and informal fathers in Sweden and the United States. This paper is the beginning of a larger research project to examine differences in children’s relationships with the coresident men in their lives, depending on men’s commitments with the children’s mothers (married, cohabiting), using the National Survey of Families and Households and the Swedish Family Survey. We find that fathers in Sweden do not differ significantly in the qualities they prefer in children by whether the children in their households are their biological children or not, or by whether or not they are married to the children’s mother. However, in the US, men living with non-biological children, and particularly those in cohabiting relationships, show less stress on independence than otherwise comparable men, and these differences tend to widen with duration in the relationship.