Nonresident Father Involvement and Child Self-Esteem after Divorce in Spain

This study seeks (1) to study nonresident father involvement and (2) analyze whethernonresident father involvement is related to children's self-esteem after divorce. Eighty-three divorced mothers and 96 children from Seville (Spain) were interviewed. Children were between 6 and 14 years old (M = 9.21; SD = 1.94). Families were accessed through the primary schools where the children attended. The results showed heterogeneity in nonresident father involvement: the contact frequency varied between those who had no relationship with their father and those who saw him weekly or daily; the majority of children (88%) assessed the relationship with their father as positive; 38.5% of them stayed overnight with him; 80.2% of the fathers did not participate in any important decision regarding his children, and almost half of the fathers (46.8%) failed to pay the amount established by the judge. Results indicated that children had a medium level of self-esteem (M = 2.96; SD = 0.53). Finally, data showed a significant relationship between children's self-esteem and the quality of the father-child relationship (F-(1,F-73) = 5.92, p < 0.01). These results could improve children ' s self-esteem after parental divorce by considering the importance of the nonresident father's involvement.