KAREN BENJAMIN GUZZO Kutztown University Maternal Relationships and Nonresidential Father Visitation of Children Born Outside of Marriage Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 781), I examined how father visitation for children born outside of marriage is affected by subsequent maternal relationship formation, focusing on the timing, type, and stability of maternal relationships. Results showed that fathers were most likely to have not seen their child at all when mothers formed a new relationship early in the child’s life, especially if the new relationship was coresidential and the partner engaged in activities with the child. Fathers who initially visited their child were more likely to stop visiting their child if an initially unpartnered mother became partnered. Frequency of visitation was not as strongly affected as whether visitation occurred at all. The decline in visitation among nonresidential fathers over time has been well documented (Argys & Peters, 2001; Furstenberg, 1995). Numerous theories have emerged to explain this trend, looking at the quality of the parental relationship (Carlson, McLanahan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2008; Sobolewski & King, 2005), maternal gatekeeping (Fagan & Barnett, 2003), or competing paternal obligations (Manning & Smock, 1999, 2000) as potential explanations. Much of the recent research Department of Anthropology and Sociology, 457 Old Main, P.O. Box 730, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA 19530 (guzzo@kutztown.edu). Key Words: fatherhood, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing, nonresidential parents. has focused on paternal characteristics, with little consideration of how maternal behaviors other than gatekeeping affect visitation (for exceptions, see Juby, Billete, Laplante, & Le Bourdais, 2007; Tach, Mincy, & Edin, 2008). Further, much of the work on nonresidential father visitation has examined only separated and divorced fathers, with less known about the factors that influence visitation for children born outside of marriage. This research addresses this gap by examining whether nonresidential father visitation of children born outside of marriage is sensitive to changes in maternal relationship status, looking at changes in any visitation at all and the frequency of visitation over time. I argue that nonresidential father visitation might be affected by mothers’ new relationships through an effect on men’s father identity and their view of fatherhood as part of a ‘‘package deal’’ (Townsend, 2002), an effect that might be particularly strong for fathers having children outside of marriage. Theoretical Framework I combine two theoretical perspectives to frame this study. First, I use identity theory to examine the ambiguity of the father identity. Ihinger-Tallman, Pasley, and Buehler (1993, p. 551) argue that the ‘‘key element in father involvement ... is the degree of a father’s identification with the status and roles associated with being a parent.’’ The fathers who most strongly identify with and place the greatest emphasis on the father role and the father identity tend to be the most involved fathers 632 Journal of Marriage and Family 71 (August 2009): 632 – 649